Opened in 1908, the Ranier Railroad Bridge in northern Minnesota is still one of America’s busiest ports of entry
In 2019, traffic over the Ranier Bridge has grown to more than twenty trains a day with most pulling between 100 and 200 cars.
MNopedia
Could Minneapolis elect a Socialist mayor? It did in 1916
During the 1916 campaign, Thomas Van Lear successfully used controversies surrounding Twin Cities Rapid Transit streetcar fares and corporate control of the city’s utilities to his advantage.
Founded in 1973, The DFL Feminist Caucus gave women a stronger voice in the party
The caucus started with a focus on advocating for feminist positions on issues like poverty among women, abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Minnesota’s recorded history begins at the Jeffers Petroglyphs
Situated in Dakota homeland, the Jeffers site is sacred to multiple Native American nations, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Iowa, and Ojibwe.
Duluth activist Irene Levine Paull advocated for timber workers, the labor movement
For her troubles, she was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1962.
Workers of the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division helped build infrastructure on and off of reservations
Beginning in 1933, Ojibwe and Dakota work crews in Minnesota signed on with the CCC-ID to provide income for themselves and their families.
One of oar own: Duluth’s Walter Hoover was an early-twentieth-century rowing powerhouse
At the 1921 National Championships in Buffalo, Hoover won the intermediate single, the senior single, and the quarter-mile dash, which caught the attention of the rowing world.
Last week’s cold may have been rough, but the winter of 1936 in Cottonwood County sounds a lot worse
Temperatures dropped to 30 degrees below zero in late January and did not rise above zero for thirty-six days.
For the birds: Minnesota’s Carlos Avery Game Refuge played a role in reviving several game species
The Minnesota Department of Conservation (MDC, later the Department of Natural Resources) bought 8478.73 acres of land from the Crex Carpet Company in 1933 for a wildlife refuge.
The 1918 influenza pandemic killed thousands of Minnesotans
The flu, also known as the grip or grippe, occurred in three waves in 1918: March to early summer; the fall; and winter extending into early 1919.
Barn Bluff has stood over thousands of years of history in the Red Wing area
A public park since 1910, the ancient bluff serves as an impressive landmark.
Minnesota’s America First Association was formed to support a foreign war, not oppose it
The leaders of the AFA sought to counter what they perceived to be apathy or hostility toward the American war effort against Germany and Austria during World War I.
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post became a lot more than just a trading post
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post opened in 1918 when new businessman Harry D. Ayer acquired a trader’s license from the White Earth Indian Agency allowing him to trade with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
How St. Paul punk pioneers Hüsker Dü paved the way for grunge music
In the 1990s, Hüsker Dü’s fast playing and musicality continued to influence the most popular rock bands of the era, including the Pixies, Nirvana, the Foo Fighters, Metallica and Green Day.
Better than a gangster movie: The real-life exploits of St. Paul’s Barker-Karpis gang
The gang shuttled in and out of St. Paul in the 1930s, committing robberies and kidnappings under the protection of a corrupt police force.
A brief history of Minnesota’s first statewide Spanish-language newspaper
“La Prensa” was born out of Mario Duarte’s experiences taking the 1990 Census.
How mountainless Minneapolis produced a pioneering woman mountaineer
Cora Johnstone Best may have been the first woman to be granted a full guiding license for all U.S. and Canadian national parks.
The Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant created innovations in manufacturing technology and management — and an EPA Superfund site
The Army Ordnance Department authorized construction of the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant (TCOP) in the spring of 1941.
How Minnesotans handled leprosy around the turn of the 20th Century
In 1888, Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian physician, arrived in St. Paul to study leprosy because of the high number of Norwegian immigrants in the state.
Anoka’s first Halloween Celebration was an anti-prank measure
In the early 1900s, Americans braced themselves every October for pranks committed by not-so-innocent children.
