Back When Minneapolis Was A Big City
Minneapolis was a bigger place when these postcards came out. The population of Minnesota’s largest city has declined by almost 140,000 souls since climbing to a peak of 521,718 in 1950. In the middle of the last century, approximately 70.0% of the metropolitan area’s population was concentrated in the city limits of St. Paul [...]
A Great Place to Visit During the Great Depression
The Depression Era in Minnesota 1929 The Great Depression begins in Minnesota with the bankruptcy of key employers in Minneapolis and quickly spreads to the rest of the state. 1931 Ancient remains of 20,000-year-old skeleton dubbed “Minnesota Man” found in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. “Food riots” begin to break out in parts of [...]
Thoreau in Minnesota
In 1861, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and a young Horace Mann, Jr. spent two weeks getting from Massachusetts to Minnesota, by rail and by steam. The pair stayed for a month exploring the the Twin Cities area. Thoreau kept notes on the plants, animals and natural phenomena of the region. On June 11, 1861 while [...]
Minnehaha Falls is for Lovers
According to the Minneapolis Park Board Staff Favorites Page, Minnehaha Falls is the best place to take a date and the best place to propose! Minnehaha Park’s 53-foot waterfall, 193 acres of trees, bluffs and overlooks have served as a back drop for a variety of romantic proposals and thousands of weddings over the [...]
Ancher Nelsen and Rural Electrification
Ancher Nelsen was born to Danish parents in 1902 near Buffalo Lake. Nelsen attended elementary school in Brownton, Minnesota, and graduated from Brownton High School in 1923. In 1924 he began operation of his 280-acre diversified farm at Hutchinson, McLeod County. In 1929 he married Ilo Zimmerman of Brownton; they had three children. Nelson was [...]
