Name: Major Arcana
Brand: John Pistelli
SKU: 9781953368928
Price: 24.95 USD
Availability: InStock

John Pistelli

Major Arcana

9781953368928

$24.95

“Perhaps the elusive great American novel for the twenty-first century.”

It begins with a gunshot: a student's public suicide on a university campus. The blast radius of this tragic explosion expands to encompass 50 years of our history and two of the grandest characters in recent American fiction: Simon Magnus, a comic-book writer who transfigured popular culture turned gender activist who transfigures the English language, and Ash del Greco, an online occultist who by the age of 20 has seen to the end of everything and wants desperately to prove the superiority of mind over matter. With a decades-spanning but tightly-knit plot, written in an expansive style, Major Arcana canvasses America’s inner life and moral history from coast to coast and across two generations in a delirious saga about art, magic, love, and death.

Originally serialized on the author’s Substack newsletter, Major Arcana is a novel about the transformative power of popular culture. With a nod to Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and for fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Pistelli reimagines the expansive novel for the 21st century.

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Deborah Frethem

Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang in Minnesota

9781467146227

$21.99

From their home base in Minnesota, the Karpis-Barker Gang cut a swath of crime and terror across the Midwest in the early 1930s. They kidnapped two important businessmen and held them for exorbitant ransoms. They stole payrolls and robbed banks as the bullets flew. Corrupt police and wily crime bosses helped Alvin Karpis and the Barker brothers Freddie and Doc every step of the way. Who were these men and women? What made them into killers and kidnappers? How did their reckless lifestyles lead to their downfall? From Ma Barker to Volney Davis to Edna Murray the Kissing Bandit, authors Deborah Frethem and Cynthia Schreiner Smith delve into the crimes, personalities and motivations of one of the most successful and infamous gangs in American history.

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Ron de Beaulieu

Minnesota's Most Notorious Mobster

9781467158930

$24.99

“Ninety percent of [what] was written about me is bullshit”

Isadore Blumenfeld, aka Kid Cann, came to Minnesota as a toddler when his family emigrated from Romania. In Prohibition-era Minneapolis, a city of vast wealth inequality and vicious antisemitism, young Isadore rose from impoverished newsboy to millionaire. Kid Cann’s ruthless determination, growing organized crime network and willingness to commit wanton violence ignited his meteoric ascent. He got away with innumerable crimes over four decades before a series of relatively minor offenses brought him down. Although ravaged by stress and stripped of his social stature, the infamous gangster earned a place in the folklore of Minnesota. Historian Ron de Beaulieu recounts the saga of the state’s most notorious crime boss.

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Steven E. Gardiner

Historic Disasters in Southeast Minnesota

9781467150941

$21.99

Southeast Minnesota has regularly felt the wrath of nature.

In 1890, a driving straight-line wind on Lake Pepin overturned the Sea Wing, killing ninety-eight people within minutes in the worst marine tragedy in Minnesota history. In 1940, a raging blizzard trapped duck hunters on islands in the Mississippi River and left motorists stranded across the region, leaving dozens injured or dead. Then, in 1965, flood waters of the Mississippi River and its vast network of tributaries kept area residents in fear for two months, shattering records for high water marks and destroying buildings and farmlands before receding and leaving behind damage that took years to rebuild.

Local author Steve Gardiner examines these powerful natural disasters and their ramifications on the people of Southeast Minnesota.

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Robert Roscoe

Brainerd Shop Dogs

9781467150590

$23.99

An amazing piece of Brainerd’s proud past

For over eighty years, the Northern Pacific Railroad Shops was the largest employer in the Brainerd area. After the Depression, the NP provided steady jobs for Brainerd railroad workers, whose paychecks contributed to the growth of Brainerd. The NP Shops built freight cars and conducted maintenance and disassembly of the NP’s rolling stock. The workforce of several trades called themselves “shop dogs.” Shop dogs built a workplace culture with its own jokes, stories, ethics, and nicknames – an unintended circumstance could result in a nickname, such as Scoop Swanson or the Soo Line Bull, that stuck to a shop dog for the rest of his life. After shop dogs retired and the NP shops closed, their nicknames and stories live on. Author Bob Roscoe gathers the stories from this vital piece of Brainerd history.

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Nathan L. Johnson

Highway 61 through Minnesota

9781467106931

$23.99

Driving on Highway 61 through Minnesota provides a rare opportunity for one to see virtually every type of landscape in the North Star State. Along the highway’s path are pastoral farms and towering bluffs, as well as the largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior. There are picturesque small towns and populous cities, yet stretches of the highway have been abandoned. Despite Highway 61’s east–west counterpart Route 66 getting more attention, the north–south byway is arguably the most fascinating stretch of road in the country. Throughout the highway’s history, music lovers, foodies, and thrill seekers alike have discovered its fun and uniqueness. The 1,400-mile highway signals where the West begins and has a fabulous history that can be traced from the civil rights movement to the development of various genres of music, including jazz, blues, and alternative rock. Famous Americans such as Mark Twain, Bob Dylan, Jessica Lange, and even Kermit the Frog keep the highway in the national psyche.

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Elizabeth Johanneck

Hidden History of the Minnesota River Valley

9781596298811

$21.99

Traveled by mammoth-hunters and motorcyclists alike, the Minnesota River Valley shows the traces of a unique legacy: where else are you going to find a political party with ideals based on honest conversation and gymnastics? Not all of it is as lovely as the natural scenery it accompanies--Mankato was the site of the largest mass execution in United States history--but its heritage demands contemplation. Discover the valley's most enterprising characters, from Fort Snelling bootleggers like Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant to the Granite Falls lawyer behind Prohibition, Andrew Volstead. With a guide like Johanneck, you might meet some familiar figures in surprising circumstances as she steals up behind Dr. Mayo at the grave he was robbing for medical research or catches FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in a moment of unguarded correspondence.

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Sheldon T. Aubut

Duluth

9780738518916

$24.99

Duluth, Minnesota, The Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas, is located on the shores of Lake Superior. Once a center for shipping, lumber, mining, steel, railroads, grain, and one of the nation's largest ports, it housed some of the wealthiest people in the country. During the 1880s, the New York newspapers believed that within 20 years it would be larger than Chicago. Due to all of this wealth, the city grew at a remarkable rate, yet it also suffered through several recessions that almost destroyed it. With many handsome houses and remarkable buildings, Duluth's architectural heritage is among the strongest in North America. At the turn of the 20th century, it boasted more park land and green space, per capita, than any other American city, and offered residents a lifestyle that was incomparable.

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Iric Nathanson

Downtown St. Paul

9781467102469

$24.99

Minnesota's capital city was given a lofty identity when young Catholic priest Lucien Gaultier built a modest log chapel in a wilderness clearing and named it for his patron saint. St. Paul's modern downtown would later take shape at this very site. In the mid-19th century, St. Paul's strategic location at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River was naturally suited as a way station for goods and a hub for settlers pouring into the Upper Midwest. While St. Paul had to relinquish its ranking as Minnesota's largest city to its twin, Minneapolis, the city remains at the center of state politics as Minnesota's state capital. Following World War II, a suburban boom weakened the business district, and downtown St. Paul fell into decline. Over the last 40 years, however, St. Paul's downtown has been reinvented as a major sports, entertainment, and cultural center.

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Iric Nathanson

University Avenue of the Twin Cities

9781467109307

$23.99

At the turn of 20th century, University Avenue emerged as a major transportation corridor, connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul. At the center of the corridor, the Midway district became one the Twin Cities’ most prominent industrial hubs. And all along the 13-mile roadway, businesses serving the adjacent neighborhoods clustered around key intersections. But University Avenue fell into decline starting in the 1960s when a new interstate freeway, I-94, provided a speedier and more convenient way of moving between the two cities. I-94’s economic blow was offset, at least in part, when new arrivals to Minnesota, many from Southeast Asia, injected fresh entrepreneurial energy into this aging transportation corridor. Today, University Avenue’s historic role has been restored now that it serves as the route of a light-rail transit line connecting the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

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Ben Welter

Minnesota Mysteries

9781626193628

$23.99

Any Minnesotan worth his lutefisk has heard of the Kensington Runestone. But have you heard of Victor Setterlund? In 1949, he uncovered another runestone less than ten miles away. How about Newmann the Great? In 1909, the Kenyon-born illusionist astonished Minneapolitans by driving a team of horses blindfolded across town to find a key hidden in a drugstore safe at Lake and Nicollet. How about little Mary Weinand? In 1915, her father demanded justice when the meanest boy at her one-room schoolhouse in Corcoran cut off her luxurious auburn curls. These little-known stories, along with dozens more culled from Minnesota newspaper archives, are presented here in their original form.

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Gregory M. Van Gompel

Excelsior Amusement Park

9781467137935

$21.99

Minneapolis roared into the 1920s as a major metropolis, but it lacked the kind of outdoor amusement facilities common elsewhere across the country. In 1925, Fred W. Pearce introduced the Twin Cities to his Picnic Wonderland. Crowds eagerly poured onto the shores of Lake Minnetonka by the trolley load. Luckily, Excelsior Park survived the Great Depression and World War II on the strength of its celebrity acts. Changes in the forms of transportation, combined with innovations in the outdoor entertainment industry such as Disneyland and an aging infrastructure, eventually forced the park to close its gates.

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Ben Welter

Minnesota Mayhem

9781609495978

$23.99

Turn back the yellowing pages of Minnesota's past and explore the best of the state's worst moments, as chronicled in the Minneapolis Tribune and its successor newspapers. These stories and photos, culled from the Star Tribune's microfilm archive by author Ben Welter, range from the catastrophic to the merely curious. From a fire that destroyed the State Capitol in 1881, to a wordless fistfight that broke out on a Minneapolis street in 1898, a flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans in 1918 and the arrest of Frank Lloyd Wright at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926.

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Holly Day

History Lover's Guide to Minneapolis, A

9781467141932

$23.99

Visitors and natives alike will find something new in this historical guide to Minneapolis’ many landmarks, figures, events and more.

Minneapolis began at the Falls of St. Anthony, the sole waterfall on the Mississippi River. The cataract, the great hydrological engine, propelled the city's economic growth and physical expansion, and two distinct municipal identities emerged. A city of seasons, Minneapolis celebrates winter flurries and chills with ice skating and hot chocolate at the annual Holidazzle Festival. In the sultry midsummer heat, the Aquatennial brings swimmers and boating enthusiasts to the Chain of Lakes and the river. Landmarks, too, define the topography—Spoonbridge and Cherry, the Stone Arch and Hennepin Avenue Bridges, the Foshay Tower and the IDS Center.

Join local authors Sherman Wick and Holly Day on a trip beyond the typical guidebook as they explore the architecture, parks and historical figures of the Mill City.

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Iric Nathanson

Downtown Minneapolis

9781467124379

$29.99

Downtown Minneapolis evolved from a collection of modest frame buildings on the banks of the Mississippi River to the high-rise center of a modern American metropolis. With a burgeoning milling industry powering the local economy, the early frame structures soon gave way to substantial brick and masonry buildings, lining the streets of a bustling 19th-century commercial district. Downtown continued to prosper during the early years of the 20th century, aided by advances in transportation and communications. The heart of the city held its own during the Great Depression and World War II, but the postwar era brought new challenges as a suburban boom threatened the city's economic foundation. Enterprising local leaders responded with innovative developments to meet these challenges, and a reinvigorated downtown took on a new role as the site of a dynamic new residential community, now home to nearly 40,000 city residents.

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Justin Brink

Forest Lake

9781467160254

$24.99

Like so many of the places that lined the route from St. Paul to Duluth, Forest Lake came of age as a railroad town and was first incorporated as a township in 1874. Situated on a lake by the same name, it soon became known as a resort town where many residents from the Twin Cities could leave their cares behind for some fishing and sunbathing. Because of its secluded nature, it also attracted well-known gangsters of the era. Minnesota native George “Bugs” Moran had a hideout near the lake, as did the Ma Barker gang. As the resort traffic dried up, progress soon took over, and with it came residential development and downtown revitalization. Today, Forest Lake’s population has increased nearly twentyfold and continues to attract visitors to its pristine lakes.

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Walter G. Bennick

Winona County

9781467108201

$23.99

Winona County, located in the Driftless Area of southeastern Minnesota, was organized in 1854 by an act of the territorial legislature. Following treaties with the local Native Americans, many eastern farmers came to the frontier to settle on a rich land obtained through a system of land transfers called patents. As the area opened to the settlers, railroads were provided with land on which to lay track across the county to bring farm products to market and carry supplies to the interior. In addition to the railroads, roadways were established and villages sprang up at regular intervals where businessmen settled to provide goods and services locally. Scattered throughout the county, churches and cemeteries were established, and one-room schoolhouses were built. As the county entered the 20th century, a system of commerce had been well established, and goods and services easily flowed about the area. However, the 20th century was also a time of change; new technologies were developed, some farms grew while other disappeared, some villages died, and the old ways were cast aside. Winona County uses rarely viewed images from the collections of the Winona County Historical Society.

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Steve Gardiner

Historic Bridges of Southeast Minnesota

9781467154666

$24.99

Minnesota is often called the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but it could also be called the Land of 20,000 Bridges. /

During the early days of the state, the Mississippi River and its many tributaries barred and disrupted transportation and commerce. To span these obstacles, communities battled to build and maintain bridges. Their efforts created a variety of bridge designs and purposes—from small hiking and biking bridges to concrete beams across rural rivers. Across the area, one can behold wonders like the beautiful Stone Arch Bridge, the La Crescent Swing Bridge, the Point Douglas Drawbridge, the elegant Winona Main Channel Bridge as well as other massive structures crossing the Mississippi.

Studying and photographing these amazing structures, local author Steve Gardiner celebrates the innovation and determination of Southeast Minnesota./

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Lee M.A. Simpson

Stearns County, Minnesota

9780738508337

$24.99

Stearns County is situated just south of the geographic center of Minnesota, on the west side of the mighty Mississippi River. Established in 1855, a region virtually untouched by the white man, it could claim all the trappings of civilization in less than a generation. Drawing from over 180 photographs and postcards from both private and public collections, Lee Simpson explores the rise of European civilization in the county from the 1870s to the present. This book offers a unique glimpse into the people and places of Stearns County, and is a visual history of daily life in the county that emphasizes the experiences of the average citizen. Included are vintage photographs of St. Cloud, Fair Haven, Albany, Paynesville, Collegeville, Waite Park, Rockville, and St. Joseph that depict the growth of the downtown business districts, resorts, granite quarries, schools, and churches which provided the bedrock of community for each town or city. From its founding as an almost exclusive community of German Catholics, to its present as a region struggling with issues of diversity, the history of Stearns County offers all of us a glimpse of the American experience.

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Jay Grammond

Fading Ads of the Twin Cities

9781467148740

$23.99

On brick buildings throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul, overlooked, fleeting symbols chronicle the cities' past.

Champion, John Deere, and International Harvester still tout their agricultural equipment, and Gold Medal and Pillsbury Flour remind everyone where these now global companies began. Weathered proclamations from Grain Belt, Jacob Schmidt, and Gluek's Beer offer a glimpse into early local brewing. Ads from Schmitt Music and Dahl Violin Shop recall a thriving art scene. Local hardware stores like Welna Ace Hardware and grocery stores like J.H. Allen & Co Grocers and Schoen's Home Grocery hawk long-gone wares through elegant painted announcements.

Join photographer and author Jay Grammond for a fascinating journey through Twin Cities history.

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Kristal Leebrick

Dayton's

9781609496722

$23.99

Newsweek called Dayton's the swingingest spot in Minneapolis, and almost anyone living in the Twin Cities during the twentieth century has an anecdote to prove it. At Dayton's, you could buy a cashmere sweater for a song during an Anniversary Sale or commission a Persian silk dress for a society wedding. You could attend an eighth-floor extravaganza like Santabear's First Christmas or catch the occasional circus. Dayton's was the job that put many Minnesotans through college or the career that took them to retirement. From its early days as an innovative dry goods store to a trend-setting company that grew into the retail giant Target, Kristal Leebrick chronicles ten decades in the life of a Minnesota enterprise that defined style, good service and philanthropy.

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Ron de Beaulieu

Minneapolis Murder & Mayhem

9781467146999

$21.99

Minneapolis has a bloody, unacknowledged heritage. On the shore of Lake Harriet, Ojibwe warriors killed a Dakota man, triggering two retaliatory massacres. Ten years later, pioneer settlers roved the land of Minneapolis in gangs for protection from other pioneer gangs. When a lynch mob hanged a violent criminal across the street from Central High School, they left his corpse dangling for hours. Rioting Riversiders toppled a streetcar and attacked the driver. A man murdered a kind stranger because he misunderstood his intentions. Separate industrial disasters shattered the St. Anthony Falls, causing one fatality, and nearly razed the Mill District, killing eighteen more and injuring countless others. Author Ron de Beaulieu uncovers the dark, sinister history beneath the city.

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Alaina Wolter Lyseth

Hinckley and the Fire of 1894

9781467112963

$24.99

Imagine a force in nature more powerful than multiple atomic bombs—that was the Great Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894. In only four hours, the fire incinerated over 400 square miles of forest, killed at least 418 settlers and an unknown number of forest-dwelling Native Americans, and destroyed six towns in a firestorm of flame. The elements that led to this unprecedented catastrophe included careless logging practices, a drought, freakish weather, and suspected sparks from passing locomotives. The story of the 1894 fire is a saga of devastation, heartbreak, heroism, survival, hope, and rebuilding that captured worldwide attention. Recently discovered photographs provide a backdrop for a fresh look at the events surrounding the disaster and the courage of the pioneers who survived to tell the tale.

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Joel Rippel

Hidden History of Twin Cities Sports

9781467153188

$23.99

Twin Cities sports fans are well-versed in disappointment, but the last 120 years of Minneapolis and St. Paul sports have also produced forgotten milestones.

Most know of the Vikings’ Super Bowl woes and the Twins’ record-setting postseason losing streak. Few know that the first full-time college basketball coach originated here and that a Babe Ruth home run record supplanted a local player’s achievement. Fewer still know about near misses like John Wooden almost becoming the University of Minnesota basketball coach in 1948 and Billie Jean King turning down an offer to join the Twin Cities’ World Team Tennis franchise.

Longtime Twin Cities journalist Joel Rippel documents these subjects and other forgotten or unheralded stories.

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Walter G. Bennick

Upper Mississippi River at Winona

9781467115100

$24.99

Winona, located on an island where the upper Mississippi River flows from west to east, has been linked to the river from its earliest days. Before the community's settlement, Native Americans and white explorers sailed past Wapasha's Prairie in birchbark canoes, keel boats, and small sailboats. As early as the 1820s, steamboats plied the river while carrying people and goods to and from the state's interior. Before bridges began to crisscross the river, merchants had to use boats to bring people and supplies to Winona before they could travel farther west. The first bridge to cross the river was a swing bridge that allowed steamboats to pass. Images of America: Upper Mississippi River at Winona uses images collected and archived in the Winona County Historical Society's History Center to illustrate the history of the Mississippi River near Winona. Many of the photographs exhibited in this book have rarely been seen by the general public and have never been published.

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Iric Nathanson

The Minneapolis Riverfront

9781467112765

$24.99

With the Mississippi River's only true waterfalls at its front door, Minneapolis harnessed the power of the falls to become an international milling center. Changing market conditions, though, forced Minnesota's largest city to give up its preeminent position in the milling world after World War I. As the local milling industry gradually faded away, Minneapolis turned its back on its riverfront origins. By 1950, a once-bustling commercial area along the banks of the Mississippi had become an industrial wasteland. Then, a decade later, the seeds of renewal were planted when some urban pioneers recognized the potential of this long-ignored historic district. By the first decade of the 21st century, the riverfront had reemerged as a vibrant residential, cultural, and recreational center.

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Julie M. Jensen

Hutchinson

9781467110105

$24.99

Founded in 1855, when Minnesota was still a territory, Hutchinson is named for a New Hampshire family of minstrels and social activists who sang for emancipation, women's rights, temperance, and other causes of their day. In its early years, the town survived a Dakota War and a grasshopper plague to evolve into a thriving community. Documenting this evolution through six chapters are period photographs—the vast majority from the collections of the McLeod County Historical Society. Images of America: Hutchinson chronicles the town's beginnings, then presents a city tour across time, with a primary focus on Main Street. It illustrates public services and the livelihoods of local citizens, and it reveals a lifestyle that was, and is, enriched by an array of diversions, many centered on the Crow River, surrounding lakes, and an extensive park system. Concluding photographs, spanning the arts, serve as a reminder of the legacy of the founders.

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Michael Cotter

Growing Up On A Minnesota Farm

9780738518619

$24.99

The years 1930 to 1970 were a time of rapid change in the American farming industry. Following World War II, the wave of mechanization demanded a major shift in attitude and skills. The small family farm started expanding. There was more competition for land, fence lines disappeared, the threshing ritual was replaced by combines, corn cribs gave way to corn dryers, hydraulic power replaced muscles, and chemicals began replacing cultivators. The family farm was changing more drastically that anyone ever dreamed. With nearly 100 vintage images and personal stories, Growing Up On A Minnesota Farm relives the era of this major agricultural revolution and takes the reader on a journey that will define a time of momentous change. From the introduction of the steel-wheeled D John Deere, to the conservation and frugality necessary during the Great Depression, a period lost to technology is relived through the pages of this book. We learn what it means to "take good care of the land, and it will take care of you."

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Don Ward

Lanesboro, Minnesota

9780738520315

$24.99

In 1942, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis wrote that the Lanesboro area was "...worthy of Vermont in its sturdy quietude. Through all this district, secret little valleys branch off from the major valleys of the Root River, and there is room enough and view enough for 11,000 poets." Promoted in the late 1860s to east coast investors as an idyllic retreat, Lanesboro was established as a resort community and soon realized an impressive boom due to its unparalleled waterpower. Progressing not as a tourist area, but rather along other avenues of commerce, the community once hailed as the 'biggest little town in southeastern Minnesota' fell off the fast track of growth before its charm could be diminished by too much progress. Today Lanesboro's beautiful 1870s downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the entire city is a haven for the arts-a showcase for the natural beauty that Sinclair Lewis touted more than sixty years ago.

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Geoff Jones

Northwest Airlines

9780738534152

$24.99

Since flying its first mail flight on October 1, 1926, Northwest Airways, now known as Northwest Airlines, has grown to become one of the world's leading airlines. Northwest's legacy of leadership in the aviation industry began with its foundation in the Twin Cities and extended to its pioneering work as part of the U.S. war effort in Alaska, the establishment of the first U.S. commercial air links to Japan and the Orient, and its groundbreaking 1992 alliance and award of anti-trust immunity with KLM/Royal Dutch Airlines. Northwest is now America's oldest air carrier with continuous name identification. In celebration of the airline's 80th anniversary in 2006, this book chronicles the remarkable years during which Northwest became an institutional backbone of both American and worldwide air transport history. This diverse historical tribute relies heavily on the author's own photo archive along with images supplied by the exceptional Northwest History Centre Inc., established in October 2002 to preserve the airline's rich heritage. The rare photographs seen in these pages, accompanied by a detailed and informative narrative, bring together for the first time all of the elements of the Northwest family, which includes Hughes Air West and Republic airlines and other predecessors.

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Rhoda Lewin

Jewish Community of North Minneapolis

9780738508177

$24.99

The stories of the Jewish community of North Minneapolis are an important part of the rich and diverse mosaic of North Minneapolis history. By 1936, there were more than 16,000 Jew in Minneapolis, and 70 percent of them lived on the North Side. The Jewish Community of North Minneapolis presents an intriguing record of the earliest beginnings of Jewish communities in the city. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the cultural, economic, political, and social history of this community, from the late 1800s to the present day. The Jews in North Minneapolis enjoyed a busy social and cultural life with their landsmanschaften, and shopped together at the kosher butcher shops and fish markets, grocery stores and bakeries, clothing stores, barber shops, restaurants, and other small businesses that had sprung up along Sixth Avenue North and then Plymouth Avenue. Including vintage images and tales of the community-Hebrew schools, synagogues, and social groups-this collection uncovers the challenges and triumphs of the Jewish community.

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Amy J. Hahn

Hidden History of Rochester, Minnesota

9781467149532

$23.99

The author of Lost Rochester explores more Med City history beyond the medicine.

Stories surrounding the establishment of Rochester as a medical mecca are well documented and often showcased, but countless other tales haven’t received as much attention. William Costley, son of the first slave freed by Abraham Lincoln, lived his last few months at Rochester State Hospital. Beloved citizen Reinhold Bach sailed aboard the doomed ocean liner the Empress of Ireland. The life of Minnie Bowron, hired as the city’s first policewoman in 1917, offers an intriguing story, and teenager Lottie Schermerhorn awed crowds during the Roaring Twenties with daredevil aerial stunts.

Join historian Amy Jo Hahn on an engaging narrative journey, a revelation of fascinating characters who made their mark on Rochester.

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Jerry Kuntz

Minnesota's Notorious Nellie King

9781626192072

$21.99

From 1887 to 1893, the era Frederick Jackson Turner marked as the close of the American frontier, a young woman scandalized the residents of the Dakotas, Minnesota and northern Wisconsin with her fetching appearance, eccentric behavior and criminal misdeeds. Best known as Nellie King, she employed over a dozen other aliases throughout her career as fake detective, horse thief, laudanum fiend and general disturber of the dubious peace of saloons and brothels across the northern plains. She attracted sensational headlines, love-struck suitors and stray revolver shots with equal abandon; her story's Dickensian cast of characters included a hapless counterfeiter, a dashing physician, a battle-hardened magician and a determined mother. In this engaging narrative, Jerry Kuntz pieces together the clues to her true identity for the first time.

Cover image for Minnesota's Notorious Nellie King, isbn: 9781626192072

Brian Johnson

Murder in Chisago County

9781467142335

$21.99

At 3:30 a.m. on April 11, 1933, neighbors and firefighters arrived at the farmhouse of Albin and Alvira Johnson to find a smoldering heap where a seemingly happy home once stood. Beneath the ruins, investigators found the bodies of Alvira and her seven children, but Albin’s remains were nowhere to be seen. The authorities determined that Alvira and the children were dead before the fire, and fingers immediately pointed to Albin. Hundreds of searchers, including the illustrious Pinkerton Agency, combed the area and even crossed into Canada in pursuit of Johnson, who was indicted in absentia for murder. But he was never found, dead or alive. What happened to the Johnson family and what part, if any, Albin played in the tragedy remain a mystery. Twin Cities journalist Brian Johnson tells the story that has beguiled the community for generations.

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Iric Nathanson

Minneapolis's Lake District

9781467161299

$24.99

Named for the network of lakes and waterways stretching along the city’s western edge, the Lake District helps define Minneapolis as a place of great natural beauty. With stately homes lining the parkways surrounding these bodies of water, the district may convey an image of affluence and prestige, but the district is not an exclusive preserve of the well-to-do. People from all walks of life flock to the area’s parks and lakes that serve as public playgrounds for the entire region. The Lake District was not always the public amenity that it is today. During the late 19th century, much of the area consisted of marshy swamps that had little recreational or economic value. It took a group of forward-looking civic leaders to recognize the undeveloped area’s potential. In the 1880s, they came together to form the Minneapolis Park Board, the public agency that would acquire and improve the lakes, preserving them for future generations. /Iric Nathanson tells the story of this appealing urban district using archival images from the Hennepin County Library Special Collections and the Minnesota Historical Society. Nathanson’s most recent work, University Avenue of the Twin Cities, was published in 2023 as part of Arcadia’s Images of America series.

Cover image for Minneapolis's Lake District, isbn: 9781467161299

Ron de Beaulieu

St. Paul Murder & Mayhem

9781467155069

$24.99

A fledgling community in the midst of stunning natural scenes, the St. Paul of yesteryear had a well-earned reputation for beauty and danger.

Whiskey made the river city a byword for peril. Men brawled over small offenses and killed one another with near impunity. As crime flourished beyond the power of police control, vigilantes patrolled the streets. Irresponsible speculation and white-collar crime wrecked the local economy, devastating families and driving thousands out of town. The remaining St. Paulites rebuilt their community and economy, stimulating immigration, but more people meant more crime. In the 1870s, vice and violence spiraled into the Bloody Fall of ‘74, and St. Paul regained its reputation as a “dead tough” town.

Historian Ron de Beaulieu reveals the past travails of life in this turbulent city.

Cover image for St. Paul Murder & Mayhem, isbn: 9781467155069

Marlys Gallagher

Swift County, Minnesota

9780738507965

$24.99

Not permanently settled until after the Civil War, Swift County was one of the last frontiers of the United States. Once part of the vast prairie land occupied by the Dakota Indians, settlement began in the 1860s. The Swift County Historical Society has compiled over 200 vintage images in order to capture a glimpse of the region's formative years-the establishment of its trading centers and industries, as well as the educational, spiritual, and social lives of its early settlers.

Located in west central Minnesota, the small rural towns of Swift County were once busy trading centers. Through these historic photographs, the reader can follow the changes that occurred on Atlantic and Pacific Avenues in Benson from the 1880s to the 1930s, see the sod house of Swenoda Township, and witness turn of the century rural life in towns like Danvers, Murdock, Appleton, and Kerkhoven.

Cover image for Swift County, Minnesota, isbn: 9780738507965

Iric Nathanson

Minneapolis's Lake Street

9781467104678

$24.99

As it cuts across South Minneapolis, Lake Street reflects the city’s diversity and its rich history. Initially a narrow dirt road out beyond Minneapolis’s early city limits, Lake Street evolved into a major transportation route after the turn of the last century. Spurred by the city’s population boom during those early years, the Lake Street corridor soon filled in with retail shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and auto dealers. But Lake Street’s role as a major commercial corridor did not last. Buffeted by the forces of suburbanization after World War II, businesses along the corridor began to close, leaving Lake Street pockmarked with vacant, blighted buildings. Then, starting in the 1990s, the seeds of the corridor’s renewal were planted when an energetic group of new arrivals to the United States began renovating Lake Street’s deteriorating storefronts for their family-owned businesses. Lake Street’s rejuvenation has continued into the current century as business and community leaders build on the work begun by those 20th-century urban pioneers.

Cover image for Minneapolis's Lake Street, isbn: 9781467104678

Ronald Christopher Zurek

Sauk Rapids and Benton County

9780738519609

$24.99

Sauk Rapids and Benton County tells the rich and interesting history of one of the oldest counties in the state of Minnesota. Benton County was named for Thomas Hart Benton, long time Senator from Missouri, for his efforts in securing the passage of the Homestead Act that helped early settlers, their families, and the descendants live and prosper in this region. Sauk Rapids, one of the five original townships created in Benton County in 1858, was named for the rapids of the Mississippi River near downtown. For several years the village was the northernmost point of steamboat navigation on the Mississippi River for passengers coming up from the Twin Cities.

Featuring nearly 200 vintage photographs, Sauk Rapids and Benton County takes the reader on a historic tour of the past from the Indian settlements of the Ojibwe, to the Great Northern Railroad, to the Sauk Rapids cyclone of 1886, to the Benton County ancestors, and to their present-day descendants with their businesses, industries, and daily activities.

Cover image for Sauk Rapids and Benton County, isbn: 9780738519609

Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

Lake Minnetonka

9781467113342

$24.99

Known to native peoples for centuries as a sacred place and hunting ground, the ninth largest of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes remained unchanged until its shores were opened to settlement in 1851. The following year, New York promoter George Bertram wrote, For healthfulness of climate, fertility of soil, beauty of scenery and nearness to markets [it] cannot be surpassed by any other locality in the country, being within twelve or fifteen miles of two of the most important towns in the territory . . . navigable for steam and other boats over forty-one miles, its waters clear as crystal and abounding with fish. Settlers began to flock to Lake Minnetonka's 120 miles of shoreline, clearing the Big Woods and building new lives in the wilderness. Soon, the lake became a tourist destination; thousands traveled across the country to stay in its lavish hotels, ride in massive steamboats, and enjoy the lake's beauty.

Cover image for Lake Minnetonka, isbn: 9781467113342

Walter G. Bennick

Winona

9780738594255

$24.99

Located on an island in the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota, Winona has been home to the transportation industry from its earliest days. Before Winona was a city, Native Americans and European explorers sailed past Wapasha's Prairie in birch bark canoes, keel boats, or small sailboats. As early as the 1820s, steamboats plied up and down the Father of Waters, carrying people and goods to and from the interior. Until bridges were built, it was necessary to use ferryboats to cross this great river. The first bridge to cross the river was a railroad swing bridge that allowed steamboats to pass by. With the bridge in place, rail traffic arrived in Winona and a terminal was established along the riverfront.

Cover image for Winona, isbn: 9780738594255

Greg Brick

Minnesota Caves

9781467135924

$23.99

Minnesota's caves have a deep history. Carver's Cave is the first to be described in the literature of North America after explorer Jonathan Carver visited it in 1766. The storied Fountain Cave was the birthplace of the city of St. Paul. Just after the American Civil War, Chute's Cave inspired an elaborate national hoax regarding an ancient civilization. Folklore surrounds Petrified Indian Cave, where a strangely shaped stalagmite was mistaken for a person turned to stone. Geologist and urban explorer Greg Brick, PhD, uses decades of research to uncover the secrets of geological wonders.

Cover image for Minnesota Caves, isbn: 9781467135924

Jeffrey H. Olson

Minnesota Hockey Greats

9781467150958

$23.99

A chronicle of Minnesota’s hockey excellence in the world’s top hockey league—the NHL

The years 1960 to 1982 were a watershed moment for Minnesota hockey, and the Land of 10,000 Lakes has enjoyed hockey success ever since. In that time, pioneering homegrown players like Bill Nyrop, Dave Langevin, Reed Larson, Mike Ramsey, Dave Christian, Neal Broten, Paul Holmgren, and Phil Housley established themselves as bona fide stars at the games’ highest and most competitive level. More recently, another remarkable group of native sons—including Zach Parise, Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglein, and T. J. Oshie—left their mark on the league.

Profiling more than seventy players and compiling Minnesota NHL records gathered nowhere else, Jeff Olson celebrates the brilliant achievements of Minnesotans in the National Hockey League.

Cover image for Minnesota Hockey Greats, isbn: 9781467150958

Stew Thornley

Minnesota Twins Baseball

9781626193819

$21.99

For more than half a century, Minnesotans have been treated to the memorable players and teams of the Minnesota Twins. From the Ruthian blasts of Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett to a successful brand of small ball, the Twins have fielded competitive teams at Metropolitan Stadium, the Metrodome and Target Field. But prior to its arrival in 1961, the team also had a storied past in Washington that included Walter Johnson, the greatest pitcher of the Deadball Era, if not all time. Sports historian Stew Thornley highlights the lesser-known events in the club's history, from the area's attempts to lure a major-league team to town in the 1950s to then-owner Calvin Griffith's campaign to regionally rename the team. He also pays tribute to the rich heritage of baseball before the Twins, marked by minor-league teams such as the St. Paul Saints and Minneapolis Millers, which produced future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Ted Williams and Roy Campanella.

Cover image for Minnesota Twins Baseball, isbn: 9781626193819

George Rekela

A History of Professional Hockey in Minnesota

9781626193611

$21.99

Of the four major sports leagues, the National Hockey League was the most conservative, clinging to only six cities until 1967, when it improbably doubled its size. The resulting upheaval gave birth to the Minnesota North Stars and the construction of the Metropolitan Sports Center. Though the well-loved Stars made the playoffs seventeen times, including two Stanley Cup Finals appearances, they never achieved ultimate success. Their loyal fan base watched in anguish as the franchise merged with another, divided in two and relocated to Dallas. In 1997, the Twin Cities' sports market was awarded an expansion franchise. Named the Minnesota Wild, the team sold out 409 consecutive games, setting the highest sell-out streak for an expansion franchise, and returned the game back to the State of Hockey.

Cover image for A History of Professional Hockey in Minnesota, isbn: 9781626193611

Brent T. Peterson

Stillwater

9780738598949

$24.99

Stillwater is located 20 miles east of St. Paul on the banks of the scenic St. Croix River and the Wisconsin border. Settled in 1843, Stillwater became the center of the lumber industry in the upper Midwest for the next 75 years. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, more logs passed down the St. Croix River than any other place in the world, and the lumber produced in Stillwater was used to build the central part of the United States. One of the first institutions authorized by the Territory of Minnesota, the prison, was located in Stillwater. Three of the most notorious convicts were the Younger brothers—Cole, Jim, and Bob—who, along with Frank and Jesse James, tried to rob the bank in Northfield in 1876. The Jameses eluded capture, but the Youngers served 25 years behind the stone walls of the Stillwater Prison.

Cover image for Stillwater, isbn: 9780738598949

Pat Snodgrass

Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center

9780738561349

$24.99

Just north of Minneapolis and along the Mississippi River stretch the fertile prairies that attracted French Canadians and New Englanders in 1852. Originally called Brooklyn Township, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center grew as settlers cultivated farms and marketed their produce. One-room schoolhouses evolved into the largest and finest schools in Minnesota while fast-growing industry and commuting replaced the small family farms. The story of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, as told through pictures, old-timer memories, and yellowed newspapers, reveals the lives of loggers, potato farmers, war heroes, and everyday people who found their dreams and quietly raised their families. Over the years, neighborhoods and fashions change as the people continue to take pride in their community's rich history.

Cover image for Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, isbn: 9780738561349

Polish Cultural Institute

The Kashubian Polish Community of Southeastern Minnesota

9780738518855

$24.99

The Kashubian people in Southeastern Minnesota are a small yet distinct group of people; small, because in a world-view they are few in number, emigrated from a small area in Poland, and settled in a relatively small area similar to the area they left; distinctive, because of the cohesiveness of the community, and moreso, because the Kashubian language is unusual even in Poland. This book describes the culture of the Kashubian community, illustrated with over 200 vintage images. It salvages a history that has almost been amalgamated into the swirling melting pot because of the difficulty of their language, the spelling of their names, and the lack of recognition of their efforts. From the first Polish-American fighters who gave their lives to the Civil War, to the lumber mills that offered so many new residents means of survival, these photographs visually outline the experiences of the earliest Kashubian immigrants, and a history nearly lost.

Cover image for The Kashubian Polish Community of Southeastern Minnesota, isbn: 9780738518855

Debra Mortensen

Elk River

9780738577203

$24.99

Fur trade posts were established along the Upper Mississippi River between St. Anthony and St. Cloud during the first part of the 19th century. One of these trading posts was established by Pierre Bottineau on the bluffs just north of the mouth of the Elk River between Orono (upper town) and Elk River (lower town) in 1850. As the fur trade slowed, the logging industry took over and numerous sawmills sprung up along the rivers. Ard Godfrey, well known in the milling industry, established the first mill in Orono in 1851. As the township of Elk River grew, the population jumped from 7 people in 1849 to 134 in 1857. Ponds and gullies were drained and filled to make room for more businesses. In Elk River, learn about the Civil War soldiers, the dynamiting of the Blind Pig Saloon, the murder of Deputy Sheriff Ed Foley, devastating fires, and the Boxcar Murder, told through pictures and newspaper clippings.

Cover image for Elk River, isbn: 9780738577203

Arcadia Publishing

The Story of Minneapolis

9780738594873

$21.99

The author has grown up in Minneapolis. He believes in Minneapolis and wants all the boys and girls in the city to believe in Minneapolis. But how shall they believe in the city of which they have not heard, and how shall they understand except they be guided? In the course of his teaching the author has tried to guide some of them, both in the class-room and through the city itself, to a better knowledge of what Minneapolis has been, what she is, geographically, industrially, and culturally, and whithter she is tending, so far as we are able to judge by the activities of her citizens. At the same time, following the revised course of study, grade teachers have been aiming at the same end. If this book shall prove of service to them in their interpretation of the city built to music, and therefore never built, and therefore built for ever, the author will feel deeply gratified.

Cover image for The Story of Minneapolis, isbn: 9780738594873

Stewartville Area Historical Society

The Stewartville Area

9780738560007

$24.99

Charles Stewart, a Scotsman saddened by the death of his first wife, Margaret McNab, left his infant daughter with his paternal grandparents and headed west from his native New York to begin a new life. It was the early 1850s when Stewart arrived in the territory that was to become southeastern Minnesota. Here he saw the Root River as a potential power source for a flour mill. He received permission to dam the river, which created Lake Florence, a longtime attraction in Stewartville, the city named in Stewart's honor. The area Stewart settled was known for its rich, fertile soil, its abundant timber stands, its wildlife, and its natural water supply, including the river.

Cover image for The Stewartville Area, isbn: 9780738560007

Cass County Historical Society

Cass County

9780738552071

$24.99

In 1849, the Leech Lake Agency for the Ojibwa peoples was established southwest of Agency Bay on Leech Lake. A government trail wound its way north through the wilderness from Fort Ripley to the agency. The establishment of this trail encouraged exploration and settlement of the area that became Cass County. Fur traders, explorers, and missionaries were followed by the lumber industry. The Ojibwas ceded their lands, which went up for public auction in the 1870s, and the logging companies purchased thousands of acres of these lands. By 1895, the Minnesota Logging Company was in the northern part of the county and built the Brainerd, Northern and Minnesota Railroad, which was sold to the Minnesota and International, which was the first railroad in Cass County. Small towns were platted out by town site companies and quickly settled by immigrants and others seeking new opportunities. Cass County presently has 15 villages and 50 townships. Tourism was first introduced into the county when a trainload of 300 tourists from St. Cloud arrived for a weekend of fishing on Leech Lake. Tourism is the county's number one industry today.

Cover image for Cass County, isbn: 9780738552071

Rex Hamann

The Minneapolis Millers of the American Association

9781467113472

$24.99

The Minneapolis Millers graced the fields of the American Association for six decades, from 1902 to 1960. Known as a high-level training ground for professional ballplayers, the Millers were also famous for their heated rivalry with the neighboring St. Paul Saints. Drawing on the extensive array of photographs from the Hennepin County Library Special Collections and the author's private collection, Images of Baseball: The Minneapolis Millers of the American Association presents the history of these boys of summer.

Cover image for The Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, isbn: 9781467113472

Colleen Sexton

Super Cities! The Twin Cities

9781467198578

$14.99

Sometimes the coolest places are right outside your front door. Learning about the Twin Cities’ interesting and unique culture has never been so super fun!

Did you know St. Paul’s annual Winter Carnival is the country’s oldest winter festival? Or that people have traveled Minnesota’s lakes and rivers for nearly 10,000 years? Have you ever been to the haunted Dairy Queen in downtown Minneapolis? From the Foshay Tower to the legendary First Avenue music club, Super Cities!: The Twin Cities covers it all and is sure to engage any reader with fun facts about the history, culture, and people who make this place great. Attend the Minnesota Opera, explore the Como Park Zoo, and rock out with Minneapolis-native Prince, all right here. Take a peek inside to learn more about the impressive, unusual, super history of the Twin Cities!

Cover image for Super Cities! The Twin Cities, isbn: 9781467198578

Frank Bures

Under Purple Skies

9781948742436

$20.00

“The ultimate (literary) tour guide to the neighborhoods and wild places, history and politics, culture and cuisine, music and myths of the Twin Cities” (Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding).

In recent years, Minneapolis has become one of America’s literary powerhouses. With over fifty poems and essays, Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology collects some of the most exciting work being done in, or about, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area. The narratives delve into the complexities of Minneapolis life—with threads that stretch back not just to Scandinavia, but across the world.

This volume’s contributors include Marlon James, Shannon Gibney, Kelly Barnhill, James Wright, and many more. Collectively, they have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, among other awards. The wide-ranging stories featured here include:

A tour through Prince’s Minneapolis
The story of the Metrodome’s demolition
A story of a Somali immigrant’s journey to Eden Prairie
Eating Halva on Lake Street

Cover image for Under Purple Skies, isbn: 9781948742436

John Fitzgerald

Brainerd International Raceway

9781467111416

$24.99

If it has an engine and anything close to two wheels, Brainerd International Raceway has hosted a race for it. From sports cars, stock cars, drag racers, and the Can-Am Racing Series to motorcycles, snowmobiles, and chump cars, Brainerd International Raceway has been the northern outpost for exciting track action and infield get-togethers since 1968. It has been called one of the best-constructed tracks in the nation, and with several hairpin turns, a backfield with an undulating, curved spine, and a mile-long straightaway on which racers hit speeds of as much as 200 miles per hour, it certainly is one of the finest in the country.

Cover image for Brainerd International Raceway, isbn: 9781467111416

Mary Firestone

Dayton's Department Store

9780738550619

$24.99

Dayton's department store, grand in scope and company spirit, enjoyed a century in the limelight as one of the nation's leading retailers. Its disappearance has been a challenge to the community, but it is a sign of the times, as many other urban department stores have shared the same fate. Originally called Goodfellows, the store got its start in 1902 when real estate investor and banker George Draper Dayton became a silent partner in the business. He soon took over the company but had to learn the ropes of retail as he went along since he had never intended to become a merchant. The early years were not without struggles, but Dayton's department store was nevertheless an instant hit with its daylight-filled aisles, generous return policies, and quality merchandise. The Minneapolis store became a vibrant self-contained community with a post office, newspaper, infirmary, laundry, bakery, and even a college. Daytonians worked and played together around the clock, in baseball and bowling teams, glee clubs, and orchestras. Over time, the reach of Dayton's extended far into the upper Midwest, with stores in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, including the development of the nation's first indoor mall.

Cover image for Dayton's Department Store, isbn: 9780738550619

Cecelia McKeig

Bemidji

9780738599793

$24.99

Bemidji links its early history to that of Shay-now-ish-kung, or Chief Bemidji, who lived with his family on the shores of the lovely lake bearing his name. After the Carson brothers opened their trading post in 1888, logging flourished and lumber camps boomed. Bemidji was incorporated in 1896, and the railroad reached the town in 1898. Hotels, businesses, and saloons mushroomed near the railroad tracks. Saloons and a brisk nightlife kept Bemidji in the news until federal agent W.E. Pussyfoot Johnson and his deputies closed the saloons and made it a more respectable place to live. Early settlers took advantage of the beautiful shoreline to develop summer hotels and parks. Kodak reported that the spot where the statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox stand is the second-most-photographed tourist attraction in the United States.

Cover image for Bemidji, isbn: 9780738599793

Rhoda Lewin

Reform Jews of Minneapolis

9780738532172

$24.99

The German Jews who began coming to Minneapolis in the 1850s quickly entered society as doctors, lawyers, professors, merchants, and leaders in clothing and cigar manufacturing. In 1878 they founded Shaarai Tov, now Temple Israel—one of the ten largest Reform congregations in the U.S. today. They also enjoyed a busy social and cultural life, and both husbands and wives involved themselves in social service and welfare organizations. Including historic and present-day photographs and tales of the community—schools, synagogues, organizations, and outdoor activities—this collection uncovers the challenges and triumphs of Reform Jews in Minneapolis.

Cover image for Reform Jews of Minneapolis, isbn: 9780738532172

Ruth Tremblay

Carver County

9780738582788

$24.99

Located just southwest of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Carver County was established by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature in 1855. The Minnesota and the South Fork of the Crow Rivers flow through this Big Woods county of Minnesota. Named after explorer Capt. Jonathan Carver and built on a predominantly agrarian culture, it boasts one of the richest farmlands in the state. Arrival of the railroads resulted in prosperous new industries and businesses and made it a popular resort destination. In the 1890s, the abundance of dairy farms and creameries earned it the nickname, the "Golden Buckle of the Dairy Belt." Many local farmers such as Andrew Peterson, Wendelin Grimm, and Henry Lyman became nationally recognized for their horticultural contributions and achievements. Hundreds of vintage photographs and postcards that depict everyday life in Carver County through the 1950s were collected and researched. This work is a tribute to the citizens of Carver County, whose pride in their rich history inspired this book.

Cover image for Carver County, isbn: 9780738582788

Harold Zosel

St. Cloud

9780738577876

$24.99

St. Cloud, located on the Mississippi River and in the center of Minnesota, was incorporated on April 2, 1856, by merging three towns together. Through the magic of vintage postcards, travel through time to early in the last century. Readers can see buildings and street scenes that are long gone or changed so much they are unrecognizable today. Explore the granite industry, here since the early 1860s. Meet Samuel Pandolfo, who decided to build an automobile here in 1917. Learn about the man who developed a tin can chair, as well as the St. Cloud Reformatory, which has the largest wall in the United States.

Cover image for St. Cloud, isbn: 9780738577876

Waseca County Historical Society

Waseca County, Minnesota

9780738520476

$24.99

Waseca County, Minnesota, is comprised of a number of unique communities-Alma City, New Richland, Waldorf, Otisco, Janesville, Palmer, and the county seat of Waseca-each adding to the county's rich history and remarkable scenic beauty. The county can boast of nine architectural gems on the National Register of Historic Sites. These distinctive landmarks include the Richardsonian Romanesque-style Waseca County Courthouse, the Greek Revival-style Janesville Public Library, and the Gothic Revival-style Vista Lutheran Church in Otisco Township. Historic houses include the P.C. Bailey House, built in 1868 and one of Waseca's oldest homes, as well as the R. Percy Ward House, home to one of the area's most prominent turn-of-the-century businessmen.

With over 200 vintage photographs Waseca County showcases not only the buildings and businesses of this historic county, but also the people who helped contribute to its growth and prosperity, people whose devotion to education, history, and a sense of community continues to grow.

Cover image for Waseca County, Minnesota, isbn: 9780738520476

Iric Nathanson

World War I Minnesota

9781467117920

$21.99

When the United States made a formal declaration of war on April 6, 1917, Minnesotans answered the call to arms. Duluth, with its strategic location at the head of the Great Lakes, emerged as a major shipbuilding center. Over forty thousand men registered for the draft in Minneapolis alone. Yet many members of the state's large German American population struggled with divided loyalties. A xenophobic fervor swept through the state at an alarming rate, forcing the government to establish a Commission on Public Safety to stifle wartime dissent. With more than fifty period photos and illustrations, author Iric Nathanson brings to life the daily struggles and triumphs of Minnesotans in the Great War.

Cover image for World War I Minnesota, isbn: 9781467117920

Ben Welter

Minnesota Moxie

9781467135719

$23.99

Minnesotans are a tough lot, capable of pulling a house six miles by muscle alone or giving birth to a sixteen-pound boy. In 1921, young Phoebe Fairgrave set a parachute world record, stepping off the wing of a biplane 15,200 feet above the Twin Cities. In 1962, the last powerhouse Gophers football team brought home the Rose Bowl trophy. A year later, thirteen-year-old Jean Webb of Minneapolis risked arrest and refused to leave a segregated restaurant. In 1979, Gerry Spiess crossed the Atlantic alone in a 10-foot sailboat he built in his White Bear Lake garage. These inspiring stories and dozens more, culled from the Star Tribune newspaper archives, are presented in their original form by author Ben Welter, along with in-depth background, fresh interviews and more than seventy-five historic photos.

Cover image for Minnesota Moxie, isbn: 9781467135719

Stew Thornley

Historic Ballparks of the Twin Cities

9781467146340

$21.99

From the rickety to the palatial, ballparks have grown up with and defined baseball in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Some old-timers have vivid memories of cheering for Willie Mays and Roy Campanella at Nicollet and Lexington. Others marveled at a majestic Killebrew home run at the Met. Many a lucky resident celebrated two world championships in the Metrodome and witnessed one of the greatest pitching performances in World Series history. More recently, fans have enjoyed the return of sunshine and even raindrops at Target Field. Described by City Pages as "the most respected local baseball historian," Stew Thornley leads a tour of where we--as well as our grandparents and now our children--discovered baseball.

Cover image for Historic Ballparks of the Twin Cities, isbn: 9781467146340

Natasha Thoreson

Plymouth

9781467104234

$23.99

Years before Minnesota became a state in 1858, hopeful land speculators designed a plan for a town named Plymouth, built on the northwest shore of Parkers Lake.

A gristmill and other structures were raised, but a flood in 1857 destroyed the fledgling pioneer town.Settlers continued to arrive, though, setting up homesteads in the 36 square miles of Township 118. By the time Hennepin County commissioners christened the township Plymouth, over 400 citizens resided within its borders. Over the next century, this close-knit farming community, located just 12 miles from downtown Minneapolis, maintained its rural roots. Urbanization finally took hold in 1972 when Plymouth installed its first traffic light. Now the seventh-largest city in Minnesota, Plymouth reflects a newly diverse and dynamic American suburb where industrial, residential, and recreational areas converge. This book aims to bridge Plymouth’s past with its present, connecting the city’s newest pioneers with those who founded it so many years ago.

Sarah Winans is a resident of Plymouth and a volunteer with the Plymouth Historical Society. She is an award-winning educator with experience making history accessible to people of all ages. Natasha Thoreson is the historic site manager for the City of Plymouth. She directs operations at the Plymouth Historical Society, helping to discover, preserve, and share the history of Plymouth, Minnesota.

Cover image for Plymouth, isbn: 9781467104234

Becker County Historical Society

Detroit Lakes

9780738584041

$24.99

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, was incorporated in 1871 as the village of Detroit. Detroit became a boomtown in the late 19th century because of the vast supply of timber that dominated the landscape of northwest Minnesota at the time. The population grew by leaps and bounds, and by 1900 the census recorded 2,060 residents. In 1926, the US Postal Service officially changed the town's name to Detroit Lakes in order to avoid confusion with Detroit, Michigan. The lush landscape of lakes and rivers created a natural vacation destination, and tourism pioneers like John K. West began to market to the newly moneyed industrialists of the Gilded Age, promising steamboat transportation and boardwalks to the shoreline. Today, Detroit Lakes remains a vibrant city with thriving resort and business communities. It is the heart of lakes country and continues to provide a welcoming atmosphere for visitors and residents alike.

Cover image for Detroit Lakes, isbn: 9780738584041

Amy J. Hahn

Lost Rochester, Minnesota

9781625858320

$21.99

Rochester is synonymous with one of its most famous landmarks, the Mayo Clinic, but there's so much more to the Med City. It began as a frontier town, struggling to make its mark in a sparsely populated wilderness. By the late nineteenth century, Rochester had expanded into a vibrant city, rich with business, educational and cultural opportunities. Rediscover the Dubuque Trail and the beautiful summer lake retreats, along with the Cook Hotel, the Central Fire Station and more. Author Amy Jo Hahn uncovers the lost beginnings of Rochester and brings the stories of this unique place to life.

Cover image for Lost Rochester, Minnesota, isbn: 9781625858320

Peter James Ward Richie

Robbinsdale

9781467111614

$24.99

Robbinsdale was named for entrepreneur, politician, and real estate developer Andrew B. Robbins. While serving in the Minnesota State Senate, Robbins often passed through the area just north of Minneapolis by train. Impressed by the landscape, he purchased 90 acres of rolling hills and lakes. In 1887, he platted a tract called Robbinsdale Park. Five years later, the development was incorporated as a village bearing his name. Robbins worked tirelessly to attract residents, business, and industry. When the transit company refused to extend a streetcar line to the area, he built his own. City dwellers came out in droves to enjoy hunting, fishing, boating, and the bathing beaches on Robbinsdale's lakes. In the 1920s, the village gained notoriety with every new issue of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang. Created by local veteran Wilford Hamilton Fawcett, the little humor magazine launched a publishing empire. Along with the rest of the country, Robbinsdale grew up in the 20th century, but the first suburb of Minneapolis still feels like the small town Andrew B. Robbins dreamed up more than a century ago.

Cover image for Robbinsdale, isbn: 9781467111614

Mower County Hist Society

Mower County

9780738519920

$24.99

The history of Mower County, Minnesota, is the story of its people-their dreams, their hard work, their joys, and their disappointments. It is the story of the Native Americans who built mounds and lived in villages along the shores of the lakes. It is the story of the early pioneers who braved the hot, sticky summers and the sub-zero winters. It is the story of the merchants, who believed in the future of these small farming communities, and the entrepreneurs, who platted sites for new villages.

These stories are told here with the help of over 200 vintage prints and photographs from each of the twenty townships that make up Mower County. In these townships, many communities have developed over the years. Some lived only a short time, dying out because they were bypassed by the railroads that crossed Southern Minnesota, or because the villages could not attract settlers. Those that survived grew, and to this day provide homes for descendants of the earliest pioneers, as well as newer residents, who were drawn by industry or the beauty of Southern Minnesota.

Cover image for Mower County, isbn: 9780738519920

Crow Wing Cty Hist Soc (Author)

Brainerd

9781467110365

$24.99

In 1870, the Northern Pacific Railroad survey crew chose the spot where the tracks from Duluth to Moorhead would cross the Mississippi River. By March 1871, the first train rolled into Brainerd, named for the family of the wife of railroad president J. Gregory Smith. As the town site agent, Lyman P. White was responsible for platting the city and was therefore known as the Father of Brainerd. The railroad established its headquarters and general offices in Brainerd, which quickly drew thousands of workers to the new town, known as the City of Pines. Many boardinghouses, saloons, churches, homes, and businesses quickly sprang up to accommodate them. Important industries developed, including logging, lumbering, brick making, ice harvesting, and more. Brainerd's well-known landmark, the historic water tower, was the first concrete elevated water tank in the United States. Brainerd has been home to a wide variety of politicians, artists, actors, athletes, authors, and musicians.

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Pennington County Historical Society

Thief River Falls and Pennington County

9780738540252

$24.99

Positioned on the east edges of the Red River Valley and the northern Minnesota Woodlands, Pennington County was settled by farmers of predominantly Scandinavian stock, and census surveys indicate that Thief River Falls was the most Norwegian city in the United States. These settlers broke the soil, planted grain, and traveled to the woodlands for logs with which to build their homes. They floated the trees they cut down the rivers to the mills in Thief River Falls, St. Hilaire, and Crookston. Grain elevators and flour mills stood out against the prairie skyline, and milled logs became ties for the railroads that would transport the lumber and grain to distant cities and ports. The postcards in this book depict the industries, buildings, and people of Pennington County.

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Albert D. Wittman

Architecture of Minneapolis Parks

9780738560267

$24.99

Buildings, bridges, and much more--these are the treasures in or near Minneapolis parks that are rarely given attention. This book diverts the reader from the traditional park elements of lakes, woods, streams, and playfields and focuses instead on the rich architectural components they offer. Buildings range from the 160-year-old Godfrey house, believed to be the oldest standing house in Minneapolis, to the recently completed shelters in the Wabun picnic area at Minnehaha Park. Many architects, from Stanford White to Harry Jones to Frank Gehry, have left their marks either on parkland or across the street. Some of their notables are presented in this book. One of the most popular icons of Minneapolis, the Lake Harriet Bandstand, with a long list of predecessors and once painted blue, rounds out this presentation.

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Nathan L. Johnson

Pine City

9780738577401

$24.99

Laden with pines and interspersed with lakes and rivers, Pine City has long served as the gateway to Minnesota's Northwoods. Over the years, people have traveled through the area via the river, military road, railroads, and scenic highway. In the 1880s, as people of European decent were settling in, the crux of the community moved from Chengwatana, Ojibwe for City of Pines, to a location west of there, nearer the rail line, called Pine City. The story begins with the fur trade and takes one through a fascinating journey of the logging industry, showing the rural community's transition from predominantly agricultural underpinnings to a more diversified economy. This collection of vintage photographs highlights Pine City's laboring people and other influences that have had roles in shaping what it is today-a city of great history, unique people, nostalgic small-town traditions, and mystifying legends.

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William E. Huntzicker

Dinkytown

9781467119634

$21.99

Dinkytown belies its name with a big history and outsized influence on the culture of Minneapolis. It began as a business district serving the University of Minnesota and became a creative center between the flour milling district and a massive railroad yard. By 1875, Dinkytown was a terminus on the horse-drawn streetcar system. The area transformed into a nexus of culture and counterculture with the growth and expansion of the university. Its burgeoning arts scene launched Bob Dylan and The Fiddler on the Roof, and its student activism spawned the Red Barn protests of 1970. Dr. Bill Huntzicker narrates the enthralling history of one of Minneapolis's most influential neighborhoods.

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Tom Uehling

Minnesota's Angling Past

9781467110532

$24.99

The importance of fishing in Minnesota goes back thousands of years: first as a means of critical subsistence and then, in the last 200 years, as a major economic influence. In the 1800s, anglers seeking pristine lakes with ample fish traveled to Minnesota on the railroads. The widespread use of automobiles and an improving road system rapidly increased the state's accessibility in the 1900s, and resorts sprouted everywhere. During the early tourist boom, the state was also home to countless boat builders, tackle manufacturers, and other fishing-related businesses. Images of America: Minnesota's Angling Past provides a view of the time when boats were made from wood and propelled by rowing; when great fishing spots were found through experience rather than electronics; and, for some, a suit or dress was proper attire for a day of fishing. This book includes rare images from across the state that capture memorable days of angling, such as the 1955 Leech Lake Muskie Rampage.

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Klingberg Family Centers

Long Prairie

9781467129039

$24.99

The area known today as Long Prairie was once the battleground of the Sioux and Chippewa Native American tribes. With the arrival of the US government–established Winnebago Agency in 1845, Long Prairie became the first white settlement in what became Todd County. Approximately 700 Winnebagos and 150 buildings were located here. Since those days, town roads have been cut from the sloping hillsides, straightened, and leveled. The river traffic succumbed to the power of the railroad. The addition of a stunning courthouse in 1883, overlooking the townsite, has greeted families and visitors for generations. The historic main street, lovingly built by the founding members, has given Long Prairie that comforting sense of place that only small towns seem to have. Long Prairie, home to generations of people, has seen many changes.

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Jason Grabinger

Willmar

9781467128605

$24.99

It was the 1850s when the first settlers arrived in the area that would become Willmar, Minnesota. Encouraged by the land itself, they came for the fertile soil and the beauty and serenity provided by the landscape. Calamity would strike in 1862 due to the Dakota War, causing residents to flee for safer pastures. In 1869, the Great Northern Railroad would again call settlers to Kandiyohi County. Most of Scandinavian descent, this hardy lot would not be driven from the land again. In 1870, acting as agent for the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, Leon Chadwick Willmar purchased the title to Section 1 of Willmar Township. The following year, Willmar was officially named a city and became the county seat of Kandiyohi County. As the years passed from then to now, Willmar residents would face success and challenge, feast and famine, and partnership and controversy. No matter the circumstance, they would band together to face whatever arrived and join together in both celebration and sorrow.

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Elizabeth Dorsey Hatle

The Ku Klux Klan in Minnesota

9781626191891

$21.99

Minnesota might not seem like an obvious place to look for traces of Ku Klux Klan parade grounds, but this northern state was once home to fifty-one chapters of the KKK. Elizabeth Hatle tracks down the history of the Klan in Minnesota, beginning with the racially charged atmosphere that produced the tragic 1920 Duluth lynchings. She measures the influence the organization wielded at the peak of its prominence within state politics and tenaciously follows the careers of the Klansmen who continued life in the public sphere after the Hooded Order lost its foothold in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.

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Ken Allsen

Old Frontenac Minnesota

9781596295070

$21.99

The entire village of Old Frontenac is snugly nestled on the National Register for Historic Places—a tribute to the frontier paradise cultivated under the patronage of the Garrard family. With the exception of the modern county road that serves the local residents, all the streets are still unpaved gravel. No streetlights or visible utilities mar the overall impression of an untouched early settlement. No commercial businesses are in the village. As we enter the twenty-first century, the nineteenth-century buildings of Old Frontenac remain virtually untouched by the heavy-handed development that has so recently decimated other historical areas. It is hoped that this little time capsule of Minnesota's architectural history, occupied by preservation-minded owners, will survive.

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Sarah Fabiny

The Ghostly Tales of the Twin Cities

9781467196086

$12.99

Ghost stories from the Twin Cities have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

Welcome to the spooky Twin Cities!

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that St. Paul's Wabasha Street Caves are haunted? Or that at the historic St. Paul theater, spirits sometimes take center stage? Can you believe the Minneapolis Institute of Art is not only home to incredible art . . . but unforgettable ghosts?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see the Twin Cities forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

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Paul D. Scanlon MD

Rochester Memories

9781467154352

$24.99

In addition to its well-known associations with doctors and diagnoses, the city of Rochester offers a string of curiosities to those willing to look closely .

How did a secret bomber mission to Moscow during World War II lead to thousands of fighter planes flying through Rochester and the subsequent construction of a giant IBM manufacturing plant here? What was Rochester's contribution to the 1980 Olympic Hockey Miracle on Ice? Who was dubbed the “Greatest Doctor in the World”, and why? Who were the regular folks without whom the great Mayo Clinic might never have become a medical mecca?

Rochester Stories: A Med City History Paul Scanlon answers these and other questions in this enlightening and sometimes humorous study of Rochester's past.

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Nancy Huddleston

Savage

9780738590554

$24.99

Savage's history is deep and diverse. The city was home to a famous racehorse and its owner, the site where Charles Lindbergh's plane crashed, and a prominent ship-building industry that thrived during World War II. It all started in 1852 when a small trading post was established at the mouth of the Credit River where it empties into the Minnesota River. Soon, the town of Hamilton was established, and its residents made a living farming and trading. In the early 1900s, Marion Willis Savage purchased a pacer named Dan Patch and built the International Stock Food Farm along the river. In 1904, the depot agent suggested Hamilton be renamed Savage after the man who brought notoriety to the town with Dan Patch, a horse that set records and charmed crowds until his death in 1916. Today, the horse that was viewed as a symbol of the past serves as a beacon to residents who continue to celebrate the city's heritage along with the natural beauty of the community.

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Freeborn County Historical Society

Freeborn County, Minnesota

9780738503035

$24.99

Freeborn County is home to pioneers from many different nations. Their common denominator was the rich farmland and the related businesses that promised a good life for their families. When Lt. Albert Miller Lea surveyed the area in 1835 with the Dragoons of Fort Des Moines, he described sparkling lakes encircled by gently sloping woodlands, smooth prairies interspersed with shady groves and rich with the melody of feathered songsters—one of the most beautiful lands ever witnessed.

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Amy Troolin

Northern Pine County

9780738583440

$24.99

Featuring over 210 historical photographs, Images of America: Northern Pine County guides readers on an exciting journey into the past as it explores the successes and sorrows as well as the joys and trials of the people of northern Pine County, Minnesota. Each chapter examines a unique aspect of their daily lives. Readers meet loggers and settlers from the county's earliest days, catch a glimpse of many towns and villages, and encounter a variety of industries, businesses, schools, and churches that shaped the area's economic and social landscapes. Life was not easy for the people who called northern Pine County home. On September 1, 1894, and again on October 12, 1918, forest fires devastated portions of the county, killing hundreds, destroying thousands of acres, and leaving countless residents homeless. While photographs cannot capture the heartache of fire victims, they do provide a window into northern Pine County's rich history and help tell the fascinating stories of its residents.

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Chris Hage

Nicollet Island

9780738577913

$24.99

Above St. Anthony Falls, in the middle of the Mississippi River, hidden in the heart of Minneapolis, lies Wita Waste, the beautiful island. Named Wita Waste by Dakota Indians, it is known now as Nicollet Island, the only inhabited island in the Mississippi. Over the centuries, it has been a sacred birthing place, at the center of the lumber and flour-milling industries that built Minneapolis, and involved in the collapse of the Eastman tunnel, which almost doomed those industries. One of Minneapolis's largest fires, the great conflagration of 1893, started there. It has been the home of pioneers, veterans, elite barons of the Gilded Age, Roman Catholic monks, hippies, artists, vagrants, and donkeys. Many of their houses still remain, preserving Minneapolis's architectural heritage. Nicollet Island has been at the center of numerous controversies ranging from its original land claim to proposals to locate the state capitol there, to, more recently, the threatened demolition of its historic houses. Nicollet Island is the history of Minnesota in miniature, and its tale is one of beauty, romance, disaster, and conflict.

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Lois A. Glewwe

South St. Paul

9781626198814

$21.99

Incorporated in 1887, South St. Paul grew rapidly as the blue-collar counterpart to the bright lights and sophistication of its cosmopolitan neighbors Minneapolis and St. Paul. Its prosperous stockyards and slaughterhouses ranked the city among America's largest meatpacking centers. The proud city fell on hard economic times in the second half of the twentieth century. Broad swaths of empty buildings were razed as an enticement to promised redevelopment programs that never happened. In 1990, South St. Paul began to chart out its own successful path to renewal with a pristine riverfront park, a trail system and a business park where the stockyards once stood. Author and historian Lois A. Glewwe brings the story of the city's revival to life in this history of a remarkable community.

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Melvin Aanerud

Ham Lake

9781467114035

$24.99

Ham Lake is a six-mile-by-six-mile township as prescribed in the Northwest Territories Act of 1787. One of the area's major lakes looks exactly like a slice of ham, with an island as the ham bone, thus the name. In 1856, a town named Glen Carey, Scottish for Beautiful Valley, was formed southwest of the lake. Seven or eight homes were built, but a prairie fire burned them out. In 1866, Mads Gilbertson, a native of Norway, was the first permanent settler; other Scandinavians followed. Early settlers found the soil well suited for farming and developed churches, schools, and commercial centers. Farmers raised pigs, turkeys, cattle, and horses, along with corn, wheat, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruit. Ham Lake became the sod-producing capital of Minnesota. Eventually, the town subdivided those farms and grew housing developments—the most profitable crop yet.

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Marie Berger Wittenberg

Eden Prairie

9780738531885

$24.99

Nestled on the banks of the Minnesota River, the city of Eden Prairie possesses a vibrant history and a unique heritage. This book showcases over 200 historic photographs, many of which are published for the first time, to document Eden Prairie's rural roots and urban progress, from the 1850s, when immigrants began to settle in the region, through the present day. Author Marie Berger Wittenberg takes readers on a visual tour of Eden Prairie's founding families, its notable historic homes and businesses, and the churches, schools, landmarks, and organizations that have shaped the community as it is known today.

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Scott Carlson

Twin Cities Beer

9781467137058

$21.99

The Twin Cities witnessed a recent explosion of craft beer breweries and brewpubs, but the region's beer history reaches back generations. The Minneapolis Brewing Company introduced the iconic Grain Belt beer in 1893, and it remains a local favorite. Fur trapper and bootlegger Pierre Pig's Eye Parrant established a St. Paul tavern along the banks of the Mississippi River in the early 1800s. The area has been home to some of the best-known beer brands in America, from Hamm's and Schmidt's to Yoerg's and Olympia. Today, microbreweries such as Bad Weather Brewing, Summit Brewing and more than fifty others are forging new avenues. Join author Scott Carlson as he offers an intriguing history and guide to Twin Cities beer.

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Hibbing Historical Society

Hibbing, Minnesota

9780738518596

$24.99

Surrounded by large stands of virgin white and red pines, an enterprising iron prospector named Frank Hibbing set up camp on a bitterly cold day in January of 1892. When he awoke the next day, he insisted that there was iron beneath him-he could feel it in his bones. He staked his claim near that campsite, and after digging several test pits, one of the world's richest deposits of iron ore was found.

Beginning as a small collection of tents and log cabins, the Village of Hibbing was incorporated in August of 1893. It became one of the largest of the mining towns along the Mesabi Range, attracting immigrants of many backgrounds such as Finnish, Italian, Slavic, Swedish, and Greek. This mixture of diverse backgrounds gave Hibbing a unique culture that remains evident today. From Minnesota's famous dual in 1910 between friends Sam Kacich and Pete Radovich, to the relocation of the entire village in the 1920s, Hibbing, Minnesota takes us back in time to the days of pioneers, horse-drawn carriages, and a love of the land that has been passed on from generation to generation.

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Christopher Miller

Winona in Vintage Postcards

9780738532295

$24.99

Before its founding by white settlers, Winona, Minnesota, was the home of a band of Sioux led by the great Wapasha dynasty. After white settlement began in 1851, the city's growth was fueled by the Mississippi riverboat trade. Groups of immigrants passed through the Gate City, and many stayed, founding enduring ethnic communities and building a city that for a brief time rivaled Minneapolis. The settlement covered the sandy flats with houses, churches, colleges, and factories, and carved the hill Wapasha's Cap into the landmark now known as Sugar Loaf.

Yesterday's riverboats have given way to today's recreational vehicles, but Winona's factories and businesses still sell products to the national market, and the colleges-now universities-are a significant part of the city's life.

Through their combined collections of rare postcards, authors Chris Miller and Mary Pendleton take readers on a visual tour of Winona's history, exploring the city's Native American heritage, natural scenery, development, historic landmarks, and long relationship with the Mississippi River.

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Barbara Grover

Alexandria

9780738598529

$24.99

Beautiful Alexandria, Minnesota, in the heart of lake country, offers something for everyone. Home to internationally recognized businesses, a bustling downtown, a thriving tourism industry, and a lively arts community, Alexandria is a city with a rich history and a bright future. On these pages, one will discover how the unique spirit of Alexandria grew out of its early days as a pioneer outpost. That spirit grew as men and women built the downtown still seen today, as tourists came to experience the pristine lakes and rolling hills, and as families set down roots. It is the same spirit of exploration, entrepreneurship, and enthusiasm that still stirs visitors and locals alike. Take a journey though the history of this special town and find out why there is a giant Viking statue on Broadway, why the Kensington Runestone continues to stir up controversy, and why the ghosts of Alexandria's past continue to whisper into her future.

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Chad Lewis

Haunted St. Paul

9781596299337

$21.99

From the phantom pig at the Minnesota State Fair to the ghostly gangsters of the Wabasha Street Caves, St. Paul bristles with haunted history. Let the spectral usher of the Mounds Theatre show you to your seat as Chad Lewis reveals why the bits of St. Paul's past that insist on intruding on the present deserve to have their stories told. By the time the lights come back on, you will be convinced that sometimes the strangest things have happened in the dorm room upstairs...or the table next to you at your favorite restaurant...or even in your own backyard.

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Paulie Skaja-Bell

Rogers, Hassan Township, and Fletcher Remembered

9780738541112

$24.99

The heavily wooded area of western Hennepin County, known as the Big Woods to early explorers, slowly transformed into three trade centers with the first permanent settlers staking their claims to land in 1854. The initial pioneers emigrated from such faraway places as Germany, Ireland, England, and France in search of a better life, and the fact that many of their ancestors still reside in the area demonstrates they found just that. Rogers, Hassan Township, and Fletcher Remembered is a photographic tour of three early trade centers that formed a community. The pictures, newspaper clippings, and stories provided by local residents and businesses capture the rich history of the area and illustrate how emphasis on church, education, commerce, and entertainment created the endless opportunities enjoyed today.

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Elizabeth Johanneck

Twin Cities Prohibition

9781609491277

$21.99

Ferret out the haunts and habits of those who kept speakeasy doors oiled and politics crooked in the Twin Cities. If you take a tour of former blind pigs today, you will probably encounter nothing more dangerous than a life-long attraction to the 5-8 Club's Juicy Lucy Burger, but Twin Cities Prohibition will return you to a time when honest reporting like that of Walter Liggett was answered with machine gun fire. Clink glasses with notorious characters such as Kid Cann, Dapper Dan Hogan and Doc Ames, the Shame of Minneapolis in Elizabeth Johanneck's raid on this fascinating era of history.

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Amy Troolin

Kanabec County

9780738590561

$24.99

Featuring 217 historic photographs, Images of America: Kanabec County guides readers on an exciting journey into the past as it explores the daily lives of the people who helped make Kanabec County, in East Central Minnesota, what it is today. Each chapter examines a unique aspect of Kanabec County's history. Readers meet Native Americans, settlers, and loggers from the county's earliest days; learn about early government, industries, and transportation; catch a glimpse of towns and villages in the 19th and 20th centuries; go on a shopping trip with county residents; discover the fascinating histories of area schools and churches; and find out what Kanabec County people did for fun in the days before television and computers.

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Stephen Wilbers

Boundary Waters History, A

9781596299702

$21.99

Teasing out the history of a place celebrated for timelessness—where countless paddle strokes have disappeared into clear waters—requires a sure and attentive hand. Stephen Wilbers's account reaches back to the glaciers that first carved out the Boundary Waters and to the original inhabitants, as well as to generations of wilderness explorers, both past and present. He does so without losing the personal relationship built through a lifetime of pilgrimages (anchored by almost three decades of trips with his father). This story captures the untold broader narrative of the region, as well as a thousand different details sure to be recognized by fellow pilgrims, like the grinding rhythm of a long portage or the loon call that slips into that last moment before sleep.

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Curt Brown

The William Marvy Company of St. Paul

9781626195691

$21.99

The William Marvy Company's barber poles, encased swirls of red and blue above a rounded stainless-steel base, hang on street corners around the country. The company began creating the vibrant signposts in St. Paul three generations ago. Modern versions of the bloody rags used by surgeon-barbers in the Middle Ages, barber poles are well-known icons, but the Marvy family story is largely unknown. From his humble beginnings as the son of a Latvian émigré carpenter through the growing pains of his namesake company, Marvy showed business acumen and innovation that culminated with his invention of a shatterproof barber pole, ensuring the company's continued success. From crew cuts and the Beatles up through today, barber poles have remained an easily recognized social constant.

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Ken Martens

The Perilous St. Croix River Valley Frontier

9781626193499

$21.99

Minnesota's early territorial days were exciting and filled with hope for the future, but many dreams were broken before they were ever realized as settlers met untimely deaths in tragic ways. The St. Croix earned its nickname the River of Graves when watercraft were dashed against hazards like Death Rock. Torrential downpours flushed settlers from their dwellings, while diseases such as cholera and E. coli were imminent threats. And those whom Mother Nature did not destroy or defeat still had to contend with their fellow pioneers. Take a read on frontier life in the St. Croix River Valley with over fifty stories of adventure, including horse-and-buggy road rage, scalp dances and land disputes settled by war.