Minnesota History

Adult bathhouses were a part of Minneapolis nightlife. Then police and panic pushed them out
Forty years after the adult bathhouse ban was passed, the city council is considering reversing it. A myriad of components led to the ban, but for several decades, public sexual spaces in Minneapolis were an active part of downtown.
How historians are documenting ICE enforcement in Minnesota
As more federal officers leave the state, the Morning Edition team wondered how historians might document this moment. The Minnesota Historical Society’s Director of Collections, Cecily Marcus, joined Cathy Wurzer with answers.
In Elmore, an effort to keep the Mondale legacy alive
Former Vice President and U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale grew up in Elmore, just north of the Iowa border. Now, a few people want to put this tiny town on the map by listing Mondale's childhood home on the National Register of Historic Places.
South St. Paul history teacher mourns demolition of stockyard landmark
The Armour Gates that stood in South St. Paul for over a hundred years are coming down despite efforts to save them. Social studies teacher Mark Westpfahl got his students involved in the push for preservation.
The Edmund Fitzgerald sinking: Remembering the Great Lakes shipwreck 50 years later
50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing 29 men. MPR News guest host Dan Kraker talks with a Great Lakes historian about the ship’s final, fateful voyage and what the ore carrier’s shocking sinking means to Minnesotans. 
50 years later, the legacy of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald looms as large as ever
The exact cause of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking is still a mystery, but the lasting legacy is this: There were more than 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes in the century prior to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Not one commercial vessel has sunk since.
New documentary follows divers down to wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald
Executive producer Joe Augustine joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition Thursday to talk about making the short film and the divers’ theories behind the Fitzgerald’s fate.
Minnesota's first Black female attorney gets her own street
A Minneapolis street once named after segregationist Edmund Walton has been renamed to honor Lena Olive Smith, Minnesota's first Black female attorney.