Minnesota History

Voters overwhelmingly back Minnesota lottery spending on environmental projects for another 25 years
More than 77 percent of voters backed a constitutional amendment that continues to funnel tens of millions of dollars of Minnesota’s lottery proceeds into environmental research and natural resource protection efforts for another 25 years.
Preserving a legacy: Nonprofit raises money to save home of first Black Fergus Falls resident
The home built in 1885 by Fergus Falls first Black resident — and Minnesota’s first Black baseball player faces an uncertain future because of financial challenges. The nonprofit which manages the building says it faces a Nov. 1 deadline to raise the money to save it
 Show and tell: New interactive tour aims to raise Dakota visibility in Minneapolis
A new self-guided walking tour highlighting Dakota history at Owámniyomni or St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis is now live. Visitors can scan QR codes at five designated spots to learn about the sacred area through an Indigenous lens. 
Longtime resort owner Bruce Kerfoot dies, ‘legend‘ of the Gunflint Trail
In a post on social media, Kerfoot’s family said he died in his sleep Wednesday night. “The family has some peace knowing he and Justine are paddling together to their shore lunch spot,” they wrote.
Children who died at a boarding school in the 1800s return to the White Earth Nation
Two Ojibwe boys who died more than a century ago at the St. John’s Industrial School in Collegeville came home to the White Earth Nation on Sunday. John Parker and Joseph Roy had been buried in the cemetery at St. John’s Abbey.
Duluth’s iconic Chester Bowl on cusp of expanding its historic ski chalet
A community-run downhill ski area in the center of the city of Duluth that once trained generations of Olympic ski jumpers may soon begin a $3.8 million renovation and expansion of its chalet.
A treasure hunt to make Minnesota property maps more accurate
Minnesota counties are starting a project to rebuild a critical but mostly invisible infrastructure across the state. Last year the state Legislature approved funding to pay for verification of the public land survey system. The system is the basis for establishing all property lines. The work involves finding survey markers that, in some cases, were placed more than 150 years ago.