The Guthrie Theater was one of the first major resident theaters to be established in the United States. It was founded by Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler, who wanted to bring a professional theater company with a classical repertoire to a relatively small American city. Minneapolis was chosen to be the home for Guthrie’s company, which has supported and inspired many artists in Minnesota and played a major role in developing the Twin Cities’ theater scene.

On October 30, 1991, no one in Minnesota foresaw a blizzard. Local meteorologists predicted a few inches of snow. The snow began to fall in the early to mid-afternoon of October 31—Halloween Day— and fell steadily for almost three days. When it stopped, snow measured over thirty inches in the eastern part of Minnesota, from Duluth to Dodge Center, breaking a record set in 1882.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Minneapolis became a national center for the arts movement known as Arts and Crafts. The city's Handicraft Guild led the way. Founded by women, the Handicraft Guild made the arts in Minneapolis more democratic and populist by offering classes like pottery and metalwork to artists and teachers.

On the streets of the small town of Harmony, in Fillmore County, cars and trucks share road space with horse-drawn black buggies and wagons. Drivers in modern dress travel alongside people dressed in dark, plain clothing resembling mid-nineteenth-century attire—members of a local Amish enclave. Since its founding in 1974, the Harmony-area Amish community has grown to become the largest Amish population in Minnesota.

Like many towns across Minnesota, Harmony owes its existence to a railroad. The first train arrived in 1879, connecting the farming village to larger cities. The rail line became a major contributor to Harmony’s early population growth and economic vitality.

The Harrington-Merrill House is the oldest wood-framed structure in Hutchinson and one of the oldest in McLeod County. Lewis Harrington was one of Hutchinson's founders. Harry Merrill, who served as superintendent of schools for thirty-three years, was likely the most important educator in the town's history.

Over his long career, the architect Charles A. Hausler had a major impact on the built environment of St. Paul. As the first person to hold the office of city architect, he designed many public buildings, including the three branch libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie. He also designed churches, commercial buildings, and homes in a variety of styles, including Classical Revival, Prairie School, and Art Deco.

In 1970, the American Indian Movement (AIM) declared its intention to open a school for Native youth living in Minneapolis. AIM had identified the urgent need for Indigenous children to be educated within their own communities. Two years later, Heart of the Earth Survival School opened its doors, providing hope to Native families whose children had endured the racial abuse prevalent in the Minneapolis public schools.

A Gothic Revival-style house built in 1867 at 1625 Third Avenue in Anoka served as a residence for four generations of the Heman Ticknor family. In 1996, the home began to operate as a bed and breakfast.

The house built in the 1880s by Henry G. Leathers on a site near the Rum River is a prime example of late-Victorian architecture in Anoka County. Used as both a dry goods store and a family home, the building is dually significant—first for its level of preservation and second for its association with a family that contributed to the commercial, social, and religious history of the town of St. Francis for three generations.

Jacob Fjelde's sculpture Hiawatha and Minnehaha has stood in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis since the early twentieth century. A popular fixture of the park in the twenty-first century, its placement there was originally controversial.

The Highland Park Water Tower, in the St. Paul neighborhood of the same name, was designed by St. Paul City Architect Clarence “Cap” Wigington, the nation’s first Black city architect. As a Highland Park neighborhood icon, the tower represents City Beautiful ideals through its Mediterranean Revival style. Its contributions to American architectural and engineering history allowed it to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.