Lac qui Parle Mission in Chippewa County was the leading station of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions’ work among Dakota people between 1835 and 1854. Though missionaries cited it as the most successful project of its kind among the Dakota, the mission failed in its objective to replace Dakota culture with European American lifeways. Throughout its existence Lac qui Parle was a multicultural community, where Dakota people and European Americans cooperated with each other but experienced deep divides.

The Memorial Chapel at Lakewood Cemetery (3600 Hennepin Avenue) in Minneapolis is one of the few buildings that can claim to be modeled after two World Heritage Sites. Its exterior, designed by architect Harry Wild Jones, was inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Its interior was designed by J&R Lamb Studios of New York and drew inspiration from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.

Located near the community of Embarrass, Matt and Kaisa Hill’s farmstead was one of a collection of rural properties in central St. Louis County that exemplified Finnish immigrants’ imprint on the cultural landscape of northern Minnesota in the early 1900s.

Established by fur trader and politician Henry Hastings Sibley, the Sibley Historic Site was a regional headquarters of the American Fur Company between 1836 and 1842. It sits on a bluff on the south side of the Minnesota river, just east of Historic Fort Snelling, and is a symbol of the thriving fur trade in nineteenth-century Minnesota. Today, the site contains several original buildings and operates as a museum that offers public tours.

Marine Mill, the first commercial sawmill in Minnesota, operated in Marine Mills (Marine on St. Croix) along the banks of the St. Croix River from 1839 to 1895. Over a period of about six decades, the mill produced millions of board feet of lumber and provided construction material used in towns and cities throughout the state. The remaining ruins were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and opened to the public as a park and historic site two years later. The Marine on St. Croix Historic District, created in 1974, includes the mill’s remains.

The rustic cabin Jun Fujita built on an island in Rainy Lake in the late 1920s is a rare surviving artifact of the opening of northeastern Minnesota to tourism and recreation. The remarkable personal history of Fujita, one of the first prominent Japanese Americans in the Midwest, adds to its historical interest. The cabin was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

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.

The Folsom House (272 Government Street, Taylors Falls) is an excellent example of New England Greek Revival architecture in the rural Midwest. Its owner, W. H. C. Folsom, designed it to be both modest and a showcase of his well-established wealth. Officially finished in 1855, the house alternately follows and departs from national trends in architectural history within Minnesota.

On Wabasha Hill, just north of downtown St. Paul, stands Minnesota’s third state capitol building. This active center of state government was built between 1896 and 1905, and was designed by architect Cass Gilbert. Its magnificent architecture, decorative art, and innovative technologies set it apart from every other public building in the state.

When a streetcar line first reached the shores of Lake Harriet (Bde Unma) in Minneapolis in the 1880s, it triggered decades of building projects designed to accommodate visitors who could reach the site easily from other Twin Cities locations. Beginning in 1888, five successive structures occupied the northwest corner of the lake—the most recent being the fanciful Milo Thompson-designed bandshell, which opened in 1986.