Oak savannas—open grassland studded by tall, spreading oak trees—once covered 10 percent of Minnesota, mostly in the southeast quarter of the state. They are an attractive ecosystem for animals such as deer, turkeys, and red-headed woodpeckers. Before European immigration, indigenous people valued the savannas for the good hunting they provided, fostering and maintaining them through the regular use of fire. In 2017, only about 1 percent of the savannas that existed 200 years ago remains.
Founded in 1853, Oakland is Minnesota’s oldest public cemetery and a gathering place, in death, of people from the full range of St. Paul history, from the city's founders to recent immigrants. It is also a place of beauty.
Ernest Oberholtzer first paddled the lakes of the Rainy Lake watershed in 1909. Starting in the 1920s, he lived on Rainy Lake’s Mallard Island and was a prominent conservationist. He led the campaign for legislation to protect the watershed, including parts of what would become Voyagerus National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
On his second visit to the region, Frenchman Pierre Charles Le Sueur arrives at the mouth of the Blue Earth River. At this site he builds Fort L'Huillier, named for a chemist in France who had told Le Sueur that the blue clay found at this location on his first trip was rich in copper. Le Sueur travels with two tons of the clay to New Orleans, leaving nineteen men to continue operations. Further testing shows that the clay contains no copper, and when Le Sueur returned to the Blue Earth River the fort had disappeared. In 1907 A.
Ard Godfrey arrives at St. Anthony Falls (Owamniyomni) to build his sawmill. His house, Minneapolis's first frame building, still stands at the corner of University and Central Avenues.
At the urging of Dr. Richard O. Beard, the Board of Regents for the University of Minnesota authorizes a nursing curriculum, the first college-associated school of nursing in the country. The school opens March 1, 1909, with Bertha Erdmann as director.
The first celebration of Kolacky Day in Montgomery occurs. A kolacky is a Czechoslovakian pastry filled with fruit. At first the festival was only a day long, but in 1975 the celebration was scheduled for late July and extended into Kolacky Days, complete with music, dancing, art displays, and a parade.
The MinnesotaCare health program, benefiting uninsured low-income Minnesota residents, goes into effect. MinnesotaCare is financed by state tax dollars, provider taxes, and premiums paid by enrollees.
The Augustana Synod of the Lutheran Church gives Eric Norelius permission to open an academy. First established in Red Wing, then moved to East Union, the college (which later became Gustavus Adolphus) was in St. Peter in 1876.
A forest fire begins on the railroad line between Duluth and Hibbing and burns for the next three days, reaching Duluth on the thirteenth. Thirty-eight communities, including the cities of Cloquet, Carlton, and Moose Lake, and the towns of Adolph, Brookston, Munger, Grand Lake, Pike Lake, and Twig, are burned and 435 people are killed. After the blaze, forest salvagers cut 1.6 million tons of lumber.
A destructive windstorm sweeps through Minnesota, causing $10 million in losses to the corn crop and over $1 million in property damage in St. Paul alone. Amazingly, no deaths are reported.
Governor Mark Dayton issues a proclamation declaring this date to be the first state-wide Indigenous Peoples' Day, celebrated in place of Columbus Day. Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, and Minnesota State University, Mankato, had adopted the holiday in 2014.
President Grover Cleveland is in St. Paul for the second day of a three-day visit to the state. Former governors Henry H. Sibley, Alexander Ramsey, and William R. Marshall accompany him in his travels around the area.
The Minnesota Historical Society recognizes ethnographer Frances Densmore for "distinguished service in the field of Minnesota History." Densmore, a Red Wing native, was one of the first ethnologists to specialize in the study of Native American music and culture and is perhaps best known for her field recordings of Ojibwe songs.
The Minnesota Lynx win their first WNBA Championship, beating the Atlanta Dream in three games. This is the first championship won by a professional sports team in Minnesota since 1991.
The first car of iron ore travels from Mountain Iron to Duluth and assays at 65 percent iron. Minnesota would lead the country in iron ore production for many years, and iron, in the form of taconite, is still a major export.
With a parade and elaborate ceremonies, a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus is dedicated on the State Capitol grounds. Sculpted by St. Paul native Carlo Brioschi, the statue was sponsored by the Minnesota State Federation of Italian American Clubs.
Marcelina Anaya Vasquez, founder in 1970 of the Migrant Tutorial program, dies. Working in St. Paul's west side, Vasquez trained bilingual tutors to assist migrant children with their English reading and writing skills. The St. Paul school district had taken over her successful program in 1978.
More than thirty agencies collaborate to establish the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge on the site of an ancient glacial lake. The ambitious project aims to restore Polk County's native wetlands and tallgrass prairies.
The state constitution is ratified by popular vote. In the accompanying gubernatorial election, Henry H. Sibley beats Alexander Ramsey by a slim margin of 240 votes out of 35,340 cast.
Celebrating Minnesota Day at the World's Fair in Chicago, twenty thousand of the state's residents view exhibits of the state's resources and hear the First Minnesota Regiment's band.
Author Kathleen Winsor is born in Olivia. Her novel Forever Amber, published in 1944, would be banned in Boston because of its sexual content. With that publicity, it became a best seller.
