Randolph M. Probstfield is commonly considered Clay County’s first European settler-colonist. A farmer in the Red River Valley, he was a local leader in politics, education, and agricultural development from his arrival in Minnesota in 1859 until his death in 1911.

Augustin Roc was one of several generations of the Couilland dit Roc family who traded and lived on the upper Mississippi and St. Peters Rivers. As the nature of the trade between Europeans and the local Dakota people evolved, Roc moved, gradually progressing up the Mississippi River. In addition to trading, Roc worked for the United States as an interpreter because of his knowledge of and connections with the Dakota.

The Beltrami County Courthouse, located at 619 Beltrami Avenue in Bemidji, is a three-story red brick and sandstone structure in the Beaux Arts style and the county’s most imposing example of public architecture.

The Chief Theatre, the primary movie theater in downtown Bemidji, opened in 1937 and operated until 1991. In 1992, it became the home of the Paul Bunyan Playhouse as well as the venue of Bemidji Communty Theatre.

Dr. Herbert Arthur (H. A.) Burns was named superintendent of the Minnesota Sanatorium for Consumptives (Ah-Gwah-Ching) in 1928. Over the next fourteen years, he brought crucial changes to the institution that improved patient care, housing, therapy, and recreation.

From statehood in May 1858 until May 1896, Minnesota had one resident federal district court judge. His name was Rensselaer Russell Nelson.

Black students at the University of Minnesota staged a twenty-four-hour protest at Morrill Hall, the school’s administrative building, in 1969. The demonstration led to the creation of the university’s Afro-American Studies Department.

The Minnesota and International railway trestle bridge at Blackduck is historically significant for its method of construction and the length of timber required to span Coburn Creek and the surrounding marsh. It is the longest bridge on the former Minnesota & International Railway (M & I) and widely recognized as the railway’s most difficult bridge-building project.

The State of Minnesota and the health insurance federation Blue Cross and Blue Shield brought a lawsuit against tobacco companies in 1994. The suit—State of Minnesota et al. v. Philip Morris et al.—ended the companies’ chain of legal victories and turned the tide in anti-tobacco efforts throughout the nation.

Minnesota's first zoo opened in St. Paul in 1897 with three donated deer in a fenced-in pasture. More than 100 years later Como Zoo continues its mission of animal conservation, education, and family entertainment.