The Cottonwood County village of Westbrook is home to the smallest hospital in Minnesota: Dr. Henry Schmidt Memorial Hospital. Four months before it opened in January 1951, a women’s auxiliary officially organized and immediately began gathering supplies for the new facility.

Since its opening in 1923, the Lake Superior Zoo has evolved into a modern attraction accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) with hundreds of animals from around the world. Zoo staff work to provide close-up animal experiences that inspire connections to wildlife and action towards conservation in northern Minnesota and around the world.

The Carson Mennonite Brethren Male Chorus, known for singing gospel songs in four-part harmony, performed together for thirty years and managed a radio ministry through radio station KWOA in Worthington, Minnesota, from October 12, 1947, until December 8, 1963.

On June 16, 1992, an F5 tornado devastated the towns of Chandler and Lake Wilson in Murray County. It was the most powerful tornado recorded in the US that year and the eighth F5 to touch down in Minnesota, reaching wind speeds in excess of 260 miles per hour and causing over $50 million in property damage. It was one of 170 twisters that hit the Northern Great Plains during the June 1992 tornado outbreak, one of the largest such outbreaks in US history.

Host Garrison Keillor pushed the boundaries of radio in the 1970s to develop A Prairie Home Companion, National Public Radio’s Saturday-night staple. The variety show’s features included Keillor’s Lake Wobegon monologue, fictional sponsors, music, and dramas.

The Washburn-Crosby Company first developed Wheaties in the early 1920s and introduced the product to consumers in 1924. Over time, the breakfast cereal changed the milling industry even as it helped to transform American breakfasts.

Dr. William S. Cooper, head of the botany department at the University of Minnesota, urged a newly formed committee of the Minnesota Academy of Science to purchase part of the Anoka Sand Plain in 1937. The Cedar Creek Forest was a bit of natural Minnesota worthy of active protection from disturbance, he believed. He and others would help establish and protect what became the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, about thirty miles north of the Twin Cities.

Bean Lake Resort, a forerunner of twenty-first-century theme parks, was a popular entertainment destination from the early 1920s to 1947. People from areas around the lake in northwestern Cottonwood County gathered there to enjoy band concerts, water activities, roller-skating, and other activities.

The struggles and ultimate failure of the Moorhead Brewing Company, which operated between 1875 and 1901, reflect Minnesotans’ changing attitudes toward alcohol in the late nineteenth century.

In 1942, the US military re-purposed the Cargill shipyard at Savage to produce ships to serve in World War II. By the end of the war, the Savage shipyard had produced twenty-two ships. In 1975, many of these were scrapped, but some eventually saw service overseas.