Mabel Simis Ulrich was a public health educator, physician, author, and public figure whose pioneering work in sex education propelled her onto multiple public health commissions in Minneapolis. She contributed to the cultural scene in Minneapolis through a bookstore that she owned, and headed the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) in Minnesota under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.

Washburn A Mill was one of twenty-six Minneapolis flour mills that lined the Mississippi River below St. Anthony Falls during the city’s industrial heyday. By the early 1900s, its company (Washburn-Crosby) was the leading flour miller in Minnesota. The historic building has had five reincarnations in its more than 150 years: an original mill (1874–1878); a rebuilt second mill (1880–1924); a renovated mill (1924–1965); a warehouse (1965–1990); and a museum operated by the Minnesota Historical Society (2003–present).

In November 1998 Jesse Ventura, a former professional wrestler and sometime movie actor, was elected governor of Minnesota after defeating the much better-known and better-financed candidates of the two traditional major parties. He won with the lowest plurality of any Minnesota governor, 37 percent of the vote, on the ticket of the Reform Party, a tiny organization with no track record of victory. His single term was one of controversy, and media reports focused more on his pursuits of money and celebrity than on his policies, which were mostly mainstream.

In the early 1970s, women across Minnesota calling a legal information telephone line told staffers that they were experiencing physical abuse from their partners. In response, a group of St. Paul women formed Women’s Advocates to connect these callers with emergency housing and information. In 1974, the group purchased a St. Paul house and transformed it into a groundbreaking shelter for victim-survivors of domestic violence. In the following decades, Women’s Advocates expanded the shelter, initiated education programs, and advocated for policy changes—all with the goal of breaking the cycle of domestic violence.

About 13,000 years ago the melting glaciers that covered Minnesota and Canada created a vast lake, bigger than all the Great Lakes of today combined. Geologists later named this Lake Agassiz (AH-ga-see), for the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz. The lake drained twice: first to the south, to form the channel of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi in the Twin Cities, and then, 1,600 years later, to form the course of the Red River of the North.

The Civic Caucus is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization that serves as a forum for citizens to learn, analyze, and debate critical public issues in Minnesota. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Minneapolis, the caucus has conducted nearly 600 interviews with civic and business leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, elected officials, researchers, academics, and other thought leaders from Minnesota and around the United States to glean their expert knowledge on policy challenges.

Frontenac State Park stretches over 2,600 acres along the widening of the Mississippi River known as Lake Pepin. The park is located in Goodhue County on the Mississippi Flyway, one of four major migratory bird routes in North America. With more than 260 bird species recorded within its boundaries, the park is a prime destination for Minnesota birders.