The founders of the United States—anxious about the fragile republican experiment they’d embarked on—knew that the nation needed an educated citizenry. They did not know, however, how to get there. The American decision to educate its citizens at public expense was an idea as radical as the revolution itself. The story of public education in Minnesota, then, tells about the aspiration, invention, and development of a great national idea into a state-wide practice and about women’s key role in carrying out that great idea.

The Woodbury House is the second-oldest extant house in the city of Anoka. It served as a home to several families from the time of its construction until the mid-2000s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. In 2020, it is owned by the City of Anoka and leased to the Mad Hatter Tea Room restaurant.

For untold generations, Indigenous people traversed North America’s interlocking waterways by canoe. When moving between drainage systems, it was necessary for them to bridge the high ground that kept the waters separated. This meant carrying, or “portaging,” canoes and belongings between watersheds. One of the most important portage routes in Minnesota, known today as the Northwest Trail, connected the Mississippi River to Lake Superior.

The Gunflint Trail is a nationally designated scenic byway, also known as Cook County Road Twelve. It starts in Grand Marais and runs fifty-seven miles northwest to Trail’s End Campground near Saganaga Lake on the border with Canada. The trail, which cuts through parts of the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is a popular destination for fishing, camping, canoeing, hiking, and other outdoor recreation.

A Gothic Revival-style house built in 1867 at 1625 Third Avenue in Anoka served as a residence for four generations of the Heman Ticknor family. In 1996, the home began to operate as a bed and breakfast.

Built in 1854, the Shaw-Hammons House has also been known as the DeGraff–Follrath House. As of 2020, it is the oldest extant residential structure in the city of Anoka.

An early settler-colonist in Wheeling Township (Rice County), Norwegian immigrant Halvor Quie is often remembered as a member of the Second Company of Minnesota Sharpshooters during the Civil War. He was instrumental in local religious and educational affairs and offered lasting support to St. Olaf College.

Albert Henry Woolson had outlived over two million Civil War Union Army comrades when he died in Duluth on August 2, 1956, at the age of 106. At his death, he was recognized as the last surviving Union Army veteran. Civil War historians, however, now recognize him as the last survivor of both the Union and Confederate armies.

Over a quarter of a million Swedes came to Minnesota between 1850 and 1930, drawn primarily by economic opportunities not available to them at home. Once Swedish immigrant settlements were established in the state, they acted as magnets, creating migration chains that drew others. Attracted at first to rural areas by agricultural opportunities, Swedes eventually chose to move to cities as well. In the twenty-first century, Minnesota’s Swedish Americans continue to honor their ethnic roots through family traditions, public festivities, and education.

Minnesota's early woman suffragists endured many setbacks in their fight for the vote. Perhaps none was as disappointing as Governor Horace Austin's veto of the 1870 female suffrage bill—the first to pass both the House and Senate. His controversial decision appeared to defy the state constitution.