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.

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.

Anton Gág, the father of Wanda Gág, carved out a career as a painter of portraits, landscapes, and historical subjects. He also decorated homes, ran a photography studio, and designed murals for churches and other buildings. The Minnesota State Capitol displayed his most famous painting, “The Attack on New Ulm during the Sioux Outbreak, Aug. 19-23, 1862,” from 1923 to 2014.

In 1879, lumber baron T. B. Walker invited the public into his downtown Minneapolis home to view his art collection. Over the next century, that collection evolved into the Walker Art Center, a world-renowned site for challenging work by innovative artists, including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Yoko Ono, and Kara Walker.

For most of its history, nursing was an unregulated profession. To raise both their reputation and their standard of care, Minnesota nurses during the Progressive Era founded local and statewide nursing associations. Using these to create community among members, influence training schools, and engage in legislative advocacy, these nurses transformed what had been a mixture of skilled and unskilled work into a full, licensed profession.

Over his long career, the architect Charles A. Hausler had a major impact on the built environment of St. Paul. As the first person to hold the office of city architect, he designed many public buildings, including the three branch libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie. He also designed churches, commercial buildings, and homes in a variety of styles, including Classical Revival, Prairie School, and Art Deco.

The only documented hanging held in Clay County occurred on September 20, 1889, when Thomas Brown was hanged for the murder of Moorhead Patrolman Peter Poull. Newspapers across the country reported on the sensational event; the Los Angeles Herald called it “a quiet execution.”

South Dakota Hutterite families with roots in the Anabaptist Reformation of the sixteenth-century moved to Cottonwood County in 1994. There, they established the Neuhof Hutterian Brethren Colony and the Elmendorf Hutterian Brethren Colony south of Mountain Lake, Minnesota.

The Norwegians who made their homes along the Buffalo River in 1870 were among the first European settler-colonists to live in Clay County. The timing of their arrival, before the land had been surveyed, helped to draw other immigrants to the area.

Finished in the mid-1860s after years of logistical and financial challenges, the LeDuc Historic Estate in Hastings is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style. It is also one of the few surviving homes designed by influential architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing.