On May 11, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7037 to create the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a New Deal public relief program. The program provided $1 million for federal loans to bring electric service to rural areas. It revolutionized life in rural Minnesota and across the country.

Elmer George Uggen was a musician, composer, conductor, educator, and music store owner who entertained American troops abroad during World War I with his score for the play “War is Hell.” He left a mark in Northwest Minnesota with the original words and music for “Crookstonian,” a march used as the official anthem of Crookston.

Minneapolis historically has been home to a small but vibrant African American population. From the 1930s to the 1970s, an African American neighborhood flourished on the city’s Southside, between East Thirty-Fourth and Forty-Sixth Streets and from Nicollet Avenue to Chicago Avenue.

In 1941, Minneapolis leftists from the Socialist Workers Party and Teamsters union local 544 were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government under the Alien Registration Act. Twenty-eight were indicted; eighteen were convicted and sentenced to prison.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is located in the northern third of Superior National Forest. It is the most heavily used wilderness in the country, with about 250,000 visitors annually.

St. Catherine’s University is a prestigious women’s university in St. Paul. Since opening in 1905, it has grown to include a student body of over 5,000, graduate programs, a Minneapolis campus, and an extensive physical plant. The school’s inclusive atmosphere and diverse curriculum have made it one of the premier institutions of higher education in the United States.

Glensheen, a mansion and grounds completed in 1908 on the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, was built by Chester and Clara Congdon. It is famous for its beauty inside and out, and as the site of one of Minnesota’s most notorious murders.

Since 1890, the tall brownstone building at the corner of Fifth and Wabasha has been a symbol of resilience in a changing world. Only ten years after building it, the Germania Bank was forced to liquidate. Renamed the Ernst Building, then the Pittsburgh Building, it finally became the St. Paul Building in 1934.

Swan Turnblad was a prominent Swedish Minnesotan and the manager, editor, and publisher of Svenska Amerikanska Posten, a Swedish American newspaper. He donated his family home and the newspaper to the newly founded American Institute of Swedish Arts, Literature and Science (later renamed the American Swedish Institute) near the end of his life.

Founded in 1924, the Phyllis Wheatley House was the first settlement house to serve the social service needs of African Americans in Minneapolis. In the 1930s, it became a center of African American life at a time when racial segregation divided the city.