Between 1915 and 1953 over 950 Ramsey County youth, most between the ages of four and fourteen, resided at the Children’s Preventorium of Ramsey County, in Shoreview. A handful stayed for a day or two; hundreds lived there for years. As its name suggests, the purpose of the Preventorium was to prevent disease—in this case, tuberculosis. It was the only such institution to function in Minnesota.

For more than a century, the routes now known as US Highway 61 and Minnesota State Highway 61 have captured the imagination of Minnesotans looking for views of rushing rivers and cascading waterfalls. Although the road has been renamed, reconfigured, and interrupted multiple times, it continues to serve as a vital transportation channel along the state’s eastern corridor.

Motivated by his desire for a reliable cafeteria breakfast at the Stillwater, Minnesota, factory where he worked, Charles P. Strite designed an innovative pop-up bread toaster in 1919. After Strite modified his commercial-grade model for home use, the Toastmaster quickly made its way into kitchens nationwide.

Charles Fremont Dight grew up believing in the power of medicine to ascertain and correct natural or social problems. After a series of disappointments in politics in the 1910s, he turned to the burgeoning field of eugenics in the 1920s to realize his dream of a centrally planned economy and population.

The rustic cabin Jun Fujita built on an island in Rainy Lake in the late 1920s is a rare surviving artifact of the opening of northeastern Minnesota to tourism and recreation. The remarkable personal history of Fujita, one of the first prominent Japanese Americans in the Midwest, adds to its historical interest. The cabin was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

The Highland Park Water Tower, in the St. Paul neighborhood of the same name, was designed by St. Paul City Architect Clarence “Cap” Wigington, the nation’s first Black city architect. As a Highland Park neighborhood icon, the tower represents City Beautiful ideals through its Mediterranean Revival style. Its contributions to American architectural and engineering history allowed it to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

One of Minnesota’s most popular nature areas, Gooseberry Falls was the first of eight state parks developed along Lake Superior’s North Shore. Nearly all of its buildings were constructed by employees of the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1934 and 1941. The collection of stone and log structures presents a distinctively North Shore interpretation of the National Park Service’s Rustic Style of architecture, complementing the park’s river, waterfalls, woodlands, and lakeshore.

Wards 1 and 3 in Northeast Minneapolis have been the center of the Twin Cities’ Ukrainian community since the late nineteenth century. Vibrant and long-lasting cultural institutions—including churches, Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company, and the Ukrainian American Community Center—have made Ukrainians in Northeast one of the city's most visible groups of European immigrants, in spite of their relatively small population.

In 1891, George Hormel established a pork packinghouse, Geo. A. Hormel and Company, in Austin, Minnesota. As a small independent meat packer in an industry dominated by corporate giants, Hormel devised a successful business strategy that emphasized quality over quantity and innovation over imitation. By the early twentieth century, his company had become one of the largest independent meatpackers in the Midwest.

More than 1,000 left-wing protesters gathered at the Minnesota Capitol. on April 4, 1937, to support Governor Elmer Benson as he tried to persuade the legislature to pass a $17 million aid package for the unemployed. About 200 of the protesters stayed overnight in the senate chamber after someone jimmied open the doors with a knife, and two organizers were later convicted of the gross misdemeanor of preventing senators from assembling.