Minnesota History Magazine Fall 2025 (69.7)

Articles

Past Time at the Legislature: One Hundred Years of Molesting the Capitol Clocks, 1861–1961
Thomas Marshall Todd

Legislators are disparaged these days for fighting amongst themselves, ending sessions in a bit of a shambles with important matters unresolved. There is nothing new or surprising in this. In fact for 100 years, the Minnesota state legislature used to be worse. Drawing upon over a century of newspaper reports and many executive, judicial, and legislative documents, legislative expert Thomas Marshall Todd reveals the full story.

Meeting Success and Defeat with Dignity: Fifty Years of Girls’ High School Basketball and Swimming
Joel Rippel

March 2026 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first “official” Minnesota girls’ state basketball tournament, though the history spans 125 years. The fiftieth anniversary of the first official MSHSL-sponsored girls’ state swimming meet will be held in November 2025, but similar to basketball, the girls’ state swimming meet is more than a century old. Sports writer Joel Rippel outlines these histories.

MNHS Press Book Excerpt

The State Fair Wars
Drew M. Ross

The battles between the State Fairs of St. Paul and Minneapolis began in the early 1870s. The 1878 “Hayes Fair” was put on by St. Paul, but it was not the only fair that year. Minneapolis hosted its own fair. The two cities competed for the best features and the highest turnout. After 30 years of this rivalry, St. Paul, as the capital, showed its greater political influence, and in September 1885 the modern State Fair was born.

Departments

Editor’s Note
Pam McClanahan

Curator’s Choice
Thomas Saylor
Arne Carlson, Oral History Interview, 2015

EyeWitness
Leila Stallone, Ulysess Swanson, Luis Valderrama
Rising Moon: Lesbians Living off the Land in Central Minnesota

LandMark
Marsha Neff and Greg Gaut
Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Park, Clearwater County

Book Review
Erich Lippman
Sister City Diplomacy: Community Engagement in U.S.–Russian Relations from the Cold War to Today by Douglas C. Nord

Take Three/News & Notes/Letters

Highlighting MNopedia
Teferi Fufa
Oromos in Minnesota: The Making of Little Oromia

Preserving > Sharing > Connecting
The Johnson Family: Sharing the Reins