Minnesota History Magazine Summer 2024 (69.2)

Departments

Editor’s Note
Pam McClanahan

Curator’s Choice
Sherri Gebert Fuller
A Witness to Culture

EyeWitness
Aimée M. Bissonette
A Blessing in Disguise

LandMark
Marsha Neff and Greg Gaut
Winona Lake Park Bandshell, Winona County

Book Review
Kim Heikkila
Popularizing the Past: Historians, Publishers, and Readers in Postwar America by Nick Witham

Take Three, News & Notes, Looking Back

Preserving > Sharing > Connecting
Stephanie Fehr, Lifelong Learner

Articles

The Lost History of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby
Frank Bures

Frank Bures shares the exciting story of the Paul Bunyan Aquatennial Canoe Derby, a race that linked the older, nonmotorized world with a newer mechanized one, playing a major role in launching the canoe-racing boom of the late twentieth century. The derby linked Indian country with white America, and showcased Ojibwe canoe-building knowledge as the kind of technology transfer that fuels major leaps forward.

Ann Regan Leaves Her Mark on History
Allison Ortiz

As Ann Regan prepares to retire from the MNHS Press after 45 years of service to history and Minnesota letters, Allison Ortiz shares stories of the editor in chief, whose work includes acquiring and editing over 400 books, and highlights Regan’s exceptional dedication and outstanding work in fostering books, reading, and literary activity in Minnesota.

Drs. Walter Reed and Louis Wilson: A Minnesota Partnership
Richard N. Danila

Dr. Walter Reed, for whom the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is named, was best known as the leading researcher to discover that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes. Dr. Louis Blanchard Wilson became the first director of both the Mayo Clinic Laboratory and the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Author Richard N. Danila outlines the friendship between Dr. Reed and Dr. Wilson that shaped their productive lives.

The Americanization of Bjorn Winger: A Norwegian American, World War I Poet from Minnesota
Rob Hardy

As the son of Norwegian immigrants, Bjorn Winger grew up thinking of himself as a “damned hybrid American,” and longed for an opportunity to prove that he was as all-American as the descendants of those who came over on the Mayflower. That opportunity came in 1917, when the United States entered World War I. Rob Hardy writes of Winger’s wartime experience and his self-identity as an American, and the creation of his poetry that sprang forth from both.