Every year about this time, the dreams of the Anoka County Historical Society Board of Directors turn to the closing of one year and the opening of another. An indication of this is planning for the annual meeting in March when new members of the board are installed.
Read MoreRailroad development in our county began in 1857 under very speculative conditions and involved federal and provincial subsidies. The high cost of construction and maintenance combined with a volatile market caused many bankruptcies, which resulted in James J. Hill taking advantage of the closures to create his empire.
Read MoreIn an oral history interview with ACHS in 2008, Denise DeMars shares her journey with the Columbia Heights Fire Department as their first female firefighter. She joined the fire department as a volunteer in 1978, became a full time firefighter in 1980 and navigated sexism in a male-dominated profession as well as the dangers of fighting fires. She retired as a deputy fire marshal for the state of Minnesota in 2012.
Content Note: this episode contains sensitive language we do not condone. About two thirds of the way through Denise Demars’ 2008 oral history interview she recounts a conversation in which the N-word was used in her presence in 1980. We have decided to leave this portion of the interview unedited, not to be insensitive, but instead to reflect how history must acknowledge the evolution of social mores and language. We invite you to think about Denise’s reaction to the power structure at the time, her reaction recounting the event 28 years later, as well as how you might handle the situation if you were in her place.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreErin Freitag, ACHS volunteer and Andover resident, started 2020 teaching English in Yeonggwang, Korea. She shares her decision to teach English abroad for six years, as well as what those early months of the year were like in a different country. In the first half of the year she also made an international move back to Minnesota, and her experienced the beginning of Covid again, this time in the United States.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreErin McBrien became the new ACHS Archivist at the end of 2020. She talks about job searching during a pandemic after graduation, what brought her to pursuing a masters degree in library and information science and her thoughts about being a custodian and advocate for Anoka County stories and history.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreSaying goodbye to exemplary staff as they move to other parts of their career journey never makes the top 10 list of things to do in a day. That said, the growth of staff members does make my top 10—my top five, even—and so here we are, searching for a new human to fill the position of curator/archivist at the Anoka County Historical Society
Read MoreWhen I’m in an archive, I feel like a kid in the candy store. I want to learn everything, explore everywhere and discover every single piece that might have been forgotten in the crush of the collection.
Read MoreLocal newspapers are a bedrock of historical research, but those documents are created and run by people in the community. Listen to an interview with Arch Pease, editor and owner of the Anoka Union from 1946 until 1989, as well as it's with it's descendants Managing Editor, Jonathan Young.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreSanta has had a second home here in Anoka County for over 100 years, and ACHS has the proof in our collection. Listen to the ways Santa has visited the County from farm life to Zoom visits with Steve Griffiths, the Executive Director of Impact Services.
Read MoreSelf-appointed family historian, Daryl Lawrence, shares the saga of discovering his great-grandmother’s hidden first marriage and divorce as well as finding a member of his family tree who was gay like him.
Read MoreUnderstanding that bridges provide a key link in our highway system is critical to a full historical perspective of our transportation system. By definition, a bridge is a link between two separate sections of road. Our earliest examples of this are logs placed diagonally across a break in the road/trail, like would have occurred along the Red River Ox Trail, which ran through Anoka County between St. Paul and Pembina in the mid-1800s.
Read MoreMinnesota is a state where people love to connect. Whether it’s over mini doughnuts and corn on the cob at “The Great Minnesota Get-Together” or a concert at the Orpheum, Minnesotans love to unite and commiserate over our state’s nasty habit of hurling winter snowstorms at us in April. These days, because of the coronavirus, instead of Minnesotans “getting together,” we are being told to stay away from each other.
Read MoreOAK PARK PLAZA: BLAINE’S FIRST SHOPPING CENTER
Other than Doberstein’s convenience store in the Johnsville area, shopping in Blaine was almost nonexistent before the 1960s. Residents did their shopping in Columbia Heights, Northeast Minneapolis and Anoka.
Read MoreMany of our conversations today reference articles printed in magazines, newspapers or online articles for evidence to support our intellectual positions. We look to the media to make sense of events we don’t witness ourselves and provide us with meaningful information. The debate over what portion of this material is biased, inaccurate or inflammatory for political gain continues to rage.
Read MoreLike many people in Anoka, Karen George has an orange tint to her blood and thrives on Halloween as a year-long holiday. Growing up in Anoka, she has many fond memories of the festival, including walking down Main Street in the Big Parade of Little People, painting Halloween scenes on business windows, marching with the Anoka High School Band in the Grande Day parade, and represented the city and festival as a Princess from 1979-80. Karen joined the Anoka Halloween Committee in 2006 and has served in many capacities during the ensuing years.
Read MoreAnoka County has quite a few names that have had their start in life here and went on to accomplish nationally important things. One of those humans is Edna Belle Bean. She literally left her calling card with us in Anoka. Now it’s time we reconnect and hear her story, what she’s been doing all these years.
Read MoreTake a look at what you’ll see at our first online fundraiser on Sept 19! Tickets available on eventbrite
Read MoreThe Anoka County Historical Society is helping Federal Premium/Vista Outdoor with their historical materials in part because the Anoka-based ammunition company will be reaching its 100th anniversary in 2022, marking a century since the Federal Cartridge Corporation, as led by Charles L. Horn, began its many decades of successful business. But that was not the first year that the ammunition company known as Federal came into being — for that, 1916 is the year we want.
Read MoreWith each pile of lemons found on our front steps, we also receive an invitation to mix up that magical pitcher of lemonade — as long as you can find some sugar. Otherwise you’ve just made yourself sour water. The Anoka County Historical Society hopes that the upcoming “Un-Wise Murder” digital event will use our pile of COVID-19 lemons wisely (cough, get it?) and create something memorable.
Read MoreWhat better memories than a warm kitchen belonging to a bustling grandmother holding a cookie sheet in her hand, filled with doughy blobs and melted chocolate? Or perhaps frying fish, fresh caught that afternoon and filleted by the skilled hands of a grandfather? Or those special holidays where a tattered cookbook or recipe card saw the light of day once more, only to receive another splash of oil or dash of flour over the handwriting ... but no matter, because the tradition had become so ingrained?
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