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    MNopedia

    MNopedia — A resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events and things in Minnesota history.

    Vietnamese Community of Minnesota

    A nonprofit organization active since 1981

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    Vietnamese Community of Minnesota

    Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby

    A 450-mile race that took place on the Mississippi River between 1940 and 1960

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    Minnesota Lynx

    The women's basketball team that won four WNBA championship titles in six years.

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    Virginia and Rainy Lake Company

    The Minnesota firm that became the world's largest white pine lumber company overnight

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    A four-story sawmill with a green roof, red walls, and pairs of windows across the horizontal access. People are in the foreground.

    Fort Ridgely

    A US military base in Nicollet County that operated between 1853 and 1867

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    View of Fort Ridgey with stone foundation ruins in the foreground, a one-story building with two doors and six windows in the middleground next to a stone pillar, and a grey sky in the background.

    Ȟaȟá Wakpádaŋ (Bassett Creek)

    A waterway that flows through nine Minnesota cities

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    Creek with bright green foliage on either side and a blue sky with clouds above.

    Stewart, Jacob Henry (1829–1884)

    A doctor, mayor, congressman, and Civil War veteran

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    Peterson Bluebird Nest Box

    A conservation success story that started in Brooklyn Center

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    A field showing grass and trees in different shades of green. Three orange butterflies alight on stalks of flowers in the foreground.

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    A woman in a blue button-up shirt and cardigan walks through a hallway with lobbyists surrounding her and a cameraman at the left of the image.

    Election of Susan Allen to the Minnesota House of Representatives, 2012

    Creator: Tom Weber
    First Published: May 11, 2026
    In January of 2012, Susan Allen became the first Native American woman elected to serve in the Minnesota Legislature and the first openly queer/Two Spirit Native woman elected to any state ...
    Event
    1980–Present (US in a New Global Age)
    Native Americans
    Politics
    Women
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    Walleye

    Creator: Marjorie Savage
    First Published: April 22, 2026
    On the opening day of Minnesota’s fishing season in 1965, the Minnesota Legislature selected walleye as the state’s official fish. While walleyes are neither the state’s biggest fish nor ...
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    Environment
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    This Day in Minnesota History (May 12)

    1806

    James Shields is born in Ireland. He would be a US senator for three different states: Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri. After moving to Faribault in 1855, he would be one of the first two senators selected by the state's legislature, and while in office he would encourage Irish immigration to Minnesota. Shieldsville in Rice County is named for him. He died in 1879.

    1994

    A 400-pound silverback gorilla named Casey escapes his exhibit at the Como Zoo in St. Paul. He causes forty-five minutes of havoc before a zookeeper shoots him with a tranquilizer gun and returns him to his habitat.

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    History Near You

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