150 ways to document 150 years of Minnesota

By Kim Ode, Star Tribune

Last update: October 12, 2007 - 3:23 PM

History is a stew of political nerve, pioneer spirit and pipe dreams, so no wonder Jesse Ventura's exhibit, with its trio of action figures, is grouped with railroad magnate James J. Hill and bedtime hero Paul Bunyan.

Likewise, the American Indian Movement, grasshopper plagues and the Kensington Runestone get their due in the Minnesota History Center's new exhibit for next year's sesquicentennial. These and 144 other notables make up "MN150," which opens Saturday to document 150 years of statehood, but also 150 years of changes that began here and whose impact cut a wide swath beyond the border.

"'Change' was the word we kept in mind," said Kate Roberts, who developed the exhibit from more than 2,700 nominations submitted by Minnesotans and winnowed by historians and educators.

"Surprise" might be what visitors experience. Sure, there's Betty Crocker, Garrison Keillor and August Wilson. SPAM and Hazelden, Southdale and Mayo. There's a Princess Kay in butter.

But there's also GPS.

Bradford Parkinson, a Breck School graduate, was a colonel in the Air Force in 1972 when he took existing concepts for a global positioning system "and just ran with it," said his sister, Brenda Parkinson Hauschild of Shorewood. Skeptics derided his project as "a pet rock," she said. His achievement led to his being inducted into NASA's Hall of Fame and awarded the Gold Medal from England's Royal Institute of Navigation by Prince Philip.

But this hotshot still was just her brother.

Insects leave their mark

Legacies endure in unexpected ways. Every summer from 1873 to 1877, Minnesota farmers fought "the irrepressible conflict" of grasshoppers that descended in clouds and ate even the fence posts. Looking at the pile of dried grasshoppers in the museum's exhibit, you can almost hear the rattle of barren cornstalks.

The grasshoppers' impact outlived their appetite as farm-relief programs were developed that still exist today. Drifts of grasshopper poison, some laced with strychnine, were bulldozed into pits, creating hazardous waste sites.

Some of the history makes you smile. There are Tonka trucks (since 1947) and the front of a Greyhound bus (the company started in Hibbing in 1914). There are posters of athletes Verne Gagne and Bronko Nagurski, and videos of Dan Patch, the champion harness horse; the 1980 Olympic hockey team, and "A Prairie Home Companion."

Some of the history is sobering. The lynchings of three black men by a mob in Duluth, Dakota Indians held prisoners of war at Fort Snelling, and the Center for Victims of Torture each have a place in the exhibit.

Prince reigns supreme

Prince was the most frequently nominated, with most noting how he inspired the Minneapolis Sound. Among the submissions, the most persuasive was Jenn Mattson's.

"'Purple Rain' was the first movie I had to sneak into because it was R-rated," said Mattson, 35, of Moorhead, who has never actually seen the performer. "My mom wouldn't let me see him because he was naughty."

The youngest nominator was Keanndra Auld, 10, of Brooklyn Center. A student at Odyssey Charter School, she wrote about how the charter school movement began in Minnesota; today there are charter schools in 40 states serving more than 1 million students. Her nomination was a shadow box filled with projects she's made over the years, such as a diorama and musical chimes re-done in miniature.

Keanndra's mother, Shelly Auld, said her daughter's role in the exhibit, which is in place until 2012, has the girl feeling slightly overwhelmed. "But this is what her teacher's been telling her -- that kids can have an impact on history."

Kim Ode • 612-673-7185

Kim Ode • kimode@startribune.com

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