COVID-19 SELF-HISTORY INTERVIEW This project is inspired by our friends at the Douglas County Historical Society. Everyone’s experience matters. Your history matters. Help us record your history. With events being as momentous as they are in Minnesota, we’d like to offer a tool in the form of a Self-History Interview to help us […]
Author Archives: BCHS Director
BSU: The First Hundred
BSU Centennial The First 100 Years exhibit is in honor of Bemidji State University’s centennial year. Items on display in the exhibit include a World War II diary from former BSU President Charles Sattgast, a replica of BSU’s Alumni Arch, records from BSU’s music department and more.
‘Centennial’ Teacher with a passion for Teaching and Learning
Interview with Lillian Mathews, BSU graduate and Shevlin School teacher by Janet Kelly Moen The life-story of a woman that encompasses an entire century is by necessity one that reaches back not only into another time, but into another continent as well. The […]
Keeping the Northern Pacific Railroad Rolling: An interview with Lowell O’Brien, Bridge and Building Crewman
On February 16, 2016 I interviewed Lowell O’Brien in Bemidji. Lowell and his crew repaired or rebuilt most of the wooden piling-type train trestles along the Northern Pacific rail line between Bemidji and International Falls, as well as further south towards Brainerd. Lowell was raised by his parents, Guy R. and Blanche O’Brien, near Hines, […]
Beltrami County Sesquicentennial Quiz
Test your local history knowledge!
Sidetracked (Just the bear facts…Oh deer…)
By Darla Sathre (from The Depot Express newsletter, Fall 2015) While browsing through some Bemidji history publications, I (more than once) came across the famous 1897 photo that looks east on 3rd Street toward Lake Bemidji. Immediately one notices a bear cub and a fawn among the people. The Carson family owned two bears, one […]
On the Street Where You Live (Grand Forks Bay)
By Cecelia Wattles McKeig (from The Depot Express newsletter, Fall 2015) We seldom see a specific reference to Grand Forks Bay anymore, but from 1902 until 1940, there were frequent references to the popular vacation spot on Lake Bemidji, and Grand Forks Bay even had its own column in the Bemidji Pioneer and in the […]
Sidetracked (Visitors)
By Darla Sathre (from The Depot Express newsletter, Summer 2015) Although Bemidji gets visitors from far and near throughout the whole year, we really expect them in droves in the summertime. Bemidji has had numerous well-known visitors through the years, but this article is going to focus on two widowed First Ladies — Eleanor Roosevelt, […]
On the Street Where You Live (Lake Boulevard Indian Trail)
By Cecelia Wattles McKeig (from The Depot Express newsletter, Summer 2015) The historic Indian trail along Lake Bemidji’s west shore still exists, although perhaps it is not used to the extent it was in earlier years. The old trail has always been of great interest to local residents. It stretches along the lakeshore from Library […]
Sidetracked (Candy)
By Darla Sathre (from The Depot Express newsletter, Spring 2015) Valentine’s Day, with its surfeit of chocolate and other candy, is over. Soon will be Easter, along with more chocolate, as well as a variety of other indulgent sweets. I got to wondering about the availability of candy in the early days of Beltrami County. […]