Hudson, Wis. — Organizations, businesses and individuals interested in the possibility of designating the St. Croix River region a National Heritage Area are encouraged to attend the Heritage Initiative’s Heritage Summit in Taylors Falls on May 16. Two meetings with identical agendas will present concepts for a Heritage Area here, and seek input about moving forward with the idea.

The Heritage Summit will conclude discussions begun at several public meetings held last winter and which continued through fall 2012. Attendees will hear a proposed statement of significance for the region, interpretive themes, conceptual boundaries, and proposed strategies to implement a Heritage Area and make it effective. Attendees will also be asked to weigh in on whether to pursue Congressional designation or another alternative to help the region prosper and celebrate and preserve its heritage.

“We urge everyone who has participated in The Heritage Initiative over the past couple years to attend the Summit,” says Jill Shannon, of the St. Croix Valley Foundation. “This event is a milestone at which we’ll discuss concepts produced by the tremendous input we’ve received at previous meetings.”

Since 2011, a task force of community members from throughout the 8,000 square mile St. Croix watershed has been researching National Heritage Areas and engaging the public in discussions about the idea. Previous steps have included several community briefings, 10 Heritage Discovery Workshops, and four Regional Gatherings.

“Based on what we’ve heard, a National Heritage Area can improve how we work together in our region to promote historical, cultural and natural resources, and help us share our unique stories with people from all over the country and the world,” said Marty Harding, chair of the Heritage Initiative Task Force. “This could also help us better understand our own region, and strengthen the pride we all feel living in such a special part of the country.”

National Heritage Areas are community based, voluntary entities recognized by Congress and managed locally. They seek to enhance collaboration across traditional boundaries (like states, counties and cities) and promote and share special places that tell an important part of  America’s story. By law, National Heritage Areas do not involve property or land use regulation. Forty-nine NHAs exist elsewhere in the United States, though none are currently established in either Minnesota or Wisconsin.

“From where the St. Croix joins the Mississippi near the Twin Cities to towns like Sandstone, Hinckley, Solon Springs and Hayward, this is a unique region, tied together by our rivers and our shared stories,” said task force member Scott Peterson, of Gordon, Wis. “A Heritage Area could pull us closer together to achieve shared goals.”

Heritage Summit Details:

Thursday, May 16
1 to 3 p.m. or 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. (Both meetings will have the same agenda.)
A special orientation for those who are new to the NHA concept will be held at 12:30 and 6 p.m.
Taylors Falls Memorial Community Center
312 Government Street, Taylors Falls, MN

Other activities to celebrate our region’s heritage are also planned around the summit. Attendees are invited to take a lunchtime boat ride on the St. Croix with Taylors Falls Scenic Boat Tours. A Heritage Fair will also be presented at the Community Center between the two meetings, featuring exhibitors who provide goods, services or activities related to the natural and cultural heritage of our region.

Attendees are asked to register by May 10 athttp://www.stcroixheritage.org/summit. Questions can be directed to Jill Shannon at the St. Croix Valley Foundation, at 715.386.9490. More information is also available at http://www.stcroixheritage.org/summit.

“Of The Student, By The Student, For The Student” service learning at Journey Through Hallowed Ground

Many of us in Minnesota and Wisconsin had not heard of a “National Heritage Area” before the Heritage Initiative got underway. There are currently no NHAs in either state.

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a good example from elsewhere in the country. This 180-mile long, 75-mile wide area stretches from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.

With the slogan, “Where America Happened,” the Hallowed Ground NHA contains nine Presidential homes and sites, Native American sites, hundreds of Civil War battlefields, 18 National and State Parks, and many other historic towns, recreation areas, and cultural sites.

Heritage without boundaries

Operated by a nonprofit partnership of local, county ad state governments, local nonprofits, businesses and other groups, and supported by the National Park Service, the NHA shares the long and important history of the region.

While the Journey Through Hallowed Ground contains nationally significant and well-established sites, like Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello and Antietam National Battfield, the NHA adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts. It promotes tourism to the region as a whole, offering resources for visit planning, including an easy-to-use database of notable sites and a free map mailed to anyone who wants it.

Heritage mall?

One way of thinking about an NHA like this might seem a little counterintuitive. Consider the Mall of America in Minnesota, which people visit from around the world. Tourists would not likely fly here for just one or two stores, but will visit if they know there are a multitude of destinations organized in one mall.

A NHA is usually more spread out than a shopping mall, and typically focuses on making the most of existing resources rather than building anything new, but the idea is the same: bring dispersed sites under the same figurative roof, and the people will come. It might also be compared to a chamber of commerce or tourism bureau for a region.

In the Hallowed Ground NHA, visitors might come for a Civil War battlefield and want to visit another, or find a hiking trail. The same principle could work in the St. Croix region, with tourists arriving to visit one museum and lengthening their stay to fish one of our rivers, or take a scenic drive to a town with a gallery of local artists.

It’s not just about tourists, though. It’s also about strengthening connections between people and where they live. Organizations, local governments, and residents can work together to better understand just how special this place is that we call home.

Youth education

The Hallowed Ground partnership also helps connect local students to the history of their home landscape. The partnership’s Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student service-learning program not only teaches kids important American history, it also engages them in stewardship and interpretation of the area.

The Extreme Journey Camps lets kids learn about leadership and history while having fun in the great outdoors. Students ”literally canoe, bike and walk in the footsteps of the great leaders from this region that came before them.”

Check out the Journey Through Hallowed Ground’s website for more education and inspiration about what a National Heritage Area can be: http://www.hallowedground.org/

Please join us May 16th to help make important decisions about a potential National Heritage Area in the St. Croix and Namekagon Rivers region and celebrate a big milestone in the Heritage Initiative’s region-wide public engagement effort.

The Heritage Initiative needs your input on specific ideas about what a Heritage Area could look like here, and whether or not to seek Congressional designation.

At this meeting, you will hear proposals which have been informed by the community briefings, Heritage Discovery Workshops, and Regional Gatherings. You’ll learn about the overarching statement of significance, interpretive themes, conceptual boundaries, and proposed strategies.

Attendees will be asked to weigh in on whether to pursue National Heritage Area designation or another alternative to help our region prosper and celebrate and preserve our heritage.

Additional activities:

There will also be a lunchtime boat ride on the river, a Heritage Fair featuring more than 20 exhibitors, and historic and cultural sites you can visit in Taylors Falls and St. Croix Falls before and after the meetings. Click here for more information.

Details:

Please attend one of two meetings on Thursday, May 16:
1 to 3 p.m. or 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Both meetings will have the same agenda.

Taylors Falls Memorial Community Center
312 Government Street, Taylors Falls, MN [MAP]

Please R.S.V.P. by Friday, May 10.

Register:

Gammelgården Museum announces the addition of a new level of Swedish Language Class added to current class list. We now offer 3 levels of Swedish Language instruction at the museum. All 3 classes are held on Monday evenings during the spring and fall in Gammelgården’s beautiful upstairs classroom called the Passage Room.

• 6:30: Progressing Swedish Class for those who would like to improve, practice and perfect their Swedish and can converse in basic Swedish.
• 7:30: Beginning Swedish Class for those who have no idea what the “å” sounds like but would like to greet the hundreds of Swedish visitors who come to our valley each year.
• 5:30: Intermediate Swedish Class is new for 2013 and is for those who have taken Beginning Swedish so have a general knowledge of the unique pronunciations and would like to work toward conversational Swedish.

Signe Fluegel-Svensson

Signe Fluegel-Svensson returns as the instructor for these classes and has taught our Swedish Language classes at Gammelgården Museum for 5 years. She has a master’s degree in education and has been actively involved in SVEA, the ASI, Concordia College Swedish Language Camp.

Cost for these classes is only $50.00 for the spring session and $80.00 for the fall session.

For information and registration, please call the museum 651-433-5053 or email: museum@gammelgardenmuseum.org.

• Spring Session: Mondays, April 15 to May 20
• Fall Session: Mondays, September 16 to November 11

The story of logging in the St. Croix River region is closely connected to its European immigrant heritage. A cross-border collaboration between Minnesotan Brian Miller and Wisconsin-native Randy Gova is bringing that history to life through music.

Twin Cities Public Television series Minnesota Original recently featured the duo, who perform under the name Evergreen Trad, playing on the banks of the St. Croix River at Arcola Mills, just north of Stillwater.

In the first clip below, the musicians explain how logs were floated down the St. Croix from rivers upstream, including the Clam and Yellow Rivers on the Wisconsin side, and that a mill was once located at the Arcola Mills site. (Related: Arcola Mills will be open to the public for six months in 2013, starting in May.)

The songs they play were of the sort lumberjacks would play in the bunkhouses at night for a little entertainment amidst their labors in the woods.

About Evergreen Trad

Via their website:

In the early 1800s a distinct repertoire of songs and dance tunes developed in the pine woods of New England and Atlantic Canada where Irish immigrants supplemented summer work on farms and sailing ships with winters in logging camps. The men sang and played fiddles to pass the evening hours in the cramped (but warm) bunkhouses each winter and their songs and tunes borrowed heavily from the music they had carried over from Ireland. This evolving tradition moved slowly west across the Great Lakes as the industry cut its way west. Musical lumberjacks born into tight-knit communities in New Brunswick, Maine, New York State, Quebec and Ontario followed their jobs to the rivers and snowy forests of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Some of their songs were direct imports from Ireland or Scotland while others used the old song forms to tell tales of the hard life working up north. These men were as likely to sing about the dangers of fighting Napoleon with the English army as they were to sing about the mosquitoes on the St. Croix River. They played French-Canadian fiddle tunes and Irish jigs while men step danced on the bunkhouse floor or, sometimes, on the dining hall table tops!

There are also a bunch of humorous dioramas featuring stuffed animals in elaborate scenes. It’s quirky enough that it has been written up on the website Roadside America, which notes an appreciation for “the attention to detail that only come from long, long winters.” The dioramas have even gained global recognition:

The lady behind the bar pulls us aside. “We made Trivial Pursuit,” she announces, pulling out a card whose lettering has been worn away from years of similar showcasing. To our surprise, the question is not about Cal Johnson’s muskie, but about Seven Come ‘Leven: “What Great Lakes’ State Moccasin Bar in Hayward claims its stuffed animal diorama features the world’s only yodeling chipmunks?”

Hayward author and blogger Amber L. Carter recently shared some photos made by her friend Jen Paulson, using popular photo-sharing app Instagram. Instagram lets users give their photos a vintage look using a variety of filters.

Instagram’s retro filters seem perfectly suited to the Moccasin Bar’s old-school charm, and are a great way of merging the old-school and the modern (kind of like the Fat Bike Birkie which took place in Hayward earlier this month).

Here are a few of Paulson’s photos. Visit Amber’s website Girl From the Northwoods to see the rest.

Author and historian Bruce White – who recently helped the Heritage Initiative by participating in a meeting of Subject Matter Experts – was in the paper for a presentation he gave in St. Croix Falls. Writer Denise Martin wrote in the Chisago County Press that White talked about how the county was not clearly in either Ojbwe or Dakota control when Europeans started drawing maps:

The map that accompanies the Treaty of 1825 shows a diagonal line across central Minnesota at about St. Cloud…following an angle southeast below Cambridge, past the lower corner of Chisago County, stopping at the St. Croix River north of Stillwater.

This line was the recognized boundary between Dakota and Ojibwe peoples and, on paper anyway, it meant that Chisago County was Ojibwe land. But as dedicated researchers and historians delve into more detail, stretching their frame of reference it is becoming accepted that Chisago County wasn’t so much considered a defined area as it was a melting pot.

…

Chisago County as we know it now was a crossover land appreciated by tribal units that came for hunting and commerce, eventually inter-marrying blurring the lines and resulting in new alliances and connections between cultures and later, between races.

Continue reading…

White has published books about Native American heritage in Minnesota, particularly the Dakota people. His most recent, Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota, was published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press last September. Its description captures some of the complexity White covers:

Much of the focus on the Dakota people in Minnesota rests on the tragic events of the 1862 U.S.–Dakota War and the resulting exile that sent the majority of the Dakota to prisons and reservations beyond the state’s boundaries. But the true depth of the devastation of removal cannot be understood without a closer examination of the history of the Dakota people and their deep cultural connection to the land that is Minnesota. Drawing on oral history interviews, archival work, and painstaking comparisons of Dakota, French, and English sources, Mni Sota Makoce tells the detailed history of the Dakota people in their traditional homelands for at least hundreds of years prior to exile.

Read more…

In a review of the book, the Star Tribune‘s Curt Brown tells of a Dakota legend about a warrior who turns into a fish, and ultimately retires into the water, “leaving the St. Croix River flowing around a sandbar much as it does today.”

In January the Heritage Initiative convened a group of Subject Matter Experts who know history, culture and heritage deeply. As external, objective scholars knowledgeable about the history of Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, they were able to help us see what stories are unique to our region, and the ways our region is woven into our country’s fabric.

To become a National Heritage Area, a region must be a nationally distinctive landscape that has had a substantial impact on the formation of our national story and that possesses clearly identifiable and important characteristics of national heritage value. This requirement is included in the guidelines for becoming a National Heritage Area:

“A National Heritage Area is a place designated by Congress where natural, cultural, historic and scenic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. These patterns make National Heritage Areas representative of the national experience through the physical features that remain and the traditions that have evolved in them. Continued use of National Heritage Areas by people whose traditions helped to shape the landscapes enhances their Significance.”                   

- National Heritage Area Feasibility Study Guidelines, NPS 2003

While our region is home to many local historians and historical societies who who know our history extremely well, the Feasibility Study process requires us to engage outside external evaluators, experts who can comment on the significance of our stories from a regional and national perspective, and help us identify the unique and most nationally-significant themes.

Most of the experts we consulted are historians by profession — there were five professors of history from four colleges and universities in attendance. Also present were a Senior Curator from the Minnesota Historical Society, an anthropologist, a geologist from the Minnesota Geological Society, and cultural interpreters from the National Park Service.

The general questions which were asked of the group were:

• Are the proposed themes correct for this region?
• Do any of the themes show our region made a significant contribution to our national heritage?
• What geographic boundaries make sense given these key themes and the resources to interpret them?

The discussion and outcomes of the meeting are essential for crafting an overarching statement of national significance and for refining and focusing the draft theme topics.  Both pieces will be will be presented and discussed at the Heritage Summit this spring.

Altogether, 210 people attended one of the Regional Gatherings. Each event included a brief overview of the Heritage Initiative, an  unveiling of four potential themes, and a good amount of time for participants to walk among four input stations – one for each theme — where they could offer their ideas about the themes, potential strategies for a successful Heritage Area, and existing resources in the region.

Click here for a brief overview summarizing the key activities of the Regional Gatherings, and outlining the next steps in the Heritage Initiative process.