Bøger udgivet af MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOC PR

"Step right up! Blue ribbons, daring rides, strutting animals, foods-on-a-stick--all this and more await at the annual reunion--the greatest of get-togethers: the state fair"--

When children and nature come together at the right moment, something magical happens. Join Nora and her grandparents as they gaze skyward and wonder: Who else is having a star party, just like us? From a little cabin on the edge of the wilderness, Grandma and Grandpa invite Nora to her first Star Party. This mysterious celebration happens after dark. Nora wonders: Can I wear pajamas? Will there be snacks?>As Grandma leads the way on the forest trail, Nora discovers the wonders of the north woods at night. There are flying squirrels, calling loons, and hooting owls. But when Nora and Grandpa step onto the dock, she finds that the most dazzling sight of all is the night sky. Billions of stars glow above and are reflected in the lake below. Gazing up, up, up, Nora ponders the mysteries of starlight and stardust. And she thinks about how the night sky unites stargazers all over the world.>In Star Party, Polly Carlson-Voiles relates the simple joys of summer star-watching in a tale informed by years of camping and cabin adventures. Detailed illustrations by artist Consie Powell feature many night-loving animals of sky, forest, and lake, inviting readers to appreciate the vibrancy of the woods after dark. An author's note highlights nocturnal creatures, constellations, and tips for observing the night sky, encouraging readers to learn more about nearby stargazing opportunities--in dark sky sanctuaries where the deepest nights are filled with the brightest stars.>Come join the fun!

Stories from Minnesota's Iron Range highlight the challenges of competing needs on lands that offer opportunities for both mining and recreation. The Mesabi Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota conjures dramatic visuals of open pit mines and ore piles, enormous earthmoving equipment, and once-booming towns with aging architecture. But now many of these towns are busy with tourists. There are biking and ATV trails, forests and lakes. And yes, continued mining.>Over the decades, people have approached the iron lands with differing perspectives. Early miners opened the Mesabi Range to extract its ore, but key players also upheld conservation principles by setting aside lower-quality rock for use by later generations with better technology. Nature found its way into the cracks and crevices of these rock piles, and within fifty years, groves of aspen and other successional plants had transformed the red rock into vibrant green. As early as the 1950s, residents were repurposing minelands by building ski jumps and cultivating grouse-friendly habitat. These impulses were codified in the 1980 Mine Reclamation Rules, which specified how mining companies should care for the land both during and after extraction. In the early 2000s, the Laurentian Vision Project brought together landscape architects, engineers, and residents to dream up possibilities for the landscape--and then to make those dreams real by building bridges, creating wildlife sanctuaries, and opening former minelands for fishing and mountain biking.>In Minescapes, environmental engineer Pete Kero explores the record that is written on Minnesota's mined lands--and the value systems of each generation that created, touched, and lived among these landscapes. His narratives reveal ways in which the mining industry and Iron Range residents coexist and support each other today, just as they have for more than a century.

Hans Christian Heg (1829-1863) was a Norwegian American abolitionist, journalist, antislavery activist, prison reformer, politician, and soldier. Best known for leading the Fifteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment on the Union side during the Civil War, Heg died of wounds received at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. While Heg's achievements earned him a statue on the Wisconsin state capitol grounds, behind his public persona was a life emblematic of his generation. Heg's family hailed from Lier, Norway; economic as well as religious challenges led them, like so many others, to leave their homeland for the promise of a better life. Heg himself trod multiple paths: joining in the California Gold Rush, pursuing a political career in support of the Free Soil Party and then the newly formed Republican Party, and taking up the role of Wisconsin state prison commissioner. Like his fellow immigrants, he made a living and nurtured a family at the same time that he was defining what it meant to be both Norwegian and American. Heg's remarkable leadership of the Fifteenth Wisconsin, the "Norwegian regiment," is the stuff of legends. But this book is more than a biography of one man: it is the story of a generation of immigrant citizens who contributed politically, economically, and socially to the American Midwest and beyond.

A cisgender woman and her trans spouse learn, change, and grow together, navigating the transition, the communities they found, and the hostility they faced. "The person I married, who I am still married to and remain very much in love with, is now legally named Venus de Mars, and she uses she and her pronouns. But to get to that point was a journey of decades. At the time we didn't know where it would lead--we had no real role models and made it up as we went. Most of this story took place at a time when the kind of knowledge and terminology we now have about being trans didn't exist." --from the Author's Note>In the 1970s, Lynette Reini fell in love with a fascinating, talented man named Steve Grandell. They married in 1983; five years later, Steve came out to her as transgender. Through the following decades, as her spouse developed a public persona as Venus de Mars and fronted the band All the Pretty Horses, the couple struggled to stay together. They navigated an often hostile, anti-trans environment; fractures grew between them as Venus pushed the band toward success. Against the backdrop of the art, literary, and indie rock worlds of Minneapolis and New York in the 1990s and early 2000s, through hard work and love, they invented a way of being who they truly are.>In Wild Things, Lynette Reini-Grandell shares a deeply personal story of love and growth.

"Luna lives with her two grown-ups in a small home next to a river. She has "two pets, two pillows on her bed, and two languages in her head." Luna also has two grandmothers: Nana and Abuela. They are her two favorite people, and they are very different from each other. When her grown-ups are away, Nana and Abuela visit for a "date night" with Luna. Together they plan a delicious meal: pizza with olives. But when Luna adds something to the menu, she blends her Spanish and her English. Her request for this special treat confuses her grandmothers. They ask, "ÅLuna, qéu dijiste?" and "Luna, what are you saying?" As the three of them work together to understand each other, Abuela and Nana offer comfort, each in their own way, and Luna figures out how to make herself heard." --Provided by publisher.