After the devastating fire ravaged Northfield’s Archer House in Northfield last year on November 12-13, a television reporter asked me as a Northfield historian

It is not surprising that Susan Garwood, executive director of the Rice County Historical Society, expresses a fondness for history. But it turns out

I have occasionally been asked, “When will there be a book of your columns?” Now I have an answer: A book with the catchy

“Anyone who thinks Northfield is not a good show town should have seen the hundreds of people who could not get into the opera

No, I wasn’t there, but I can imagine “Thwack!” was the sound of ball hitting bat in 19th century “base ball” (two words) which

Need a suggestion for a stocking stuffer? Well, here it is: a compilation of kids’ letters to Santa from the Northfield News from 1902 to 1945. Dear

Originally Published in the March 2014 Entertainment Guide Here in Northfield, insomniacs hear the freight train horns late at night, while during the day

Carleton and St. Olaf have had a hot basketball rivalry since 1910 when  construction of Sayles-Hill Gym spurred annual clashes. They have battled for an

Just two months shy of being elected president of the United States, Ike Eisenhower gave the only college address of his campaign in Northfield.

When I moved to Northfield from New York in 2004 and took an interest in researching and writing about the history of the town

“It’s here!” This note, with a big smiley face drawn on it, was in my mailbox at St. Olaf late in the first term

The upset victory of tiny Appalachian State over mighty Michigan in football this season has reminded me of two David and Goliath-type games played

A clause inserted into every deed of land by Northfield’s founder John North was “No intoxicating drinks shall be sold or in any manner

You may remember Prince’s song, “Party Like It’s 1999,” which was popular as the new millennium approached. Well, Northfielders were in the mood to

It all started with an extraordinary invitation by Minnesota Twins’ owner Cal Griffith 45 years ago. Sid Freeman, owner of a Northfield men’s store

An almost palpable air of excitement has hung over the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault ever since July 20, opening night of

Next month I will have written 75 “Historic Happenings” for the Entertainment Guide, since February of 2007. So it seems appropriate to honor some of

Last month Carleton College published A Beacon So Bright: The Life of Laurence McKinley Gould, a long-awaited biography of Carleton’s fourth president by Carleton archivist

In 1856, only a year after the founding of Northfield, a Lyceum Association was established “to create a taste for literature and a thirst

With a menacing stare and a big ax, Smoke Shop proprietor Stanley “Tiny” Johnson stood beside two men locked into the “Jesse James Days

When Nancy Ringham (St. Olaf Class of 1977) and Sylvia Rhyne (Carleton Class of 1978) performed together in St. Paul’s Chimera Theater musical, “How

The last thing I expected during the Defeat of Jesse James Days in September of 2005 was to be singing karaoke with a descendant

Kenneth and Carolyn Jennings are my neighbors at Village on the Cannon. So, before they left for their winter sojourn in Arizona, it was