In September of 1868, a mere 13 years after Northfield was founded by John W. North, the young town decided to put on an

“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

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

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

Well, yes, we do have the smell of Malt-O-Meal wafting through our town on a regular basis. But for a “whiff” which says we

Way back in the historic mid-1960s, when I was attending St. Olaf, my friends and I would head down to Sayles-Hill Gym at Carleton

When I heard that Paul Niemisto was retiring this year, I have to admit I could not believe it. Would this month’s 10th anniversary

The March Madness of the high school and college basketball championships is now behind us, but it was April Madness at Sayles-Hill Gymnasium in

“Speaker Ushers in Black History Month.” So read the headline of The Carletonian of Feb. 12, 1999. A picture with the story shows Barack Obama at

“The overture is about to start. You cross your fingers and hold your heart. It’s curtain time and away we go. Another opening of

Question: Who Are Northfield’s Quiz Show Aces? This year the Academy Award for Best Picture went to “Slumdog Millionaire,” the story of a teen

Plans were made in December of 1855 for the family of John North to move south from St. Anthony to the Cannon River where

Although individual instruction in art was present from the early years of Carleton (which was founded in 1866), there was no art department until

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

No, I am not writing about the Northfield Cannon Valley Lions Club. Nor am I writing about the St. Olaf Lion, logo of the

The year 2016 marks the 125th anniversary of St. Olaf College’s first music organization, a group once led by F. Melius Christiansen. No, it

“Rising Waters Cause Concern” was the headline. “Recent heavy rains have pushed Cannon River levels to a near-critical stage.” Northfielders turned up in droves

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

For 20 years the Lockwood Opera House on Division Street had been the primary place where early Northfielders gathered for entertainment. But by 1892

  Margaret Evans served Carleton College from 1874 to 1908. A friend described her as being a “tall, slender, dark-eyed woman whose keen eyes

The headline of the Northfield News ran across the top of the entire front page on Oct. 30, 1936: “New Postoffice Building Completed.” There were

The opening game of the 1965-66 basketball season of the Northfield High School Raiders was to be played on the court of a new

As I drove into the driveway of the hilltop home of Bryan Moon outside of Cannon Falls, I saw the first whimsical touch of

Those of you who have been amazed at the magnificence (and length) of the Defeat of Jesse James Days parades will no doubt be

“Robbery & Murder!” screamed the headline of the Rice County Journal of Sept. 7, 1876. “Desperate Attempt to Rob the Bank! J.L. Heywood Shot Dead at

Gary Rue was in his 9th grade algebra class in Tracy, Minnesota, in September of 1964 and the fellow sitting behind him was beating

Originally Published in the June 2014 Entertainment Guide The late Dan Freeman (known as “Mr. Northfield”) had treasured memories from the times Doc Evans