When Brian Sostek and Megan McClellan won the Ivey Award, which recognizes accomplishments of Twin Cities’ professional theaters and artists, on Sept. 21, 2015,

“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

From February 2007 to December 2016, I wrote 119 “Historic Happenings” columns for The Entertainment Guide. What have I been doing since my last column?

“We were built and now stand on the shoulders of Giants.” This was the shared sentiment of the St. Olaf College Department of Art

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

L.K. (Larry) Hanson, creator of a popular St. Olaf comic strip in the ’60s and long-time StarTribune illustrator and writer, came to Northfield recently to talk

“Until Dec. 7, 1941, I thought I was a normal boy, a normal American. All of a sudden I was dirty. All of a

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

Northfield, a temperance town? Well, sort of… “No intoxicating drinks shall be sold or in any manner furnished as a beverage on said premises.”

When I last wrote about Laura MacKenzie for our annual music issue of June 2013, I said, “You cannot be much more of a

Dad, why doesn’t Carleton play metric football?” That question, from Carleton chemistry professor Jerry Mohrig’s teenage son David, sparked a very special and unique

“What most typifies spring?” asked a writer in the Carletonian paper on April 6, 1965. “Is it the girls seductively sunning themselves on Myers Hill? Is

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

“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

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

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

In July of 2011 an open house was held at the Archer House River Inn to show off a $1.1 million renovation of the

Ah, May! In the early years of the last century, the sounds of music echoed from Manitou Heights down to Lyman Lakes as Northfielders

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

I never thought I would fall in love with a man named Hiram when I moved to Northfield in 2004. But I did. Just

Law books or piano? There was not room for both when John and Ann North planned their move from New York to St. Anthony

“Masquerade Ball! Easter Monday, April 7, 1890, at the Opera House. Tickets $1, gallery 50¢ with the privilege of dancing after 11 o’clock. Everybody