Mike (“Doc”) Hildebrandt has a motto, taken from John Denver’s song Thank God, I’m a Country Boy. It is, “I fiddle when I can and

On March 24 the Northfield Historical Society will open an exhibit, “Through the Camera Lens: Early Northfield Photography.” The exhibit will feature enlarged photographs

Today’s Carleton College students know the names Fred B. and Deborah Sayles Hill. That is to say, they know the names Sayles and Hill

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

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

Northfield’s rich musical heritage can be traced back to Ann North, wife of Northfield’s founder, John North. When it came to a choice between

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

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

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

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

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

“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

Two years after the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote, Minnesotans had the chance to vote for the first woman ever to

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

No one that I knew when I attended St. Olaf in the 1960s brought sleds with them to college. They found there was no

Sayles-Hill Gymnasium, now used as Carleton’s Campus Center, was dedicated on Jan. 26, 1910. As the “March Madness” of the collegiate basketball season is

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

I have two David Allen paintings in my two-bedroom condo. Both are winter scenes showing Northfield’s Bridge Square from different angles. In one, the

Carleton College archivist Eric Hillemann has a colorful poster from the 1930s on his office wall which announces a lecture: “James B. Pond presents

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

Let’s get this out of the way from the start. You can’t pay me enough to watch the 40 or more mostly mediocre (and

You won’t find too many interviews with John S. Campbell, who founded a company to produce the cereal known as Malt-O-Meal in Owatonna in

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

“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