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

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?

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

If you filled in the blank with the word “Monkees,” this story will resonate through the soundtrack of your mind for days to come.

“We’ve already started three colleges and have the logs cut for four more.” An early 19th century letter from an Ohio settler to a

Since the 2016 election season is in full throttle, this seems like a good time to revisit a historic happening involving a presidential candidate

“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

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

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

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

Whan that April with his showres sooteThe droughte of March hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veine in swich licour,Of which vertu engendred

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

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

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

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

In the spring of 2015 the Northfield Historical Society and The Entertainment Guide teamed up to publish volumes 2 and 3 of selected Historic Happenings columns about St. Olaf and Carleton. (Volume

Riki Kölbl Nelson has been part of the local art scene since 1968 when she and her husband, Eric Nelson, moved to Northfield for

If you are a visitor to Northfield for this year’s Defeat of Jesse James Days, Sept. 9-13, you can perhaps be forgiven if you

“Old Bill” Schilling would have loved this August Historic Happenings column. That is because I am going to tell you a lot about his contributions to

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

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

On April 26, 2015, Betty White received a lifetime achievement award at the 42nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. The 93-year-old actress has a career

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

The Wanamingo Bulldogs and the Faribault Hot Shots have just completed a basketball scrimmage at the Faribault Community Center one cold Monday night in

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

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

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

This was the giant headline in the Northfield News on Nov. 9, 1895, with the subhead, “Northfield College Presidents, Professors, Doctors and Citizens Express Their Opinions

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

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

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

What memories do you have of the Tilt-A-Whirl? I think almost everyone has a memory of the first spinning, dipping, dizzying, dazzling ride on

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

Originally Published in the May 2014 Entertainment Guide “Do you remember your first bike?” This is the question KYMN radio’s Wayne Eddy likes to

Originally Published in the April 2014 Entertainment Guide Basket Ball. Yes, two separate words, so chosen because a janitor showed up with two peach

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

Originally Published in the February 2014 Entertainment Guide When I spent my freshman year at St. Olaf in Hilleboe Hall, which was perched on

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

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

If you are living in Faribault, you probably have heard the name Bruce Smith. As in: Bruce Smith Memorial Field, the Bruce Smith Golf

  Some people look at cut-down trees and think “Firewood.” Curtis Ingvoldstad of Nerstrand, a wood sculptor/chainsaw artist, looks at the trunks that are

“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

Visitors to Northfield’s third Vintage Band Festival this month may be acquainted with the name of F. Melius Christiansen, founder and director of the

The name Thomas Scott Buckham is most likely associated today with the library bearing his name at 11 Division St. E in Faribault. But

You cannot be much more of a “townie” than Laura MacKenzie, even though she left Northfield for a while before returning in 2011 to

Early in the 20th century, Carleton College students eagerly awaited an ice cream party which celebrated the advent of spring after yet another long

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

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

“No matter where you go in the United States, it has been said, you will find someone who knows that Jesse James raided a

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

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