Twin Cities Real Estate BlogRecently posted or modified blog posts by tag - Minnesota Historyhttps://www.minnesotaconnected.com/blog/Copyright MinnesotaConnected.com2022-10-28T07:14:54-07:00tag:minnesotaconnected.com,2012-09-20:14344Summer Plans? Think Historic Forestville!<a href="http://minnesotaconnected.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Historic-Forestville-Minnesota.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1312621" src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Historic-Forestville-Minnesota.jpg" width="570" height="381" /></a>
The time has come to start working those summer plans into our schedules! It's hard to believe now, but green grass and budding trees are just around the corner.
An excellent weekend vacation option, for those of us in the Twin Cities, can be found in the southeast corner of our fair state: <a href="http://sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/historic-forestville" target="_blank">Historic Forestville</a>. While the usual favorite summer sites are found several hours north of the cities, Forestville can be found two hours south. With trout streams rather than lakes and nearby wineries outnumbering the breweries, it's a whole different kind of Minnesota!
My favorite thing, personally, about Forestville (especially for camping there) is the complete lack of mosquitos. Yes, you did read it correctly, this small pocket of Minnesota lacks the most hated summer pest. The absence of standing water in the area has dried up all hopes of our needle-nosed friends finding suitable places to reproduce. That said, flies and gnats swarm just as bad as any other part of the state, but I am convinced that they are just more noticeable because of the scarcity of mosquitoes. This fact really makes Forestville a delightful place to visit in the height of summer.
For those who love history, the Minnesota Historical Society has done a fantastic job at keeping Historic Forestville staffed with a variety of character actors. The official tour brings visitors to a massive barn full of bats, an antique-filled mansion and an authentic state treasure: the general store. The general store contains shelf-upon-shelf filled with actual merchandise that could be purchased within its very walls back in the 1800s.
<a href="http://minnesotaconnected.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Forestville-MN-General-Store.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1312622" src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Forestville-MN-General-Store.jpg" width="570" height="380" /></a>
For nature-lovers, many hiking trails crisscross the different parts of the park. While visiting, our group appreciated the wide variety of birds and butterflies that the park's forest offers. Did I mention there aren't mosquitoes?
Information on securing a campsite within the park can be found <a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/forestville_mystery_cave/camping.html">here</a>. As with most state parks in Minnesota, the facilities are in excellent condition (with showers and decent toilets).
Photos by: <a href="http://mirandabergsart.wixsite.com/miranda-bergs">Miranda Bergs</a>
2017-01-30T23:00:00-07:002022-10-28T07:08:57-07:00Erik Bergstag:minnesotaconnected.com,2012-09-20:15203Petition to Pardon the 38 Hanged in Mankato<a href="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mankato-Execution-December-1862.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-196513 aligncenter" alt="Mankato Execution December 1862" src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mankato-Execution-December-1862.jpg" width="570" height="410" /></a>
It may have been more than 150 years since the largest mass execution in US history took place in Mankato, but that doesn't appear to be stopping Jack Consadine (a Mankato City Council member). Jack is pushing a petition to pardon the 38 executed Dakota men (plus two others who were hanged later).
Minnesota was a freshly minted state when it gave its electoral votes to Abraham Lincoln, whose election, among other things, resulted in tipping off the Civil War. Though the theaters of the war were far from Minnesota, the pull of fighting-age men from the light population, starvation due to poor crops and the failure to respect treaties all helped to ignite the 1862 <a href="http://usdakotawar.org/history/war" target="_blank">uprising</a> of the state's native Dakota. After the many atrocities (committed by all involved belligerents) of the war, the December 26 execution in Mankato sealed the fate of Minnesota's Dakota: they had to leave the state and head west (however, later expeditions were sent after them for further punishment).
<a href="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dakota-Captives-being-held.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-196517 aligncenter" alt="Dakota Captives being held" src="https://assets.site-static.com/userfiles/693/image/minnesotaconnected/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Dakota-Captives-being-held.jpg" width="570" height="460" /></a>
An argument can certainly be made that the 38 executed Dakota warriors had blood on their hands for slaughtering unarmed women and children. Evidence of this was presented in their trials. So why should they be pardoned for crimes they actually seemed to have committed?
<a href="http://www.ktoe.com/common/page.php?feed=121&id=6671&is_corp=1" target="_blank">KTOE radio</a> reported Jack Consadine's responses to this line of questioning about his petition:
I based it primarily on the discrepancies in the trial. There were no defense attorneys. No defense was allowed. Also, the trials were only three to five minutes long. They were conducted in English and the Dakota didn't understand the trial process... I'm not debating that it (the uprising) wasn't brutal and horrific on occasions. It was. But I'm not sure where we got the moral authority to actually try them in the first place.
Jack will need a lot of signatures for his <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/grant-immediate-posthumous-presidentialpardon-dakota-38-2-trials-were-embarrassment-our-country/1dFhZGZM" target="_blank">online petition</a>, which isn't even close to reaching the needed amount of 100,000; its deadline comes at the end March.
Photos via: USDakotaWar.org
2014-03-24T22:00:00-07:002022-10-28T07:14:54-07:00Erik Bergs