Early twentieth-century winters in Minnesota were a hardship for the state’s residents―including those of Cottonwood County. Newcomers, hearing stories about the weather, soon learned that the accounts weren't exaggerated. A few storms stand out, but the blizzard of 1936 topped them all.

In June 1922, the Minneapolis Public Library book wagon made its first trip from Minneapolis to Excelsior, a small village on Lake Minnetonka. Riding aboard the book wagon was Gratia Countryman, the library system's visionary director.

The Itasca forest during the late nineteenth century contained towering pines and numerous lakes. Individuals like surveyor Jacob Brower became captivated by the region and the wildlife that inhabited it. They recognized that the economic potential of northern Minnesota would change its landscape. Their effort to preserve Lake Itasca led them to contend with the lumber industry, public interests, and the politics that weaved between them.

Crescent Grange Hall #512 in Linwood Township is an artifact of Reconstruction-era Minnesota (1865–1877). During this period, rural residents united in response to economic upheaval and high interest rates. Farmers, particularly those in the south and west of the state, struggled to make a living in a volatile and unregulated economy.

In 1910 there were over sixty orphanages and homes for the aged operated by and for African Americans in the United States. Minnesota had one of them: St. Paul's Crispus Attucks Home. The home was named for the African American patriot killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770. It served the community for six decades, beginning in 1906 during the Jim Crow era and ending in 1966 at the peak of the civil rights movement.

Led by “Mr. Music,” Theodore W. Thorson, Crookston’s all-female drum and bugle corps won four straight American Legion Auxiliary state championships, from 1932 to 1935.

The Cultural Society of Filipino Americans of Minnesota (CSFA) was founded on September 17, 1972, when forty-two Minnesotans signed its constitution and by-laws. They adopted as their mission the preservation and sharing of Filipino customs, culture, and traditions. To realize that mission, they organize dance performances, social gatherings that offer traditional Filipino fare, educational opportunities, fundraising efforts, and disaster relief events through their own Disaster Relief Fund.

Throughout the nineteenth century, custom dressmaking was one of the few socially acceptable professions for women of multiple ages and classes, including immigrants, young farm girls, wives, and widows. Dressmaking establishments—run and staffed primarily by women—provided creative labor, living wages, and career advancement opportunities for businesswomen and skilled workers alike.

A Cathedral Hill landmark, the Dacotah Building in St. Paul is best known for the businesses that have thrived under its roof, including pioneers of the local food movement.

Sired by a champion pacer and born in 1896, Dan Patch was bred to be a racehorse. At first glance, though, his chances didn't look too good. He had long legs, knobby knees, and worst of all, a sweet disposition—not considered an asset in the hypercompetitive world of harness racing.

Dar Al-Hijrah was founded in 1998 in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis and is the oldest Somali mosque in Minnesota. It signals the latest of many phases of immigration to the state, from Scandinavians and other Europeans in the nineteenth century to East Africans in the 1990s and 2000s. The congregation has a unique commitment to civic education and advocates for the idea that Islam is compatible with democracy through its sister organization, the Islamic Civic Society of America.

The David Park House in Bemidji is an outstanding example of residential Streamline Moderne architecture. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.