MN90: Minnesota's Massive Fire of 1918

In a matter of hours, a series of devastating fires changed the look of Northern Minnesota for decades. The Cloquet/Moose Lake fires of 1918 resulted in a loss life, millions of dollars in property damage, and displacement of thousands of Minnesotans. Producer Allison Herrera tells us more about the spark that lit the flames in this MN90 segment.

MN90: Minnesota's Most Able Attorney

To say that Frederick McGhee had a remarkable life would be an understatement. Born into slavery, he became the first African American attorney to practice in MN. He was among the founders of the NAACP. He argued against separate but equal laws in 1910, nearly forty years before Plessy vs. Ferguson. MN90 producer Allison Herrera tells us about his legacy.

MN90: Minnesota's Most Controversial Piece of Land

The one million acres of land and water bordering Minnesota and Canada called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, or BWCA, began to be set aside for preservation purposes in 1902. MN90 producer Marisa Helms recounts some of its history.

MN90: Minnesota’s First Documented AIDS case

In 1981, Bruce Brockway wasn’t feeling well. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong. Then in June, the CDC published a report on five men in Los Angeles dead from a mysterious ailment. Britt Aamodt looks at Minnesota’s first documented AIDS case.

MN90: Minnesota’s Super Apple

Minnesota’s short growing season makes it tough to run an orchard here. But thanks to the University of Minnesota’s fruit-breeding program, there are a growing number of varieties that can withstand our winters. MN90 producer Andi McDaniel learns the story behind the wildly successful Honeycrisp apple and its U of M-born cousins.

MN90: Mr. Cool

In this segment of MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds, Britt Aamodt looks at Frederick McKinley Jones, the inventor of the refrigerated truck.

MN90: Opening the Era of Open Heart Surgery

For most of history, the human heart was off limits to medicine. The first closed heart surgery began in the 1940’s. In the 1950’s, a pair of physicians who worked in mobile surgical units of World War II discovered that open heart surgery could be an option.

MN90: Parasites, Not Pesticides

Britt Aamodt describes Pu Zhelong's contributions to the history of pest management in Minnesota.

MN90: Pilgrim Baptist Church

Tugged along by a steamboat headed North from Missouri, a group of formerly enslaved African American men, women, and children arrived at Fort Snelling in 1863. They were taking their chances for a better life. Calling themselves Pilgrims as they headed up the Mississippi River, they arrived in St. Paul and formed one of the oldest African American churches in Minnesota. Allison Herrera tells us about Pilgrim Baptist Church.

MN90: Prince's Cloud Guitar

1983—Dave Rusan had never built a guitar. He only repaired them. But now he’d been given the job of a lifetime: to create the iconic cloud guitar used in Prince’s film Purple Rain. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

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