This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events that took place July 5-11.

July 5

1928 The Minnesota National Forest is renamed the Chippewa National Forest.

July 6

1849 Bavarian immigrant Anthony Yoerg opens Minnesota’s first brewery, located in St. Paul below what is now the RiverCentre parking ramp. Today’s Yoerg Brewing Company picked up the historic mantle recently after the original Yoerg company went out of business in 1952. The new company opened a taproom in St. Paul this past spring.

1883 Mule cars begin carrying passengers on Superior Street in Duluth.

1889 Police and strikers clash in Duluth. Three are mortally wounded before Mayor John B. Sutphin leads in the militia and empties the streets.

1974 The variety show “A Prairie Home Companion” makes its first live broadcast from Macalester College in St. Paul.

July 7

1849 Minnesota Territory is divided into seven “council districts.” Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey also declares that elections will be held August 1.

July 8

1889 The federal government and the Red Lake Ojibwe sign a treaty that cedes 2,905,000 “surplus” acres from the reservation. Rather than distributing the remaining reservation land to individual tribe members as allotments, this treaty allows the Red Lake Ojibwe to hold the land in common, thereby protecting it from piecemeal sale.

1939 The final day of operation for Duluth’s streetcars, which are replaced by trolley buses.

July 11

1999 Duluth’s state representative Willard Munger dies. He served more than 40 years in the Minnesota House and was known as an advocate for environmental protection. The Munger Trail, a paved recreational route that runs through Carlton County, is named in his honor.

This column comes courtesy of MNopedia, an online encyclopedia project that has a “This Day in Minnesota History” feature on its website, mn opedia.org. Developed by the Minnesota Historical Society and its partners, it is a free, curated, and authoritative resource about state history. The information here is culled from “The Minnesota Book of Days,” published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.