This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events that took place Aug. 9-15.

August 9

1842 The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, which set the boundary between Canada and the United States, is signed by the United States and Great Britain. The boundary had been in dispute since the end of the American Revolution. Minnesota’s curious Northwest Angle is a result of this treaty.

August 10

1910 Mailcarrier John Beargrease dies. Born in 1858, the son of an Ojibwe leader and a white woman, Beargrease grew up in Beaver Bay and delivered mail along the north shore of Lake Superior from 1887 to 1904, his route being Two Harbors to Grand Marais. During open water the trip took him three days by rowboat, and in the winter he used a dogsled.

August 11

1992 The Mall of America opens to an unexpected parking crunch, and an

estimated 150,000 shoppers, who, as the Star Tribune would comment, “took a vacation from recession and bought.” Standing on what was the site of Metropolitan Stadium, the “megamall” is the largest in the United States.

August 12

1983 The first WeFest takes place in Detroit Lakes, featuring performers Alabama, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others. The biggest country music and camping festival in the nation, it attracts tens of thousands of country music enthusiasts annually.

1984 Harmon Killebrew is the first Twins player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He blasted 573 home runs over the course of his career.

August 13

1849 Minnesota Territory’s first court session is held in Stillwater. Reportedly, only one man on the jury wore boots. All the rest had moccasins.

This column comes courtesy of MNopedia,

an online encyclopedia project that has a “This Day in Minnesota History” feature on its website,

mnopedia.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.