This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with

anniversaries this week.

Feb. 1

1840 Thomas B. Walker is born in Xenia, Ohio. He arrived in St. Paul in 1862 and found a job as a timber cruiser in northern Minnesota. He would later serve as an engineer in creating the St. Paul & Duluth rail line that runs through Carlton County. He made his fortune in timber land holdings and would plan and develop the Walker Art Gallery that later became the Walker Art Center. He would also play an instrumental role in the creation of the Minneapolis Public Library. He died in 1928 with an estimated worth of $100 million.

1886 St. Paul’s first Winter Carnival opens, hosting competitions in curling, skating, and ice polo and boasting the first ice palace in the United States. Built in Central Park, the palace is 140 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 100 feet high.

1933 Wendell R. Anderson is born in St. Paul. A member of the silver-medal-winning 1956 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team, a lawyer, and a former legislator (in both House and Senate), he would serve as governor from 1971 to 1976. After helping to establish a firmer control on state finances through the “Minnesota Miracle” fiscal reforms of 1971, Anderson would end his career as an elected official by appointing himself to fill Walter F. Mondale’s U.S. Senate seat following Mondale’s election as vice president of the United States in November 1976.

Feb. 2

1842 Knute Nelson is born in Evanger in the Voss district of western Norway. He would move to Alexandria in 1871, and from 1893 to 1895 he would hold the state’s highest office, serving as the first Scandinavian-born governor in U.S. history. After this stint as governor, Nelson would serve in the U.S. Senate, where he wrote the bills creating the departments of commerce and labor. He died on April 28, 1923.

1910 In an important act of historical preservation, the Daughters of the American Revolution buy the Henry H. Sibley House in Mendota and convert it into a museum, which they maintain for over eighty years before transferring the title to the Minnesota Historical Society.

1996 Minnesota’s coldest temperature is recorded at Tower, a minimum extreme of 60 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) that bests by one degree the previous scientifically measured low established in 1899.

Feb. 3

1809 Congress creates the Illinois Territory, which includes all of present-day Minnesota east of the Mississippi River.

1917 Eleven competitors in the Red River–St. Paul Sports Carnival Derby, the first 500-mile dogsled race on record, complete an 11-day journey from Winnipeg to St. Paul, with Albert Campbell (Cree Nation) finishing first.

Feb. 4

1893 Sen. William B. Dean offers a resolution in the Minnesota Senate recommending that the “wild lady-slipper or moccasin flower, Cypripedium calceolus, be named the state flower.” The resolution is later adopted by both Senate and House. Minnesota was the second state to designate a state flower. Following the discovery that this species of lady slipper does not grow in Minnesota, a new resolution would be adopted in 1902, changing the state flower to the pink-and-white lady slipper (Cypripedium reginae).

Feb. 5

1924 Forty-one manganese ore miners drown or are fatally buried in mud and seven more escape by climbing a ladder during the Milford Mine Disaster, which occurs north of Crosby on the Cuyuna Range when a nearby lake suddenly empties into an underground mining operation as the miners were preparing to end work for the day 200 feet below ground. Thirty-eight of the 41 miners who drowned were married, leaving behind more than 80 children. Recovery efforts were both delicate and dangerous, as the mine was filled with mud and debris and workers worried about potential cave-ins. It took months to recover the men’s bodies. The last body was removed on Nov. 9. The mine resumed operations soon after that. It closed in 1932. A memorial park at the site opened in 2017.

1967 Duluth’s Accordionaires, a group of 23 accordion players from cities across the region, including Cloquet, give a fundraising concert in Duluth. The group was planning its first overseas trip, to Italy in May, followed by a slot on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” A debut album would be recorded soon after the national exposure. It was sponsored by Jeno’s Pizza and titled “Music To Eat Pizza By.” Organized in 1949, the group went on to perform around the world, including stops in Japan and the Soviet Union.

This column is derived from MNopedia, an online project at mnopedia.org. and developed by the Minnesota Historical Society and its partners.