This week in state history

Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week.

April 3

1970 A former Greyhound bus station in Minneapolis opens its doors as a music club, the Depot. Twelve years later it would be renamed First Avenue by Steve McClellan, the booking agent for the club, and Jack Meyers, the club's financial manager. A cornerstone of the city's music scene, First Avenue has hosted local and national acts and was featured in Prince's movie "Purple Rain."

April 4

1893 The Minnesota state flag is adopted, just in time to grace a state-sponsored exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago. Designed by Amelia H. Center of Minneapolis, the flag depicts the state seal ringed by a wreath of white lady slippers and surrounded by nineteen stars, representing Minnesota as the nineteenth state (after the original thirteen) to be admitted to the Union. The flag would be modified on March 18, 1957, when the white flowers were replaced with pink-and-white lady slippers.

1914 Frederick E. Weyerhaeuser, founder of a timber dynasty, dies in California. At one time he owned two million acres of forestland in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Pacific Northwest. His imprint on Cloquet was large. He arrived in Knife Falls in 1883 ad soon had a part in three lumber companies. According to the Carlton County Historical Society: "He developed the Northwest Paper Company and the idea for the Wood Conversion Company. He established his son, Rudolph Weyerhaeuser, as manager of the Northern Lumber Company, and later president of the Northwest Paper Company. His youngest son, Frederick Edward Weyerhaeuser, continued developing the Wood Conversion Company with his brothers, Rudolph and John Philip as vice presidents. Later, his great-grandson, Frederick Theodore "Ted" Weyerhaeuser, moved to Cloquet to join the Wood Conversion Company, later renamed Conwed."

April 5

1830 The first work of fiction set in Minnesota, a collection of stories about fur traders and Native Americans titled "Tales of the North-West; or Sketches of Indian Life and Character" is published in Boston. The author, William J. Snelling, is the son of Josiah Snelling, for whom Fort Snelling is named. The book received little notice. Snelling insisted that his accounts were drawn from the real lives of Native Americans he had met. He said the fantastical tales being published at the time did not capture the true spirit of the times.

1852 Minnesota goes dry. The citizens of the territory approve a prohibition bill by a vote of 853 to 662. The measure, which would have outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, is declared unconstitutional in November.

April 6

1808 John Jacob Astor forms the American Fur Company, headquartered in New York City. It operates trading posts on Rainy River, at Grand Portage and Grand Marais, as well as on Moose, Basswood, Vermillion, and Little Vermillion lakes. During its heyday, the American Fur Company was one of the largest enterprises in the United States and held a total monopoly of the lucrative fur trade in the young nation by the 1820s. Early on, Astor had lucrative profits by smuggling opium into China. Through his profits from the company, Astor made numerous, lucrative land investments, especially in New York City, and became the richest man in the world and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. Astor left the company in 1834. He knew demand for the company's products was on the wane. The company declared bankruptcy in 1842, and the American Fur Company ultimately ceased trading in 1847.

1956 The ore boat C. L. Austin picks up the first load of taconite at Silver Bay.

1982 In the first regular-season baseball game at the Metrodome, the Minnesota Twins lose to the Seattle Mariners, 11-7.

April 7

1866 In Washington, D.C., the Bois Forte Ojibwe sign a treaty ceding their lands in St. Louis and Koochiching counties and establishing the Nett Lake Reservation.

This column is derived from MNopedia.org and developed by the Minnesota Historical Society and its partners.