Living New Deal with Aaron Isaacs

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal government under President Franklin
Roosevelt undertook a major investment in public infrastructure to fight unemployment and
keep the economy afloat. Although it has been over 80 years since those projects were
completed, many are still in place, functioning for what they were designed to do. Aaron Isaacs
will show us sites in Minnesota.

The Grand Meadow Chert Quarry: A Significant New Indigenous Site

Our speaker, Tom Trow, is the lead archaeologist for the effort to open to the public a long-
hidden archaeological and cultural site in Mower County, MN. For about 400 years, ending in
around 1400 CE, the Grand Meadow Chert Quarry was the most important place in southeastern
MN and possibly the whole state, at the time. Families and entire villages came here for the
stone called “chert” (flint is a type of chert), used for everyday tools including awls, hide scrapers,
spear points, and arrowheads. Tools made from this chert have been found at sites in 52 counties
in the state, including Hennepin.

Who Lived Here? Longtime Linden Hills Residents and their Homes

Through memories, research, and photographs, descendants of four families who put down
roots in different parts of Linden Hills will compare and contrast their personal experiences and
those of their forebears, building homes and navigating events of the Twentieth Century.
Politicians, writers, publishers, industrialists, developers, church elders, and neighbors: we’ll find
some of their challenges curious, and others very familiar.

The Unique Northwest Corner of Linden Hills: walking tour with Peter Sussman

This varied setting, initially platted in 1889, borders both the Minikahda Club golf course and
Saint Louis Park. Stately hillside homes transition to post-World War II housing built over
former wetlands. Uncover the circumstances of the adjacent two-block, 1922 Calhoun Terrace
Addition, the singular plat in Linden Hills that included racial deed restrictions.

The Unique Northwest Corner of Linden Hills: walking tour with Peter Sussman

This varied setting, initially platted in 1889, borders both the Minikahda Club golf course and
Saint Louis Park. Stately hillside homes transition to post-World War II housing built over
former wetlands. Uncover the circumstances of the adjacent two-block, 1922 Calhoun Terrace
Addition, the singular plat in Linden Hills that included racial deed restrictions.

Linden Hills History 101

Are you new to the Linden Hills area or a long-time resident who would like to know more
about your neighborhood? Enjoy an informative evening with an abbreviated version of Linden
Hills’s rich history: early Native American villages, Lake Harriet pavilions, streetcars, a vibrant
business district, and the interesting people whose efforts built this special place. We promise
you’ll leave with a greater appreciation of our wonderful community. Local historians, Aaron
Isaacs, author and historian at the Minnesota Streetcar Museum; and historian and popular
walking tour leader, Peter Sussman, will present a historical overview of Lake Harriet and the
Linden Hills neighborhood.

Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota’s Past

Peg Meier, longtime and award-winning reporter for the Star Tribune, will talk about the
recently released new edition of her beloved book Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos
from Minnesota’s Past
. She uses vintage photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and
excerpts from secret diaries and personal journals, to give us a firsthand account of life in those
early, challenging days. In her presentation, Meier will explain how she went about researching
the archives and, in doing so, some of the “simply amazing” people she encountered. Copies of
the new edition of Bring Warm Clothes will be available for purchase.

Anglo-Dakota Women Straddling Cultures in the Early 19th Century

Program presenter Dr. Jane Lamm Carroll will examine the experiences of four granddaughters of Chief Cloudman, bicultural women who grew up near Lake Harriet; and of another Anglo-Dakota, Daybreak Woman, who was born and raised in a Mdewakanton band at a trading post on the Minnesota River. Compared to their peers, how did these women of mixed parentage identify, socialize, and navigate language, culture, marriage, family life, and aging? Were they comfortable or at ease in the Anglo-American or the Dakota communities?

Dr. Carroll is author of the award-winning book, Daybreak Woman: An Anglo-Dakota Life, and professor of history and women’s studies at St. Catherine University.