Joanne Richardson

Sections of the St. Louis River, seen here near in Cloquet, Minn., are among those on the state's latest impaired waters draft list.

The PulseOctober 12, 2017

Minnesota has 2,669 troubled bodies of water, draft list says

By Kirsti Marohn

Minnesota, which prides itself as the “land of sky-blue waters” and “land of 10,000 lakes,” has determined that a substantial number of those waters are seriously polluted. Ongoing monitoring reveals that a few surface water bodies are improving, but much work remains to meet state goals.

MPR

A shot of a pond in Bethesda, Wisconsin in 1868.

The PulseJuly 26, 2017

The Clash Over Water in Waukesha, Wisconsin

By Erin Blakemore

Water geeks know that Waukesha, WI has been trying to obtain water from Lake Michigan, against the prohibition in the Great Lakes Compact preventing distribution of water beyond the watershed. This breezy environmental history says that water has been at the center of Waukesha’s history since the beginning.

JSTOR Daily

Environmental History Research United States

Close up of a tree branch that seems to still be growing.

The PulseJuly 26, 2017

Hope and Environmental History: An Introduction

By Tina Adcock

Many environmental historians, and environmental humanists more broadly, seem captivated by a declension narrative, a story of how humans have steadily (inevitably?) made “natural” conditions worse. Does scholarship have to trend this way?

Niche

Environmental History North America Research

An overflowing river's water reaches up to the road on a bridge.

The PulseJuly 26, 2017

An Island In Louisiana’s Bayou Is Vanishing, And Its Residents Are Fleeing To Higher Ground

By Peter O'Dowd

At the Isle de Jean Charles, residents are seeing rising seas taking over their houses. The people can move, but what about the stories and attachments to place that made the place “home”?

WBUR

Engagement Environmental Justice United States

1895 aerial view of Taylor Avenue, Fort Snelling's Officers Row. Digital image Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Primary SourcesJuly 20, 2017

Fort Snelling as I Knew It

When he was nine, my brother Steven enlisted the rest of the kids in our isolated neighborhood to help him build earthworks in the empty field behind our house. Not a fort—we already lived in one of those—but a replica of Little Round Top, a crucial site on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Engagement History Minnesota

Iron sculpture by Native American artist Colleen Cutschall commemorates the Native Americans (Crow tribe) who died fighting for their homelands in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. The monument is located at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

In ReviewJuly 20, 2017

National Parks: Can “America’s Best Idea” Adjust to the Twenty-first Century?

National Parks are often referred to as “America’s best idea.” Recent scholarship and well-publicized difficulties within the agency have shown that, perhaps inevitably, the National Park Service and the extensive system that it manages, has taken on important characteristics of the society of which it is a part, for better or worse.

Engagement Public Programs United States

Pike Island at Fort Snelling State Park in Minnesota, looking west. The Mississippi River is on the right, the Minnesota River is on the left. Photographer Brett Whaley.

IntroductionJuly 19, 2017

Introduction to Issue Seven

Almost everyone has some experience with open space and with “heritage,” perhaps through visiting historic sites, or through family trips to that place “where Grandma always used to go as a girl.” Water, of course, is intimately connected to all of our most cherished open spaces and heritage places, whether the connection is evident in the landscape or not.

These mine pools have orange oxygenated water with high levels of iron hydroxide. Image by Gabby Zawacki, 2016.

FeatureJuly 17, 2017

Anthracite Heritage: Landscape, Memory and the Environment

Place always exists in a particular time, and for Northeastern Pennsylvania that time is anthracite coal time. Because coal mining has decreased significantly over the past 50 years, the result has been a major outmigration of the area’s traditional population… However, the legacy of coal still runs deep as reminders of coal heritage are scattered throughout the 484 square miles that make up the anthracite coal region.

Anthropology Research United States

Artistic rendition of map of the Ohio-Mississippi valley flood disaster of 1937, showing 10 different American Red Cross locations from Washington, DC to Little Rock, Arkansas. Not to scale. Image courtesy of University of Southern Indiana Library.

Teaching and PracticeJuly 17, 2017

The Flow of Health, Water, and Information in the Mississippi Watershed

In physical space, where is the Mississippi River? This may seem like a relatively straightforward question, but from the perspective of a historian, I think a different question—What is the Mississippi River?—needs to be answered first.

History Mississippi River Basin Research

1891 Illustrated Map. Map is a 'Bird's eye view' of Minneapolis, looking over the Mill District area. Image courtesy of Hennepin County Library.

FeatureJuly 13, 2017

Lost to Progress: Upper Mississippi River and Minneapolis Parks Development

In February 1872, Horace W. Cleveland trudged through the snowy streets of Minneapolis to the Pence Opera House. His goal was to deliver a speech convincing the city planners, wealthy landowners, and businessmen to work quickly on protecting and preserving the scenic beauty found throughout the growing cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minnesota Planning / Policy Policy