The Wannaskan Almanac for Thor’s Day, April 12, 2018

I presume there are no definitive records about whether or not these important Minnesota dates occurred on a Thor’s Day, but as Minnesotans we could all agree that despite that oversight on somebody’s part (tsk, tsk--that human element again!) these are nonetheless worthy of notation in other than heavy-laden dusty historical tomes catalogued somewhere in a dimly lighted humidity-controlled basement.

Here, in The Wannaskan Almanac, these dates can be at least, skimmed over, if but briefly, by readers hurriedly reading the page for some single tidbit of real interest. So let’s start at, ‘possibly the beginning,’ because nobody took ownership of that responsibility:

6200 BC  The glacial lake Agassiz-Ojibway, body of water so vast that it covered parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Ontario and Minnesota, massively drained, sending a flow of water into the Hudson Strait and the Labrador Sea. The sudden flood of fresh water diluted the saltiness of the Gulf Stream weakening its flow.
    (Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)(AFP, 2/24/08)

1362-1363  A 202-pound stone with runic inscriptions, found in 1888 by Olaf and Edward Ohman, Swedish immigrant farmers in Kensington, Minn., seemed to describe how a party of Vikings had returned there after an exploratory survey, and found ten men left behind "red with blood and dead." Ever since the discovery, scholars have debated the stone’s authenticity. (SFEM, 11/15/98, p.25)(HNQ, 6/4/01)

1766  Jonathan Carver, an American-born British army officer, set out to cross the American continent, but was stopped in Minnesota by a war between the Sioux and Chippewa. (SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)

1767  British explorer Jonathan Carver described petroglyph images of snakes and buffalo near a cave at bluffs in Minnesota called Wakan Tipi by the Dakota people.
    (LP, Spring 2006, p.23)

1815  Sep 8, Alexander Ramsey (d.1903), territorial governor of Minnesota (1849-1853), was born near Harrisburg, Pa.  (www.bioguide.congress.gov)

1823  May 10, The 1st steamboat to navigate the Mississippi River arrived at Ft. Snelling (between St. Paul and Minneapolis).  (MC, 5/10/02)

1830  Jul 15, 3 Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk & Fox, signed a treaty giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa & Missouri.   (MC, 7/15/02)

1832  Jul 13, Henry Schoolcraft discovered the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft came upon the lake where the Mississippi starts and intended to call it Veritas Caput, the Latin for “true head." The name was too long and got shortened at both ends to Itasca.   (SFC, 10/5/96, p.E3)(HN, 7/13/98)

1837  A treaty with the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota guaranteed their right to hunt and fish and gather wild rice on territory relinquished to the federal government.
    (SFC, 3/25/99, p.A8)

1844  Sep 5, Iron ore was discovered in Minnesota's Mesabi Range.  (MC, 9/5/01)

Timeline Minnesota
Return to home Facts: http://www.50states.com/minnesot.htm
Lycos: http://infoplease.lycos.com/ipa/A0108230.html
Map: http://g-lea.tamu.edu/map/minnesot.gif
Virtual Tourist: http://www.vtourist.com/North_America/USA/Minnesota/


My wife and I watched the two three-hour video segments of      The Emigrants/The New Land, the screenplay written by          Jan Troell and Bengt Forslund. The movie was released in          New York, in late 1972, and won several awards including the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. 

“Karl Oskar Nilsson (Max Von Sydow) and his wife,            Kristina (Liv Ullmann), work a farm in a cold and desolate area of rural Sweden in the middle of the 19th century. The growing privations of their life, combined with increasing social and religious persecution, cause the Nilssons and many of their neighbors to strike out for the United States. Following a treacherous ocean crossing and an equally grueling land passage, the emigrants find themselves in the seemingly idyllic land of Minnesota.” (per Wikipedia)

We each had seen the 6 hr. film before, at some juncture in our previously unconnected lives, but after visiting with a neighbor recently about it and the book, we decided to watch it again on some cold and dreary Roseau County should-be-spring-by-now evening so to recapture the true essence of the miserable wintery scenes. (You don’t watch Christmas movies in July, do you?)

There’s nothing like feeling the cold blast of wind and snow coming through holes in our window screens and cracks in door frames in real time, as Karl Oskar stumbles through the wilderness with his freezing child in his arms. The wife and I snuggled under our heavy woolen wraps, our necks wrapped traditionally in sun-dried green tree moss, and our noggins covered with brain-tanned animal furs of beaver and fox with their ears erect. Going for further realism, neither of us wore gloves, brrrrrr! We oh so, felt his pain. Uffdah!

Kristina, a typical Swedish beauty, retained her loveliness all her life as all Swedish women do, and throughout the film, right up onto her death bed--and all without obvious facial makeup, except for her dark inset eyes at the end. Karl Oskar, a typical Swedish man, fares almost as well, although Swedish men aren’t commonly fabled beauties, being known instead for thick-headedness and a brooding sense of just being Swedish of all things. “Why, oh why, couldn’t I have been born Norwegian?” is a familiar lament heard in this part of Minnesota, historically speaking.

Watching the movie this time, I thought my mother would’ve enjoyed hearing them talk ‘Svedish’.” Her mother was Norwegian and her father Swedish, (which explained some of her craziness). Her paternal family came from Dalby Varmland, Sweden. Violet was the oldest child in her family and first to leave home. Kristina Nilsson’s homesickness reminded me of my mother’s severe homesickness for her family in Palmville Township, that insured, at minimum, yearly visits “uphome” all the rest of our childhood lives. All her life, Mom missed talking one or the other language, and to hear the Nilssons chatter away on TV, she would’ve laughed and cried at their voices, probably answering questions herself, or singing along in a hymn.

The only part of the movie that confused me, not having read the novel beforehand, was the mention of Taylor Falls, Minnesota, as their original destination, and then somewhat through the second half of the movie, the film includes the prelude to the Dakota Uprising, and then the inclusion of the simultaneous hanging of 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1863 in Mankato, 135 miles southwest of Taylor Falls. I realize that settlers were panicked all over the state about a general uprising, even here in northwest Minnesota, but it just didn’t seem to fit the storyline we watched for six hours. Uffdah.

Great movie though, you betcha.