Shows / Pionerd
Pionerd
Pionerd is a daily Minnesota history podcast. Every day, one story drawn from the people, places, and moments that shaped the state we call home. From the Iron Range to the Mississippi headwaters, from the Twin Cities to the small towns most maps forget, Minnesota's history is richer and stranger than most people realize. Join us every day and find out what happened here.
Episodes
- Pionerd
[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The First Minnesota at Gettysburg
SHOW DESCRIPTION On July 2, 1863, at the pivotal climax of the Battle of Gettysburg, 262 men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry stood on Cemetery Ridge…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The Fugitive of Highland Park
SHOW DESCRIPTION On a bright June morning in 1999, a multi-jurisdictional tactical team surrounded a minivan in a quiet St. Paul neighborhood, bringing a…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The Day the Law Broke: The Duluth Lynchings and Their Legacy
SHOW DESCRIPTION On a warm June night in 1920, the John Robinson Traveling Circus pulled into Duluth, bringing a sudden influx of Black laborers to a northern…
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The Porch Light Promise: How Jacob Wetterling Changed America
SHOW DESCRIPTION On a dark October night in 1989, three young boys pedaled home from a Tom Thumb in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Within minutes, a masked gunman…
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How the Panic of 1857 Wiped Out Frontier Wealth Overnight
SHOW DESCRIPTION Months before statehood, Minnesota’s financial illusion vanished overnight. On October 21, 1857, Charles Borup walked up to his bank on Third…
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The Richest Woman in the Underworld: St. Paul’s Red-Light Empire
SHOW DESCRIPTION Thirty feet below the bluff where the Science Museum of Minnesota stands today was the Washington Street red-light district. It was anchored…
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Baker v. Nelson: The 1971 Minnesota Story Behind America's First Same-Sex Marriage
SHOW DESCRIPTION In the spring of 1970, law student and Air Force veteran Jack Baker made a startling discovery in the stacks of the University of Minnesota…
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Fort Snelling: Dred Scott, the 1st Minnesota Regiment, and the Citadel at Bdote
SHOW DESCRIPTION The sacred origin place of the Dakota is called Bdote, located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. It is also where the…
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The Spanish Flu Battle for Minneapolis: Quarantine, Rebellion, and the 1918 Shutdown
SHOW DESCRIPTION In October 1918, as the second wave of the Spanish Influenza pandemic swept across Minnesota, Health Department officials in Minneapolis…
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The Story of Southdale Center: The World's First Enclosed Mall
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On October 8, 1956, 75,000 visitors flooded into Edina, Minnesota, to step through the glass doors of Southdale Center, the world’s very…
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Born From the Ashes: How the 1910 Baudette Fire Created the Minnesota Forest Service
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On the evening of October 7, 1910, a terrifying hurricane of fire swept across the Rainy River basin, leveling the twin border towns of…
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War, Betrayal, and the Secret Buttons: Inside the 1917 Twin Cities Transit Strike
SHOW DESCRIPTION: At 1:00 AM on Saturday, October 6, 1917, Twin Cities transit workers walked off the job, shutting down 450 miles of track and plunging…
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Washburn-Crosby's High Stakes Experiment: How WCCO & Betty Crocker Built a Midwest Lifeline
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On October 2, 1924, WCCO Radio went live across the Upper Midwest, transforming an unproven 500-watt hotel experiment into a 50,000-watt…
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Mother Nature, the Doctor, and the Nun: The Handshake That Created Mayo Clinic
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On September 30, 1889, Saint Marys Hospital opened its doors in Rochester, Minnesota, equipped with just 27 beds and an unlikely partnership…
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The Ruthton Bank Murders: Ambush on the Buffalo Ridge
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On September 29, 1983, a phony land inquiry lured two small-town bankers to an abandoned ten-acre farmstead outside Ruthton, Minnesota…
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul: The Summit Avenue Crucible & The American Century
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On September 24, 1896, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in a second-floor apartment at 481 Laurel Avenue in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill…
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The Battle of Wood Lake: The Accidental Firefight That Ended the U.S. Dakota War of 1862
SHOW DESCRIPTION: On September 23, 1862, six weeks of devastating warfare across the Minnesota River Valley culminated along the tallgrass banks of Lone Tree…
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César Tovar’s Nine-Position Game: The Day a Twins Legend Made MLB History
Show Description: On September 22, 1968, a modest crowd of 11,340 gathered at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington to watch Minnesota Twins utility star César…
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Blood, Red Dust, and Dignity: How Minnesota’s Immigrant Miners Transformed the Mesabi Range
In the spring of 1916, across the red dirt of Minnesota’s Mesabi Range, thousands of immigrant families reached their absolute breaking point. Long before…
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Beyond the Shattered Ice: The Unstoppable Life of Henry Boucha
On September 16, 1995, inside the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, Minnesota, Henry Boucha was enshrined among the nation’s hockey legends. The true story…
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The Battle of the West Side: How Minnesota’s Chicano Movement Built an Unbreakable Legacy
In the fall of 1972, young activists marched down Concord Street carrying the Chicano eagle alongside Our Lady of Guadalupe, turning the eve of Mexican…
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The Hub of Hell: The 1935 Flour City Iron Strike
In the late summer of 1935, a violent labor confrontation erupted along 27th Avenue South when metalworkers at the Flour City Ornamental Iron Works struck for…
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Minnesota’s First Deaf School (1863): The Birth of MSAD in Faribault
On September 9, 1863, an emergency trial unfolded in a rented storefront on the streets of downtown Faribault when five isolated children gathered for…
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From County Poor Farm to the Great Minnesota Get-Together: Dan Patch, the 1885 Compromise, and the Ground That Holds the Whole State
On September 8, 1906, on the closing day of the Minnesota State Fair, a pacer named Dan Patch ran a mile in one minute and fifty-five seconds and set a world…
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Sitting Bull in St. Paul: The 1884 Assassination Attempt & Assimilation Tours
On September 4, 1884, a hidden crisis unfolded in the foyer of Saint Paul's Grand Opera House when an alert companion disarmed a gunman targeting Sitting Bull…
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Trapped at Birch Coulee: The Deadliest Battle of the 1862 Dakota War
On September 3, 1862, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley's relief column marched into a horrific scene near Birch Coulee Creek. A 170-man U.S. burial detail had…
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How Minnesota Doctors Invented Open-Heart Surgery in 1952
On September 2, 1952, a team of surgeons in Minneapolis stepped into uncharted territory. Facing long-standing medical taboos and a dying five-year-old patient…
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The Great Hinckley Fire of 1894: Four Hours of Hell in Pine County
What happens when 28 million board feet of timber ignite under a 4-mile-high vortex of fire? On September 1, 1894, a catastrophic firestorm consumed over 400…
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The Foshay Tower Scandal: Towering Ambition, Financial Ruin, and the 1929 Crash
Long before the IDS Center dominated the Minneapolis skyline, utility magnate Wilbur Foshay commissioned a 447-foot Art Deco building to represent his own…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The University of Minnesota Shuts Down
Here is our last installment of archival episodes, returning to fresh episodes on August 31. On May 9, 1972, a peaceful anti-war rally at the University of…
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(FROM THE ARCHIVES] Roaring Like Drunken Devils and the Night the Sirens Wailed
This is a good one if you haven't heard and a crowd favorite to share. It made the top of the list for some listeners from their feedback. It helps to know…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The 14 Minute Catastrophe That Broke Minnesota's Gallows
I'm on vacation with the family so playing this one from the archives. This episode was released a few weeks after the premiere of the podcast, so this one was…
Pionerd[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The First Ocean Ship Enters Duluth
On May 3rd, 1959, a British cargo ship named the Ramon de Larrinaga sailed under Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge and became the first oceangoing vessel in history…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] The Night the Mills Exploded
On May 2nd, 1878, a flour dust explosion destroyed the Washburn A Mill in Minneapolis, the largest flour mill in the world, killing eighteen men and…
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES] Say Hey in the Snow - Willie Mays Opens in Minneapolis
We’re taking a brief break to recharge, so we’re diving into the archives to bring back one of our favorite episodes. Sit back and enjoy this classic release…
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The Fool Soldiers: Minnesota’s Forgotten 1862 Heroism
Following the August 1862 attack at Lake Shetek, Minnesota, Santee Dakota warriors took two white women and six children captive into Dakota Territory. In…
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Tarred, Feathered, and Unbroken: Homegrown Minnesota Nativist Vigilantes
In the late summer of 1918, wartime paranoia in Rock County, Minnesota, boiled over into extralegal violence. When John T. Meints Sr., a German-American farmer…
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The 2007 MN Floods: Inside Minnesota's Deadliest & Wettest Storm
On August 18, 2007, an off-the-charts storm system dumped up to 15.10 inches of rain on southeastern Minnesota, claiming seven lives and submerging entire…
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The Battle for Austin: How the Hormel Strike Reshaped American Labor
On August 17, 1985, fifteen hundred meatpackers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota walked off the job. What began as a stand against severe wage cuts and…
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Taliaferro, One Man Against the Fur Empire: The 1830 Fort Snelling Arson
Long before the Twin Cities grew around Bdote, the prairie outside Fort Snelling hosted a quiet war over trade, alcohol, and tribal sovereignty. Discover the…
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The 1973 Minnesota Miracle: TIME Magazine, Wendell Anderson & The Myth of Utopia
On August 13, 1973, TIME magazine put Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson on its cover holding an 18-inch northern pike, declaring Minnesota "A State That…
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Minnesota Moline: The Creator of the Original Military "Jeep"
On August 12, 1940, over 45,000 troops descended on Camp Ripley for massive war games. Among them was the Minneapolis-Moline UTX—a monster machine that climbed…
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The Great Census War: Ghost Registries and the Battle for the Twin Cities
On August 11, 1890, federal agents descended on Minneapolis and St. Paul to halt the first major criminal census fraud prosecution in American history. From…
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The Prison Mirror: How Stillwater Inmates Built America’s First Prisoner Newspaper
On August 10, 1887, fifteen men inside the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater pooled their savings to attempt the unthinkable: launch an inmate-funded…
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Alan Page: From NFL MVP to Minnesota Supreme Court Justice
Discover the remarkable story of Alan Page, from NFL MVP and Hall of Famer with the Minnesota Vikings to groundbreaking Associate Justice on the Minnesota…
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The 1969 Outing Tornado: Minnesota’s Deadliest North Woods Storm
On August 6, 1969, an unpredicted, mile-wide F4 tornado tore a 32-mile path of destruction across northern Minnesota, striking vacation resorts along Roosevelt…
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The Pilot Knob Trap: How the Treaty of Mendota Was Signed
On August 5, 1851, Dakota leaders gathered under a brush arbor atop Pilot Knob, overlooking Fort Snelling and Bdote, the sacred origin of the Dakota people…
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The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862: From Broken Treaties and Exile to Reconciliation and Land Returned
How did broken promises from the 1851 Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota lead to the bloodiest conflict on Minnesota’s frontier? In August 1862, late…
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Saving Lake Itasca: How Mary Gibbs and Jacob V. Brower Fought the Timber Barons (1889–1903)
In 1903, a 24-year-old park commissioner stood at the Lake Itasca dam, put her hand on the controls, and defied an armed lumber boss to save Minnesota’s most…
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The Sentinel of Lake Superior: How the Mataafa Storm Forged Split Rock Lighthouse
On July 31, 1910, Split Rock Lighthouse was lit for the very first time high above Lake Superior. When the Mataafa Storm battered the Great Lakes, destroying…
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Zebulon Pike & The 1805 Treaty of Bdote: The Dubious Origin of Fort Snelling
In 1805, 26-year-old Zebulon Pike led a U.S. expedition up the Mississippi River to claim land for military posts and negotiate with Dakota leaders. What…
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The 1837 Treaty of St. Peters: How 38 Words Defined Ojibwe Rights
When the Ojibwe ceded millions of acres of pine timber in 1837, they explicitly reserved their rights to hunt, fish, and gather across their ancestral lands…
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How AIM Challenged Systemic Bias and Built a Movement
Discover how the American Indian Movement (AIM) was born on the streets of Minneapolis in 1968. From block patrols on East Franklin Avenue to the creation of…
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The Million-Dollar Vanishing: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper
On a warm July afternoon in 1972, two armed men walked onto a quiet Orono terrace and abducted Twin Cities socialite Virginia Piper, leaving behind a demand…
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Ila Borders & The First Woman to Win a Pro Baseball Game | Duluth-Superior Dukes
They called her presence a publicity stunt, locked her out of team clubhouses, and threw baseballs at her back in college practice. But on a damp July night in…
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The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux: The 1851 Land Deal That Built Minnesota
It wasn't a negotiation. It was survival. Hemmed in by dwindling bison herds and facing starvation, Dakota leaders gathered under a leafy arbor at Traverse des…
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The 1967 North Minneapolis Uprising
On July 22, 1967, hundreds of National Guard troops occupied Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis following three nights of fire, arrests, and street clashes…
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James J. Hill: The Empire Builder Who Shaped the Upper Midwest
From a one-eyed levee clerk on the St. Paul waterfront to the most powerful rail baron in the American Northwest, James J. Hill built an empire that reshaped…
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The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike & Bloody Friday
A single decoy truck. A line of shotguns. Sixty-seven unarmed citizens shot in the streets of the North Loop. Explore the harrowing story of July 20, 1934…
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The Lake Pepin Scrip Fraud: The Secret Law That Stole the Dakota Homeland
How did a piece of paper signed in a small Minnesota river town transform into massive corporate empires in the California redwoods and Nevada silver mines? We…