I have a thing for historic bandshells and bandstands.  It’s a condition that developed after I began researching the career of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs.  I began to notice how many communities still use them, and how widely the architectural styles vary.  Now, whenever I see one – whether it’s vintage or modern – I'm curious about why it was built and how it’s used.

That’s why a Thanksgiving weekend visit to Iowa Falls, Iowa, had to include a stop at Estes Park.  The bandshell there, formerly known as the Estes Park Band Shell, was dedicated in 1931 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Designed by L.L Klippel, it cost $3,838 and replaced a pagoda built in 1898.  The bandshell is still used today for community events.
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One hundred and 40 years ago today, a baby boy was born at a homestead outside of Wapello, Iowa.  His parents, Jasper and Rebecca Riggs, named him George Oliver.

The birth occurred on a Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving – a national celebration that President Lincoln initiated in 1863.  Now it was 1870, Lincoln had been in his grave for five years, and former Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had become president.

I have great news for fans of the Vintage Band Festival – the festival is returning to Northfield in August 2013!

Members of the VBF 2010 organizing committee met last week to recap last summer’s four-day event, which attracted impressive crowds (attendees came from as far away as Florida) and boosted the town’s economy.  Enthusiasm was high for organizing another festival; the big question was when to have it.
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Today’s Star Tribune contains an article about the comeback of the ukulele, which apparently means “jumping flea” in Hawaiian.  Now that the instrument has been featured on Glee and in YouTube videos by performing artists like Julia Nunes, it’s achieved a degree of hipness that it couldn’t have dreamed of back in the Tiny Tim days.
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Dad and I are still basking in the glow of Wednesday’s emotionally rewarding event.  I gave my presentation, “G. Oliver Riggs, St. Cloud’s Music Man,” to a full house at the Stearns History Museum.

Most people in the crowd appeared to be breakfast club meeting regulars; they come every month to hear talks on a variety of historical topics while munching on doughnuts and other breakfast treats.

I have limited time to blog this week because I’m preparing for a presentation I’m giving Wednesday morning at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud.  My dad, William Riggs, and I will be talking about “G. Oliver Riggs, St. Cloud’s Music Man” at the museum’s monthly breakfast club event from 9 to 10 a.m.

If you’re interested and aren’t able to attend, I’m planning to videotape the presentation and post it on my blog later in the month.



to know that life is a braided cord of humanity

stretching up from time long gone,

and that it cannot be defined by the span

of a single journey from diaper to shroud.

– Russell Baker, Growing Up

It’s hard to believe that I barely knew anything about G. Oliver Riggs four years ago.  My research has unearthed an abundance of surprising discoveries and meaningful stories.

I have lot of things I’d like to accomplish this week.  I need to finish the third and final installment of posts in my “Vicksburg is the Key” trilogy.  I need to work on the presentation my Dad and I are giving next Wednesday at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud on my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs.  I need to choose a topic for my next Minnesota Parent column.
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