The 2011 St. Paul Winter Carnival begins tomorrow (Jan. 27), and that makes me think of one of my favorite, unexpected finds about the life of G. Oliver Riggs: his brief stint as a cowboy.

OK, my great-grandfather wasn’t exactly a cowboy, but he was a member of the Montana Cowboy Band, and that’s just as surprising to learn about a man who was a classically trained violin and cornet soloist-turned band director.

In 1917, the cowboy band participated in an event that would never fly today – it paid a surprise visit to the governor and legislature during the St. Paul Winter Carnival and fired shots inside the State Capitol.
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Sixty-five years ago, my great-grandfather lived in a rented room at the New Hotel Markham in Bemidji.  Two days a week, he boarded a bus and traveled 25 miles north to the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

G. Oliver Riggs had tried retirement, but at age 75, after a year of rest at his cottage on Grace Lake near Bemidji, he went back to work.  It might have been for the money, or the personal satisfaction, or both.

One hundred years ago, in January 1911, my great-grandfather was trying to get back on track after one of the few failures in his professional career.

The previous year, 1910, had begun with great promise.  G. Oliver Riggs was directing the city band in Grand Forks, N.D., and receiving accolades.

I’ve been working on a blog post for two days now, and it’s still not reader-ready.  The main problem is that I can’t locate a couple of items I want to scan that I know are in my office somewhere, in my piles of G. Oliver Riggs articles and memorabilia.  Because my office is cold, especially by the window, I don’t feel like spending much time in there.  Also, I’ve been feeling a bit distracted by all the items on my to-do list for this week.
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