A year ago, I wrote about a grassroots effort to save the historic Northfield Depot.  As I noted in my post from April 2010, I have a personal interest in seeing this project succeed because of my great-grandfather’s connection to the depot.  In June 1931, the 70-piece St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band, directed by G. Oliver Riggs, played a concert at the Northfield Depot on the way home from a trip to Des Moines. 

The effort to relocate and renovate the depot, built in 1888, has gained steam over the past 12 months (if you’ll excuse the train pun).  Tonight, the Northfield City Council will consider a proposal to relocate the depot to a nearby site behind the Quarterback Club restaurant, where it could serve as a visitor center and a transit hub.

Wonderful news!  The Northfield School Board voted to keep elementary orchestra for next year!

I didn’t make it to the board meeting last night, but I read about it on NorthfieldPatch this morning.  The recommendation to keep orchestra was included in the district’s $45.2 million budget, which the board approved unanimously.  

Here’s the article by Allison Schmitt.

I’m grateful to all the school board members and to Superintendent Chris Richardson for recognizing the value in the program.

I spent several hours in Fergus Falls on Saturday with my mom, doing research for a travel piece I’m writing for the Star Tribune.  I hadn’t been to Fergus since my junior high basketball team days, and all I saw of the town then was the inside of a gym.

(I don’t remember the outcome of those games between the Alexandria Cardinals and the Fergus Falls Otters.

When I heard it on the radio this morning, it took me by surprise: today is the 149th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Shiloh.  I guess the dates aren’t as fixed in my head as other details about the bloody two-day battle, like the fact that my great-great grandfather, Jasper Riggs, survived, and so many others didn’t: total Union and Confederate casualties were about 23,000.
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