Tri-County News

Why we do what we do


By Duane Stanley, for the Kimball Area Historical Society

Not so long ago, a Kimball area senior asked me why I was willing to spend so much time with matters that are long past. “It’s a waste of time,” he pronounced emphatically. I didn’t then, and still do not agree, but his question led me to some thinking: Why? What value are historical societies?

The quickest and easiest answer is that activities are fun and enlightening for those involved. This is what is most visible to those who occasionally attend public activities like a visit to a museum or a public presentation, like Central Minnesota bootlegging during the prohibition, the making of maple syrup and molasses, or a Civil War reenactment at the cemetery. Also, activities allow one to meet new friends and socialize.

But other functions are more significant though less visible. For instance, Kimball Area Historical Society members have, for years, met weekly to glean family information and other items from local papers, particularly the Tri-County News. Their efforts permanently maintain information in easily referenced formats, allowing the society to help individuals track down their family histories. To collect and preserve information and artifacts is the purpose of the Minnesota Historical Society, established in 1849 by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature, nearly a decade before Minnesota became a state. It continues to be partially funded through state funds. For more than 150 years it has collected and preserved items of significance, long before many observers understood their significance.

At a national level, the same is true. A Star Tribune article on the Sunday following the storming of the Capitol by protestors reported that on Thursday, following the Wednesday onslaught, Frank Blazich, a curator from the National Museum of American History, began collecting items from among the debris throughout the building. The items were not just debris that should be easily disposed of by cleaning crews; they were icons of current history – a confederate battle flag, the podium of the Speaker of the House, and protest placards.

But “collection and preservation” is not simply to have old items to show off in museums, items like Minnesota’s Civil War battle flags celebrating the bravery of our state’s contribution to the war between the states. They are items that stimulate discussion and analysis of values by society as a whole. For many years to come, citizens will still debate what the artifacts of Jan. 6, or Sept. 11, or the Holocaust say about us and to us and future generations. Such was the case in the recent remodeling of our state capitol, when much debate ensued over the message various famous art pieces send about the role of Native Americans in their own state. It is through such artifacts that a society searches for meaning and values to help define our existence. To that end, we still present programs on the orphan trains of the 1800s and the Normandy invasion of Europe during World War II. They inform and entertain, but they are larger than that: they help us define, celebrate, or even reevaluate values, and our commitments, and help us avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

And so, unseen by many is the work of many volunteers who give of their time and energy to collect and preserve for future generations what others may consider a waste of energy. Your membership supports this vital function even when the work being done seems invisible.

(Use this membership form.)

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