To provide professional development for two staff members at the national American Association for State and Local History Conference in St. Paul, September 17-20, 2014.
To hire a qualified consultant to develop architectural drawings for reuse of Halfway Ranger Station, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To hire a qualified architect to prepare a conditions assessment and planning documents for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, proposed to be used as a community center, and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fergus Falls Heritage Preservation commission, in cooperation with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, produced a brochure with the help of a qualified historian. The brochure consists of photographs, descriptions and maps to locate historically significant buildings and homes in the city. It was designed for use as a self-guided tour of the city's historical and architectural landmarks. The 40-page brochure is available through the Otter Tail County Historical Society, the Fergus Falls Heritage Preservation Commission and the Fergus Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Publication, in book format, of a narrative history of a "company town," Silver Bay, Minnesota, based on interviews with longtime residents (interviews and transcriptions funded by a previous Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant) and on interviews previously collected by the Bay Area Historical Society.
To preserve the stories known only to older members of the community a narrative history of Silver Bay, Minnesota was compiled using interviews of longtime residents. The students of William M. Kelley High School recorded and transcribed 15 hours of small-group and individual interviews of 44 early and former residents of the town including officials and employees of Reserve Mining Company. These interviewees relate their experiences of living and working in the area. Silver Bay was established as a "company town" in the late 1950's and remained as such into the early 1980's.
Three radio theatre scripts were produced using the synthesized oral histories of Douglas County's elder residents. The oral histories had been gathered earlier as part of the Minnesota Historical Society's oral history project to preserve the stories of Minnnesota's Greatest Generation. The topics for the scripts were: the Great Depression, World War II and the post-war economic Boom. Each script was vetted by knowledgeable content experts and the information presented is historically accurate.