May 15, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Catherine Winter caught up with the Rolling Plains Gallery as it made a stop on Minnesota's Iron Range. The mobile art gallery has paintings bolted to the inside of a semi trailer. The Plains Art Museum in Fargo saw it as a unique solution to the problem of art galleries being few and far between in rural Minnesota, where residents don't often get to see works by professional artists.
May 28, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports of an emerging safety issue in rural Minnesota…a lack of firefighters. Even as demands for fire protection rise, the number of volunteers is shrinking; in many communities there are barely enough firefighters to answer a call for help.
June 17, 1996 - As U.S. farmers are getting older and the high price of starting an agricultural operation increases, Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil reports on a Minnesota program based in Granite Falls that is making efforts to get young farmers in the business. The hope is that by matching beginning farmers with established farmers, farm ownership can gradually be transferred to a new generation.
July 3, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger visits the central Minnesota town of Crosby, which is having a comeback of sorts…from prospering former mining town to bustling “antique” town. Those windows now contain 40 antique stores. Locals are hoping the recovery expands to other businesses for community.
July 4, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visited Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota as part of a report that years of bare bones budgets have taken their toll on Minnesota's park system. Officials say the resources and facilities are being neglected, as funding for parks has not kept pace with popularity.
July 6, 1996 - Every year, half a million people visit Itasca State Park near Bemidji. They go to see the headwaters of the Mississippi and to walk in groves of huge, old pines that have been growing since long before white settlers arrived in Minnesota. But the old growth forests in Itasca State Park are facing a serious threat…an explosion of pine bark beetles threatens to wipe out EVERY old growth pine in the park.
August 6, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio's Catherine Winter visits the last remaining tugboat company in the Duluth Superior harbor. For more than 150 years, big ships have sailed the Great Lakes, from state to state and out to the sea. For nearly as long, little tugboats have helped the great freighters in and out of harbors, broken ice for them in winter, and rescued boats in emergencies.
August 7, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits the Great Lakes School of Log Building, where students learn the basics of log construction by doing it. The only full time, year round log building school in the country operates out of the woods near Ely in northeastern Minnesota.
August 13, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports that a state park campground built among Indian burial mounds is being moved and reopened in a new location. Almost immediately after the campground at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park was constructed in the 1960s, it was learned the campsites were situated in a Mdewakanton Dakota cemetery dating back to the 1600s. Years later, efforts to right a wrong are being completed as the campground is relocated off the Native sacred ground.
August 15, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Catherine Winter reports on Camp Knutson, a camp near Brainerd created to help people learn to live with HIV or AIDS within their families. Organizers say they believe it's the first time a summer camp has been set up for whole families affected by HIV and AIDS.