MPR's Stephanie Hemphill presents a Mainstreet Radio report on how a rural school is keeping local history alive. At North Shore Elementary School, just north of Duluth, the whole community gathers to celebrate their history. They've created a new curriculum for the school, and they're publishing a book.
SPEAKER 1: Rich Sill, the father of two children at North Shore Elementary School and the main impetus behind the school's community history project, rummages in a herring box filled with fishing equipment. It's one of several history trunks that Sill and others are putting together to bring local history alive for youngsters.
RICH SILL: These are floats. And these floats would go along the top of the net. There would be weights on the other end--
SPEAKER 1: Fishing was a major part of the economy along the north shore of Lake Superior from the moment the area was opened to white settlement in the 1850s. For 40 years, boats were the only means of transportation. And the inland forests remained wild.
Finally, in the 1890s, a few hardy Finns, Norwegians, and Swedes hiked into the woods and claimed homestead land. The children of some of those pioneers still live in the area. And at Sill's urging, they are telling their stories to their great-grandchildren and other youngsters at North Shore School. Like most small rural schools, North Shore faces the threat of closure nearly every year. Sill says such intense community involvement might help keep the school open.
One of the best resources in this project is Helen Hendrickson. Every spring, she and her friends take students to interesting places in the neighborhood. She has the bus stop at a bridge spanning the French River. As a teenager during World War II, she watched trains rumbling by, carrying iron ore for arms factories in the east.
HELEN HENDRICKSON: Every one of these bridges had a man who was a guard. And they were just people from the neighborhood, men that would go there. And they would sit for eight hours. And then someone else would come. They were armed at all time. If we played around the river, anywhere near one of these bridges, we always made a point of going out to the edge of the river, waving to the guard, making sure he saw us because we didn't want to be mistaken for the enemy.
SPEAKER 1: Today, the bus takes the kids to a reconstructed log cabin, where Esther Kyromaki shows the children how Finnish immigrants lived, using homemade soap, oil lamps, and spinning wheels.
ESTHER KYROMAKI: Pull this very gently. Try to get as even as you can.
SPEAKER 1: The children listen closely and then respond enthusiastically.
SPEAKER 2: I really like the spinning wheel. Think the way she pulled the flax. I like the--
Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
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