Three Central Minnesota Projects Selected For Historical Grants

(KNSI) – Projects in Litchfield, Melrose, and St. Cloud were selected for Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants, part of 33 awards across 18 counties.

The Minnesota Historical Society hands them out every quarter. They are limited to $10,000 or less. Money comes from the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. They are earned through a competitive application process.

The Ness Church Preservation Foundation receives $10,000 to hire a qualified archaeologist to map burial sites on the property. The Melrose Area Arts Council has been tapped for $4,719 to help it install a historical marker at the Edwin Clark Memorial Bridge.

The Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud was chosen for a project that would add a historian to research the area’s colonial history. The city would have consisted of three settlements at the time. Lower, Middle, and Upper Towns were merged when St. Cloud was officially incorporated in 1856.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, St. Cloud would have still been French territory and likely used as a fur trading fort. All of Minnesota was not officially part of the United States until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 during the Thomas Jefferson administration.

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