Category: Minnesota
The Mystery of the Ruby Red Slippers
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/09/12Sep25-Judy-Garland-Museum-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)One of the most visited exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution is the red slippers worn by Dorthy in the Wizard…
Known for One Role
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/09/11Sep25-Judy-Garland-Museum-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Sometimes celebrities in showbiz are known by one particular role they played, no matter the entirety of their life’s work. …
Frances Ethel Gumm
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/09/10Sep25-Judy-Garland-Museum-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Frances Ethel Gumm. You know her by a different name and I’m…
The Millie Lacs Trading Post
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/08/26Aug25-Mille-Lacs-Lake-Trading-Post-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The western frontier was noted to have many trading posts, but the one you’ll find here has over a century…
Following a Premonition to Move West
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2025/08/25Aug25-Mille-Lacs-Lake-Trading-Post-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s one of the largest lakes in the state of Minnesota, and it became the place of settlement for a…
The Last Ship at Fort Snelling
https://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/11/11Nov24-Fort-Snelling-Last-Boat-Out.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s the junction of two important rivers – the Mississippi and the Minnesota – and it made sense to have…
Fort Belmont
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/07/09Aug24-Fort-Belmont-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)If you drive Interstate 90 through Jackson, Minnesota you’ll see a fort near the freeway. Take the exit and explore…
A Community That Built Their Own Fort
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/07/08Aug24-Fort-Belmont-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In the 1850s and 1860s there had been skirmishes between Native Americans and settlers in the area of northern Iowa…
The Most Norwegian Place
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/05/17May24-The-Most-Norwegian-Place.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Some towns are known for having a large number of ancestors from a specific country. That is the case for…
A Thank You to a Minnesota Officer from World War II
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/05/16May24-Norwegian-WW-II-Battalion-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Every May 8th, a wreath is laid on the grave of this Lt. Coronel at Arlington National Cemetery. It’s a…
Troops That Could Blend In
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/05/15May24-Norwegian-WW-II-Battalion-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When World War II began, the U.S. military began to recruit troops for special missions they believed might be necessarily…
A Strange, Damaged Police Car
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/02/06Feb23-Warren-Minnesota-UFO-Police-Car-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)In Warren, Minnesota you’ll find a 1970s vintage sheriff’s car on display. What may be a bit unusual is that…
Viewing a Car With an Unusual Story
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/02/05Feb23-Warren-Minnesota-UFO-Police-Car-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It was late August of 1979 and there was a large, yet strange light near the rural intersection where a…
The Father of the Army Jeep
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/01/02Feb23-Father-of-the-Army-Jeep.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Between the time of World War I and World War II, most armies moved away from the use of horses…
A Red River Trail
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/01/01Feb23-Warren-Minnesota-Pimbina-Trail.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Before highways crisscrossed this nation, trails linked remote communities to one another. One such route connected today’s Manitoba, Canada with…
Semi Loads of Hats
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/01/10Jan23-Minnesota-Hat-Collector-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Every farmer needs a hat – and many farm supply companies provide them all the time. But Scott’s dad enjoyed…
Hats…Beyond Their Usual Purpose
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2024/01/09Jan23-Minnesota-Hat-Collector-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)A farm hat is a necessity for many people- something to keep the sun out of your eyes or perhaps…
A State with Two Flags
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2023/12/15Dec23-Fort-Snelling-4.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The state of Minnesota has a state flag, a flag flown above many sites in the state. They also have…
A Successful Stand Against Pickett’s Charge
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2023/12/14Dec23-Fort-Snelling-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The Battle of Gettysburg is often referred to as the turning point of the Civil War, and within the battle…
The First State to Volunteer for the Civil War
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2023/12/13Dec23-Fort-Snelling-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When Ft. Sumter was fired upon in April of 1861, in signified the beginning of the U.S. Civil War. Interestingly,…
