Volume 13, No. 3 - Westonka Historical Society

Yol. 13,
;\o.
3
Fall 2008
r"-1
As an educational society we will provide a continuous history of the Westonka area for those who follow after us ..
WBS Participates in Mound's Spirit of the Lakes Festival
Steering Committee members Pat Meisel and Leah
Weycker invited WHS to participate in this year's Spirit of
the Lakes Festival in July 2008, and we were delighted to
celebrate MN 150 with many community businesses, civic
groups, artists and musicians. Mound Bay Park was the
scene of Festival activities from Thursday's Music in the
Park through Saturday's fireworks.
WHS set up displays in the Depot, walked with l'!'Oll~ ,l'
a vintage car in the parade, hosted a drawing for . - ~!ti·
original Tonka Toys, provided tickets and narration for
historical boat tours, and invited authors to sign their
books on Lake Minnetonka history.
Displays in the Depot, organized by Mary
Opheim, included vintage clothing, Andrews Sisters
photos and posters, Tonka Toys photos, and high
school yearbooks . Mary was in the right place at the
right time to pick up donations from the MN Historical
Society for Depot display and dissemination, including
a great MN history timeline brochure, and "History
Matters" buttons in honor of MN 150, the
sesquicentennial birthday of our state.
Continued on Page 2
WHS Participates in Mound's Spirit of the Lakes Festival
Tom Reese agreed to partner with
the historical society for the parade. He and
his wife Amy, in her 100-year-old dress and
lovely hat, allowed the WHS banners to be
added to the sides of his 1911 Maxwell.
Debi Heitz, Gayle Notermann, and Pam
Myers walked the parade route, trying to ·
keep up with the Maxwell, distributing
"History Matters" buttons, and flyers listing
the WHS activities for the Festival.
Ll~h
Jerry Babb, longtime employee of Tonka Toys, donated original Tonka Toys for a drawing during the Festival. Over 80
slips were completed for the drawing. The winners were: Kathi
Murphy--winner of the Tonka jeep, Jill Rose--winner of the blue
belt buddy, and Barry Blievemicht, winner of the green belt
buddy.
Jeff Magnuson created a narration for a 45minute historical boat tour, on an Al & Alma's boat
which their company donated to the Spirit of the Lakes
Festival and to WHS. Sitting on the porch of the
Depot, Lorrie Ham and Gayle Notermann sold tickets
for the three boat rides, noon, 1:00 and 2:00. Several
outcomes show how much people were excited about
this opportunity. First, several boat tour passengers
came to the Depot after the boat tour, looking for Jeff's
book, Historical Tour of the Westonka Area - Year
2000. And, there was a line of 20 disappointed people
on the dock, who were hoping to find a seat on the last
boat tour, but it was fully booked!
Three local authors
graciously accepted our invitation
to sign their books, during the
Festival. Tom Rockvam, Jim
Ogland, and Leo Meloche
gathered on the Depot's porch to
talk with visitors. Over 100
persons visited the Depot. They
checked out our displays of local history. They learned that there exists
a local historical society. And they considered purchase of our local
history products--books, puzzles, note cards and t-shirts. It was a great
~ - - - - -- - - - - - - - - ~ partnership for WHS with the Spirit of the Lake Festival.
Leo Meloche and Jim Ogland in a great
discussion during a break from the visitors.
Tom Rockvam explaining his
books to a visitor.
2
WHS Genealogf
.Club Meeting
The next meeting of the WHS Genealogy Club meeting will be on Saturday, October 25th. We will be
holding this meeting at The Gillespie Center from 9:00 am to 11 :00 am.
WHS has invited Trudi Campbell, librarian and genealogy research k
, so that we can combine with interested Gillespie Center members and the public. Trudi has offered a series of
classes throughout the Hennepin County library system. Class topics include census, immigration records, databases,
ports, tracking ethnic groups, vital records and military and education records. She sometimes offers classes in a
computer-classroom setting, similar to the July meeting of our club.
For October 25th, Trudi will focus on immigration records, and ways to get past roadblocks in our research.
Send your current most important question asap to Pam Myers at [email protected] or call 952-472-9800, so that
Trudi can consider your question prior to seeing you on the 25th
Everyone is invited to join us!
On August 14th, members of the WHS Board were treated to a
tour of Mildred Krenke Banks' log cabin on North Arm Drive in
Minnetrista, one of the highest points in Hennepin County.
Mildred was born in 1902 on a nearby farm, and lived in the
cabin until she left for college in 1921. When she returned to the
cabin after retiring from her teaching career, she wrote her
memoirs. Minn etrista Memories was published in 1933, just a
year before Mildred passed away, at the age of 91.
The cabin was built in the 1880s, from hand-hewn white-oak
logs, perhaps from the property surrounding the site. The one
and one-half story cabin was expanded over the years to include
an indoor bathroom and kitchen, but little else has been
changed.
Larry Beno, past WHS president, and friend of Mildred' s for
many years, told delightful stories of events that happened
during those years.
Brad Johnston, the previous owner and current resident of the
cabin, walked us through some of the unique features of the
home.
Just one of the stories relates to a horseshoe
that appears to be growing out of a tree, only to be found
later, at the end of the tree's life.
For complete details of this story and many
others, listen to the audio tape of the tour and see many
more photos taken of the log cabin site, plus John
Beise' s booklet of the cabin's history. These will be
available at the Westonka Historical Society' s home in
the Visitor Center, 2325, Commerce Blvd., along with
many more photos. Come and visit us any Saturday
from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm! We have a volunteer waiting
to answer questions, help you explore our collection and
just see what we are doing every Saturday.
Carol Senn and Tom Rockvam enjoy a bench on the deck
after a great tour of the log cabin and surrounding area.
June 10, 2008, found the British Broadcasting Company
(BBC) in Mound interviewing and filming a documentary on details
of the life of the Andrews Sisters in Mound. Tom Rockvam, a WHS
member and author of several books about the Westonka area, the
Andrews Sisters and many of his memories, was interviewed. He
answered many questions on camera, many repeated several times at
various places in Mound for over four hours. Several residents of the
area followed the camera crews around the areas that were big in the
teenaged years of the Andrews Sisters. We plan to keep you posted on
when this documentary will be completed, and how we will be able to
WHS participated in the Lake Minnetonka Chamber
of Commerce banner project. We purchased a
"Welcome" banner to be hung in the City of Mound.
When you are driving through Mound, check it out
on the comer of County Rd 110 and Lynwood
Boulevard.
.. ...
• ..._ Volunteers to help at the VC on
Saturday from 10:00 to 2:00.
..._ Volunteers to help tape stories of '
the history of our community
members, businesses, homes, etc.
..._ Donations to help fund our
search for a permanent home and ""'
display facility for our growing
collection of Tonka Toys
memorabillia, Andrews Sisters
• collection and the large area
collection we have continued to
collect.
..._ High School yearbooks to
donate to WHS or for us to copy for
•our collection.
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Westonka Historical Society
Pamela Myers, President
952-474-] 601
Mari-Lou Triebenbach, Vice Presi dent
763-559-4961
Lorrie Ham, Secretary
952-472-0439
Pllyllis O'Malley, Treaswer
952-471-9703
Sue-Cathers, Past President
952-472-4:893
Board Members:
Gerald Babb
952-472-285 8
952-472-5:820
Vern Brandenburg
Jeanne Brustad
952-47]-70J9
J,effMagnuson
952-412-3653
Cary Smith
952-807-8767
952-472- 750
:Oebi Tharalson!Heitz
Honorary Board memb,ers:
952-472-4610
Mary Ophe:im
~:li$!:i Carol Senn
763-473-1196
Thom Elug
952-491-AOOO
Newsletter:
Jeanne Brustad, Ed;tor
52-47J -7019
Carol Senn, Contributor
952-473-IJ96
952-472-4611()
Mary Opheim, Contributor
952-474-160)
Pamela Myers, Proofreader
2325 Commerce Blvd.
l\found.l\,fN 55364
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h ttp://www.westonkahistor1cal soci ety.or9
Visitor Center
2325 Commerce Blvd. Mound, MN 5536 4
952-472-9800 ·
CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
October 18, 2008-Political campaign history- Gillespie Center-9:00- 11 :00- Pg 3
October 25, 2008-Genealogy research: immigrant connections, Trudi Campbell- Gillespie Center- 9:00- 11 :00- Pg 3
November 11, 2008-WHS Board meeting- Visitor Center-6:30 p.m.
November 14-16, 2008- The Gillespie Center Festival of Trees
November 29- December 7, 2008-The Gillespie Center Boutique- WHS will have all of our items for sale
November 29, 2008-Kate Roberts, author of MN 150 will sign her book at the GC Boutique
December 2, 2008- WHS Board meeting-Visitor Center-6:30 p.m.
December 19, 2008-Winter Newsletter deadline
July 16-18, 2009- Spirit of the Lakes
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R~;R'pOSEis ANd GOALS of ThE rWESTONkA HisTORh::Al .:SociE;TY
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1. _Document, preserV~, ~d classify ewly-hlstorical reco,rds.-_
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2. J>Tovide.cbild!7eil .io,d .~!lults~withh:i.story oftbe area acc~bJe to them. ,
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3. Make-tapes _ar-.id :r~pordings·:to preserve and interpret .ni~teriaf uniq~e to our Westo.nka history.
4. Gather artifa2ts af!~·reproductions for exliibJting fue story·ofthe ari a.
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5. lnvo1veour chiJaien with a living pr ogram ofhistotical signincance to mak~ history "come ali.v,e'' to them.
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