History in the Pines

The year Bemidji became ‘Normal’: State selects city for teacher training school over Cass Lake, Thief River Falls in 1913

By Bemidji Pioneer / January 16, 2024

The campaign to bring a normal school to Bemidji had been a long one, and much work needed to be done before the school could open its doors to train teachers.

Read more »

A school within a school: Lab School gave real-world experience to students for decades

By Bemidji Pioneer / January 16, 2024

Parents considered it the premier place for their children to attend, and many former students continue to look back fondly on their experience. The story goes that one new dad applied for his son’s admittance on the same day the child was born.

Read more »

From the archives: “EXTRA!! Bemidji Wins the Sixth Normal School by Unanimous Vote”

By Bemidji Pioneer / December 28, 2023

A. P. Ritchie was present when the message was received and immediately went out on the streets shouting out the good news to the people. The fire whistle was set to blowing in order to bring the glad tidings to the people throughout the city.

Read more »

The heist in Deputy Hall: Investigating the ‘smoothly executed’ safecracking caper of 1955

By Micah Friez / November 22, 2023

From breaking and entering to cracking the safe to drowning evidence in a riverbed, here’s how unidentified thieves coordinated a heist in Deputy Hall – and how Bemidji State Teachers College still came out on top.

Read more »

From the archives: “Harry” haunts theatre students in Bangsberg

By Northern Student archives / October 31, 2023

It has become a sort of tradition for the first student entering the stage to always greet Harry the Ghost. Likewise, the last person to leave the darkened theatre always says good night.

Read more »

From the archives: ‘Footnotes in stone’

By Northern Student archives / September 15, 2023

Some would have found difficulty in finding space for the many footnote stones necessary to mark the continual changes that have been made in the status of B. S. T. C. For even to those who have grown along with it, the development of the College has seemed almost phenomenal.

Read more »

From the archives: ‘Pull a wheelie, Steve’

By Northern Student archives / July 5, 2023

From the 1967 Northern Student archives: BSC frosh Steve Adams finds his unicycle a good way to make friends and solve the parking problem.

Read more »

Uncovering the origins of St. Urho’s Day and the role a Bemidji State professor played in bringing it to life

By Bemidji Pioneer / March 15, 2023

Even those who embrace St. Urho’s Day might not be aware of the significant part that a Bemidji State psychology professor played in its origin. The man was Sulo Havumaki.

Read more »

Bemidji State’s American Indian Resource Center was decades in the making

By Bemidji Pioneer / July 28, 2022

The Anishinaabe Family Center was in disrepair by the 1980s, which presented leaders there with a choice: fix it up or think bigger. They chose the latter.

Read more »

President Bangsberg’s plane crashes in Vietnam in 1967 tragedy

By Bemidji State University / July 2, 2022

Prior to his departure from the Bemidji airport, Bangsberg anticipated only his immediate family sending him off and was surprised and eventually overwhelmed at seeing the airport terminal filled with well-wishers.

Read more »