Ampers

In wars past, soldiers could take part in religious services, without leaving the front lines. MN90 producer Marisa Helms tells us the Army hired chaplains to bring portable organs to soldiers as a way to boost morale during wartime.

Minnesota is one of a few states in the country where third party candidates do well. MN90 producer Marisa Helms shows us that the success of third party candidates is attributed to a supportive public financing system, and being in the right place at the right time. Disenchantment with the major parties helps, too.

If you’re elected governor of Minnesota at the ripe age of 31, you’ve got a long political career ahead of you. Such was the case of Harold E. Stassen. In 1938, the moderate Republican became the youngest person ever to be elected governor of the state. As MN90 producer Marisa Helms reports, after Minnesotans re-elected Stassen twice more, he decided to aim for higher office. Throughout his life, he would run for president nine times.

If you didn’t grow up in Minnesota, it can be a shock to spend your first winter here. MN90 producer Marisa Helms tells us that in 1849, Minnesota’s first territorial governor, Alexander Ramsey, moved to Saint Paul then promptly left for business in Washington. That winter, Ramsey’s bitterly cold wife, Anna, sent her husband a scathing letter, telling him 22 below zero is not a temperature she can live with.