Secrets of the City

I believe I have found the possible grave sights of the 10 men listed on the Kensington rune stone. No joke; I have kept my find to myself for several years. There seems to be a lot of interest in this subject, right? I have short attitude with putting my discovery to light because this new evidence could be the proof being sought to validate the Kensington stone and its story. However, I will not release the sight location until I’m guaranteed credit for the discovery. This evidence includes mooring stone holes, grave sights, and what appears to be a petrified camel hoof. So far, my attempt to communicate this historic find has gotten nowhere. I am frustrated that I have found what historians have been looking for for a 100 years, and yet they seem happy staying with the myth rather than seeking proof of the truth.

[Editor's Note: Local DP Bo Hakala recently worked on a rune stone documentary that has been airing on the History Channel over the past few months. See the trailer here.]

… was famously uttered this day (11/5) in 1971 at the Met Sports Center in Bloomington (where IKEA is now located) following Elvis Presley’s kick-off concert to a 15-city North American tour. Al Dvorin made the announcement (”Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good night.”) in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore.

The phrase actually goes all the way back to 1955 with Elvis’ final appearance on The Louisiana Hayride radio show. The Met concert wasn’t his only Minnesota appearance, either. Elvis also performed a matinee show at the St. Paul Auditorium in May, 1956, before that evening’s performance in Minneapolis.

Stuff About Mpls retells a tale of a notorious hoodlum: His wife, Bernice, ran to his side. “You’ve killed him!” she screamed.

This was John Dillinger’s new partner.

The historic Pauline Fjelde House, which our own Ranty had published much research on, burned to the ground last night.

Probably not, but at least one forensic expert think it might: Not only does Wolter believe the stone is real and that it predates Christopher Columbus by more than 130 years, he also has come to the startling conclusion that the stone was carved by the Order of the Knights Templar, a medieval European military group, as a land claim for much of eastern North America.

Read on for the Holy Grain connection, which is metaphoric, rather than literal.

The Strib has a blog called Yesterday’s News, and it’s great fun, whether they are reprinting an opinion that the Nazis will lose due to their lack of a sense of humor, a tale of preemies on display at the State Fair, a Lux Soap ad, or some Minneapolis ghost stories.

Rhubarbism does some digging online and find this old article by former City Pages food writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl. The subject? Minneapolis’s wild and wooly past. It’s well worth revisiting. Some samples from the story:

The Sioux believed that this core of Minneapolis was a creepy place on two counts. The spirit of evil and waters, Oanktehi, lived behind the falls, and was given to making frequent and terrible mischief.

Minneapolis didn’t bother to lock up drunks; that was one of its attractions. Men from St. Anthony would come here for the pleasure of our liquor. “Every day,” noted the Minneapolis Tribune, “our city is visited by ‘denizens from the metropolis’ of the male persuasion …

The most violent of these shantytowns, Hell’s Half Acre, occupied the block between Eighth and Ninth Streets and Second and Third Avenues South. Mead’s History of the Police and Fire Departments described them as a settlement “of utter darkness, wailing, and woe. Bloody frays were a nightly occurrence….

Piggybacking on the release of the John Dillinger movie Public Enemies, which followed the last years of John Dillinger, who spent a fair amount of time in St. Paul, the Landmark Center is having an exhibit of artifacts from St. Paul’s shady past in the exact courtroom where both Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and Billie Frechette were tried. We visited yesterday, and it’s excellent (Eda Cherry does a write-up); best part: A lunatic propaganstic newsreel commissioned by Hoover to explain why agents shot Dillinger in the besk. The answer: he was a murderous mad dog, as the narrator keeps reminding with dialogue like “Dillinger’s mother died when he was three, which was good luck for her considering what a gorilla he would become!”

Coming on the heels of the “there are no black people in the Twin Cities” thread, I had to post this because it’s just … so … odd. Stuff About Mpls reprints a 1932 Mpls Journal story about the 83rd birthday of the first white child born in Minneapolis.

Lileks takes a look, illustrated with abundant photographs, of the Washington Avenue that used to be. More (Still being reconstructed.)