Why should people care about history?
For those that take the time, history is the only way for humans to observe and learn from the past, so that an individual may feel a sense of understanding to build for an ever-improving future. This is what school and books and senior citizens and life are about. It's called history.

What people or events helped spark your interest in history?
When I was young, my uncle gave me his stamp collection. I really enjoyed looking at the old stamps. They came from around the world so I wondered what it was like in these faraway places in a faraway time.

Another reason for my interest in history's preservation happened when my great aunt had a garbage hauling company remove all of the "junk" out of the old home my relatives had lived in for decades. I was horrified! I had loved going through the attic and finding Civil War mementoes and other family treasures; all of which were lost that day. It made me realize how quickly our physical links to the past can be lost if you fail to protect them.

What are compelling stories from our communities?
My wife and I owned the Bluff Creek Inn in Chanhassen for ten years. The house was built around 1860 and has many incredible features like hand-kilned brick, hand-hewed floors, and a tree trunk that acts as the house's center post. If these walls could talk!

I also had the pleasure of talking with the late Arlo Hasse a number of times. Arlo was an expert on Dakota history and he told me stories about the medicine men who would come from Canada and other regions to use the mud from the Seminary Fen and silt from area lakes for medicine. This land has been special to generations of Native Americans.