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(woman) "Prairie Mosaic" is funded by--
the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund,
with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota
on Nov. 4th, 2008;
the North Dakota Humanities Council,
a nonprofit independent state partner
of the National Endowment for the Humanities;
the North Dakota Council on the Arts,
and by the members of Prairie Public.
[bass, drums, and acoustic guitar play in bright rhythm]
Ž
Hi, I'm Bob Dambach, and I'm Barb gravel
Welcome to "Prairie Mosaic,"
a patchwork of stories about the people and the places
that contribute to the arts, culture,
and history in our region.
On this edition we'll meet a master woodcarver,
visit a unique art studio that feels like home,
and relax to the sounds of a musical group
who first met in a pastry shop.
The history of Detroit Lakes is interesting and unique,
thanks to the many lakes surrounding it
that have helped shape and develop the area.
You can learn all about that history
at the Becker County Historical Society and Museum
in downtown Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
[acoustic guitar plays softly]
The Becker County Historical Society was founded in 1882
as the Pioneer Settler's Union,
so we have a really long history here in the county.
The Settler's Union was a group of people--
you had to be able to prove that you had settled
in Becker County prior to 1872.
The county was opened for settlement in 1868,
and so those very early settlers started to gather their stories,
which is pretty amazing really
for that early in the history of our area.
And so we have all of these written histories and stories
of those original settlers, including people
who were the first in each township.
So they gathered those stories
and they also started to gather artifacts.
They actually held their collection in the library,
and that group eventually became
the Becker County Historical Society in 1943
and opened their first museum
in the basement of the Becker County Courthouse.
Our collection ranges from objects starting in 1812
and going all the way through about 1980 right now,
and we're moving forward past that.
The strengths of our collection really are
the Native American objects that you can come see,
both Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibwe.
And then we also do have some original pioneer settler's cabin
that has been moved a few times
and has wound up here inside the museum.
We also have the world's smallest gas station
in the basement, which is always
a fan favorite for people to come and visit.
The big folk hero of our museum I guess is Old Three Legs,
which is a wolf that the kids love to come and see.
Detroit was a natural place for settlement
because of the waterways here.
We have two big lakes, we have the Pelican River,
all converging in one spot.
It also was one of the first towns
that the railroad hit as it came through, so as
a result of that, it became a really thriving area as well,
and by 1881, '82, till about ten years later,
a fellow named John K. West was really interested
in promoting the tourist aspect of the lake.
He built the Minnesota Hotel, and it's really
a luxurious Victorian building, brightly painted.
He guaranteed also that you could get from train to hotel to lake
in one hour or less, which at that time was quite a big deal.
He also developed the Pelican River Navigation Company,
which was a series of canals, locks and dams,
that went from Lake Detroit to Lake Sallie and Melissa.
So you could literally go from the train station
in Detroit Lakes to your cabin at Lake Melissa
in about an hour's time, which was pretty phenomenal
given the time period that we're talking about.
There was also a huge draw
because of the ice that came from the lakes.
(man) Ice harvest began in 1887; it lasted till about 1970,
that's when Northern Pacific had ice-making equipment,
so they could uh, make ice on site.
But it was an important part of the development of this area,
because it provided jobs for people during the winter.
It was miserably cold work to be out there on the ice
working in below zero conditions, but up to 110 people
would be employed by the Addison Miller Company
harvesting ice for the railroad.
The ice was loaded into boxcars; they would ship
up to 4,000 boxcars a winter from Detroit Lakes west
and it provided work for about 6 to 8 weeks,
depending on weather conditions and how much ice was needed.
It's really a beautiful place to live, lots of wonderful scenery,
you can drive and see everything from a really dense woodland
that was once clear-cut for timber and is now grown back
all the way over to a really wide open prairie
in the very edges of Lake Agassiz,
so it's a beautiful, natural environment, I think.
Along with that, has a really interesting natural history.
So animals that live here that don't or aren't able
to live other places because of that.
We have been really a wonderful beneficiary
of legacy funding here at the museum.
We have traveling exhibits, both from
the Minnesota Historical Society
and the Minnesota Children's Museum.
We had a traveling exhibit last fall
from the National Museum of the American Indian,
part of the Smithsonian, and that is all because of the fact
that we have been able to access those Legacy funds,
which really has enhanced our ability to tell the story
of our history here in Becker County.
Two men who were in charge of the museum,
went and looked at this 40-by- 80-foot space and measured it
and said, "Oh my goodness, how will we ever fill it up?"
And now we have about 15,000 square feet
of uh collections and artifacts in our current location,
and we house about 20,000 artifacts
and 14,000 photographs,
along with a full research library and all kinds
of interesting things that people could come and see.
We are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 to 4:00
during the summer months, and then winter form November
through March 31st, we're open Tuesday through Friday
from 10:00 to 4:00, and we are always free!
Fred Cogelow's success comes from being
a self-described contrarian.
With wood as his medium,
the Willmar, Minnesota native
blends patience, skill, and humor
to create his award-winning sculptures.
[acoustic guitar plays smooth swing-jazz]
I think some people are just made to use their hands,
and I kind of was always drawn to wood and tools.
This was meant to be my refuge.
People drive me nuts; I love 'em, but they drive me nuts!
(woman) Fred's work is really multifaceted.
It's high quality, it's interesting material,
he's a well-known Minnesota artist,
he's capturing an everyday life
in a very hyperrealistic way.
People really see the high skill that's involved,
so they can appreciate it on kind of a skill level
as well as an aesthetic level.
(Fred) Instead of taking something like clay, where you have
both the option of putting it on and taking it off readily,
with wood you take your material and you pretty much remove it.
My father died when I was quite young, but he left
a fairly well-equipped shop, so I was out there quite often
trying to kill myself doing bad things with a table saw.
Working with disturbed adolescents,
I had to do one week of night watch every six weeks.
After you did your rounds, you main job was to stay awake,
and there was a block of wood there that one of the kids
had started carving on and had given up after rounding a corner,
and I thought I couldn't do any worse,
so I went and I took it and came back the next night
with some of my father's carving tools, his palm chisels,
and I was off to the races.
They're traditional edged tools.
They tend to be gouges of various sorts,
and a gouge basically, just a U shape
and then there's your V tools, and then your flat tools,
which are your chisels, your firmers, and your skews.
I designed a number of tools
that were manufactured for a while,
and I would say designed rather than invented,
'cause basically you modify existing forms.
I do photographic studies if it's a realistic thing,
but I don't do any modeling in clay or anything else.
I don't see the point of that; I figure why do something twice.
If I don't know what I want
in some particular spot of a composition, I'll oftentimes
leave a little extra wood there as I'm roughing things out
in case something occurs to me as I'm doing it.
So some of the design is usually on the fly.
This thing is titled,
"Don't Look Like Much of a Horse,"
and the subtitle is, "Yeah, You Ain't No Cowpoke Neither."
And it's my tribute to my late brother.
It's an experiment in deep relief.
Rules in relief are basically that you try to use
as much of the actual depths available as possible
for the most important elements and the foreground elements,
and that you try not to have the eye object.
When you're carving from a log,
you're problem is, the moisture is such that
you need to get rid of wood as fast as possible,
otherwise it'll all split.
The only stable way I know of doing it is to hollow them out.
The face is sort of like a landscape,
and ya' try to follow the contours of it.
I'm just trying to cheat that line of the lip
up just that little bit.
Go back and modify this again
when it's all said and done.
I have more lumber than I'll probably use in...
if I live to be 400 years old,
but yet I have this compulsive acquisition disorder,
and I can't pass up
a good lumber tree of some sort or other.
People are fond of referring
to me as a master woodcarver,
and I'm really not because I'm not adept
at a lot of the furniture carving and decorative arts.
There are even a lot of weaknesses in my human figures.
The main thing is I try to get enough feeling and character.
At least people seem to relate to them somehow.
It would be a mistake to underestimate Fred
by saying it's kind of almost a pedantic rural craft,
or something that's just only about tradition.
With the humor, and the politics that are in the work,
it's actually quite sophisticated.
(Fred) With carvings, it's a lot like getting married.
You don't realize the full extent of your commitments
until you're well into it.
You have to live up to your commitments
or else it's a messy divorce.
When Laura Moe decided to renovate her family home
in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, she knew
it wasn't going to be a typical remodel.
Her vision was to create several art studios within her home.
With the help of friends and lots of hard work,
aspiring artists now have
a comfortable space to create their art.
[acoustic guitar plays in bright rhythm]
The Artists Hub is a place
for students and artists to come
and create and collaborate, socialize, connect.
I've been collecting different art materials
and art equipment for many, many years,
and I decided to organize it into studios.
So I've created a clay area, mosaic area,
there's a woodshop area,
painting studio, a floor loom,
soon we'll have a darkroom.
We also have an area that we're developing for stained glass.
It's fun for people to come and go
and be able to use the equipment.
I don't know what it's going to be, you know,
you never know when you first start out.
It's just whatever, whatever it turns into.
This is like I just fell into the most wonderful dream.
It really is just fantastic.
I, um, have not done any pottery or any kind of art
for several, several years,
and I have wanted to get back into this.
So when I found out about this place,
I thought this is unbelievable.
(Laura Moe) The fee would be $15 a day
or you could take it out in sweat equity.
So for one hour you might want to go and weed
or you might want to paint a wall, or leave a sculpture,
something like that, almost like a co-op.
That's what I'd like to eventually get to is
self-running co-op of artists.
I met Millie Hansen down at a workshop
in Fergus Falls for rural arts.
I remember just feeling an instant connection with you,
and we exchanged business cards and we've been just conversing
ever since then, and I have been so just amazed at how much time
you've put in to come and put the loom together
and actually loan it to the Artists Hub,
and your beautiful art, and everything else.
(Millie) Oh thank you!
This kind of a loom is meant for weaving patterns.
It's old, as you can see, it's not varnished
and in perfect shape like a new loom.
It can do a lot more than I'm using it for; I'm just using a foot,
and it can weave all the way out to probably four feet.
I've been doing art since I can remember.
It's just really nice, it's a chance to be creative
and do what I want to do.
(Laura) Clay is made from sand and water and...
Constant challenge of funding; I can fund all this myself
and buy the materials.
It's a matter of how much my paycheck is
and how much I, how many other jobs I have.
I'm part of the mercantile downtown
and I work on my own artwork and teach.
You take your back of your fingernail and push down,
and blend it... push down and blend into the leaf.
Just seeing the spark and energy
and thrill of discovery in a student's eyes.
Somebody will ask, you know, what is the key to happiness?
And for me it's to create,
whether it's creating a poem, creating a piece of artwork,
creating an area for a plant to grow.
I just started printmaking about three years ago.
This is called a lithographic poly print.
You just take a oil based ink, you could use a Sharpie,
you could use a Bic pen, and draw your design on it.
I'm taking some water with some gum arabic on it,
and I'm going to roll this ink
onto the plate, and next is printing.
There it is.
It's a place where people can come and create,
but visual arts attract people.
The arts really are the base
for good economic development in a city and town.
[creating a bright dance rhythm]
My tools, basic tools,
is a jackknife and then some things
I made myself, some bows with sandpaper on them, and a file,
and another little sanding stick,
two different grades of sandpaper that get in parts
that I'm whittling on that I can't get otherwise.
Twisting the blade kind of takes out the shavings
that I want to get rid of.
And it ends up a little bit rough in here,
but then the sandpaper will take care of that.
I love meeting different artists and visiting with them
and their experiences and stories.
What do you think your experience is like
coming here to the Artists Hub?
What do you think about having this here in Pelican Rapids?
Ah, it's community; it's fabulous;
it's a way to share, learn, grow
for everybody and for me, it helps get me out of my studio
and keeps me from being such a hermit.
I get new ideas by everything that I see,
anybody that I talk to.
If they do something a certain way,
then that sparks something for me.
And likewise; I love sharing my ideas with other people.
I love Pelican Rapids, love small-town living,
and uh, really, really want to develop
a network and arts community here.
Amanda Standalone and the Pastry Shop Girls
first met while working at a local bakery.
Their music is a powerful mix
of blues and rock with a little bit of old-time harmonizing.
A welcome treat in today's music world.
[playing in a bouncy rhythm]
Ž Springtime brings us so many things Ž
Ž Well the flowers blooming and the sun is shining Ž
Ž But the thing that brings the biggest smile Ž
Ž Is the the thing we've been waiting for a little while Ž
Ž And Genevieve I'd like to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž
Ž Genevieve I'd like to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž
Ž Genevieve I'd like to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž
Ž To the world someday I'll introduce the most Ž
Ž Beautiful little girl Ž
Ž Springtime brought us so many things Ž
Ž Well the snow is falling and the rivers flooding Ž
Ž But hm-mm-mm all the while I got to walk around Ž
Ž With just the biggest smile because Ž
Ž Genevieve I got to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž
Ž Genevieve I got to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž Genevieve I got to welcome you to the world Ž
Ž
Ž To the world someday I'll introduce the most Ž
Ž Beautiful little girl Ž
Ž To the world someday I'll introduce the most Ž
Ž Beautiful little girl Ž
[washtub bass and wood block percussion play walkin' blues]
Ž Seems like I've known you for forever Ž
Ž It's more like forever and a day Ž
Ž Sometimes I feel we'll always be together Ž
Ž But then sometimes well it don't look that way Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You come crashing then slowly roll away Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You're here now but you're never here to stay Ž
Ž Never here to stay never here to stay oh oh Ž
Ž Never here to stay never here to stay oh oh Ž
Ž How it happened somehow I can't remember Ž
Ž It just happens that's what they say Ž
Ž I think you're like a cup of coffee in November Ž
Ž You're something warm on a gray and cloudy day Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You come crashing then slowly roll away Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You're here now but you're never here to stay Ž
Ž You're never here to stay never here to stay oh Ž
Ž Never here to stay never here to stay Ž
Ž You're never here to stay never here to stay oh Ž
Ž Never here to stay never here to stay Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You come crashing then slowly roll away Ž
Ž Our love is like the waves of the ocean Ž
Ž You're here now but you're never here to stay Ž
[playing in easy country rhythm]
Ž Three old crows sittin' on a wire Ž
Ž If I had half the heart of him Ž
Ž I'd set this world on fire Ž
Ž Hm, God I miss you Ž
Ž But if I had one thing to say Ž
Ž I'd say this to you Ž
Ž We drink till the last drop Ž
Ž And we sing till every song is sung Ž
Ž 'Cause some old crows die young Ž
Ž We dream of a better world Ž
Ž For our daughters and our sons Ž
Ž 'Cause some old crows die young Ž
Ž
Ž
Ž Three old crows sitting on a wire Ž
Ž One of them flew away Ž
Ž And he set our hearts on fire Ž
Ž Hm, God we miss you Ž
Ž But if I had one thing to say Ž
Ž I'd say this to you Ž
Ž We drink till the last drop Ž
Ž And we sing till every song is sung Ž
Ž Some old crows die young Ž
Ž
Ž We dream of a better world for our daughters and our sons Ž
Ž Some old crows die young Ž
Ž We go outside Ž
Ž And we always face that sun Ž
Ž 'Cause some old crows die young Ž
Ž We dream of a better world Ž
Ž For our daughters Ž
Ž And our sons Ž
Ž Some old crows die young Ž
Ž
Ž Some old crows die young Ž
Ž
Ž Some old crows die young Ž
If you know of an artist,
a topic, or an organization in our region
that you think might make for an interesting segment,
please contact us at...
I'm Barb Gravel.
Thank you for joining us for this edition of "Prairie Mosaic."
Ž
(woman) "Prairie Mosaic" is funded by--
the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund,
with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota
on Nov. 4th, 2008;
the North Dakota Humanities Council,
a nonprofit independent state partner
of the National Endowment for the Humanities;
the North Dakota Council on the Arts;
and by the members of Prairie Public.