What’s It Like [ . . . ] in Morrison County Project

Note: This essay project of the Morrison County Historical Society ran from 2011-2014. If you’d like to submit an essay, contact staff at 320-632-4007. Let staff know that you saw this project on the website.

Your Stories Are Needed

What’s it like to live in Morrison County, Minnesota? That’s what we want you (former and current residents) to tell us. Rather than collect your stories through traditional oral histories, we are interested in gathering them via short, focused essays (“mini memoirs”). Our goal is to collect a minimum of 100 essays, which will be posted on this blog and added to the collections of the Morrison County Historical Society.

The title of our project provides a clue as to how to proceed. The brackets sandwiched between “What’s It Like” and “in Morrison County” are to be filled with the topic of your choice.

Examples: “What’s it like [to write a poem] in Morrison County?” — “What’s it like [to pick up mail at the post office] in Morrison County?” — “What’s it like [to be French-Canadian] in Morrison County?”

The topics are only limited by your imagination. (See the Suggested Topics tab at the top of the page for more ideas.) We’re looking for between 200 and 1,000 words on subjects ranging from the mundane to the sublime. We’re more interested in the history than the grammar, so don’t let the mechanics of writing hold you back. (We’ll help with editing, if needed.)

For a complete description of the “What’s It Like” project and submission guidelines, check out the tabs at the top of the page. Send your essays to weymu@morrisoncountyhistory.org.

We look forward to your contributions.

What’s It Like Resource Pages

The following resources were created in order to provide guidance to contributors for the What’s It Like project:

Project Description

Writer’s Guidelines

Suggested Topics

Getting Started

Permission Form

What’s It Like Essays

Visit the following links to read essays that were submitted as part of the What’s It Like project.

Disclaimer: The views expressed within the essays are those of the individual authors and do not reflect the views of the Morrison County Historical Society.

To Be a Dancer

To Be a Volunteer at Church

To Be Transgendered

To Be a New Dog Owner

To Establish the Little Falls Granite Works in 1911

To Find the Elusive Job

To Be a Volunteer in a Small Town

Growing Up in Bygone Days

To Make Ashtrays

Selling to Lutherans

To Move to Morrison County

To Be a Packer Fan

To Be a Census Taker in 2010

To Be a Member of the Genealogy Society

To Be a Paper Boy

To Be a Frannie Girl

To Teach

To Be a Kiwanian

To Attend the Lutefisk Supper at Bethel Lutheran Church

To Be an Emigrant

To Rake Leaves

To Be a Car Hop

To Be a Shoe-Shine Boy at Little Falls and Camp Ripley

The Bridge to Everywhere: Little Falls, Minnesota, and beyond

To Grow Up Catholic

Bert Rudie – Part I

Bert Rudie – Part II

Bert Rudie – Part III

Bert Rudie – Part IV

Bert Rudie – Part V

Bert Rudie – Part VI

Bert Rudie – Part VII

Bert Rudie – Part VIII

Bert Rudie – Part IX

Bert Rudie – Part X

To Spend Your Summer in Morrison County

What’s It Like Banner Image

The photos in the banner at the top are from the collections of the Morrison County Historical Society.

From left to right, they are identified as follows:

Unidentified girl
John Van & Webster McDonald, pitcher & catcher of the Little Falls semi-pro baseball team, 1928
Unidentified woman
Twins – Mary & Grace Buckman
Ojibwe men on Broadway in Little Falls, MN, 1880
Laura Jane Moyer
Gladys Brown and her father, L.D. Brown, 1894-95
Unidentified man
Lyman Ayer
Ethel Lamb & Rella Johnson
Barney Burton