Minnesota History Contest & a Book Signing

Today we held our annual Minnesota History Contest. What a wonderful group these young people are, so well behaved and excited. We had seven school participate this year; Badger, Greenbush/Middle River, Grygla, Karlstad Tri-County, Lancaster, and Roseau. Warroad took first second and fifth place, Badger - third, Lancaster -fourth and Roseau - sixth place out of 28 youngsters. To qualify, the students must place as the top three in their grade on their Minnesota history test. Some schools have 100 students in a grade which makes it quite competitive. The top six students in our test receive $50 saving bonds with the top three also receiving trophies. The children love it. It is always a relief to have it done. Now we need to start the test all over again for next year.
Yesterday I attended the book signing at our public library for Dean Hedlund's book “Old Tracker Joe and the Stone-Hearted Smuglies.".The illustrations are by artist Marv Espe and I believe they are like nothing Marv has ever done before. I don't even know if he has done art work for a book at any time. This very colorful and entertaining book is scheduled for release next April. It was great fun to have my photo taken with these two.