8/9 - University of Minnesota

Yesterday's 125-mile drive down to the Twin Cities went fine. We stayed off I-94 as far as possible and were really glad we had once we found out how rough it was. Northern states have a tough time with their roads because of freezing and thawing, but some of their roads handle it better than others. The concrete interstates we were on around Minneapolis were okay in the truck today but they caused very uncomfortable chucking with the fifth wheel in spite of the truck's adjustable air shocks.


Our most important things to do here involved visiting the campus of the University of Minnesota. In spite of the rain we decided to go there today to be sure we got everything done.  Via email over the past couple of weeks I've managed to get my father's class records and confirmation of when he graduated.....1923 with an E.M. degree in geology. The E.M. somehow stands for mining engineering but that designation is no longer used. 

The School of Mines 90 years ago, it's now the Education Sciences Building

Pillsbury Hall, at 127 years the second oldest building on campus 

These are the two buildings that held the School of Mines and the geology department back in the early 1920's.  The geology department's move out of Pillsbury Hall started today which explains the line of moving crates in front. The building's interior will be renovated and the facility turned over to the English department. Earth Sciences will finally be housed in one building after having to deal with being inconveniently divided between four buildings for years. 

Somewhere in those packing crates is my father's thesis which the administrator has promised to locate and scan after the move. It's a big deal because he disproved Bunsen's theory of geysers which appears to still be accepted from what I can determine online. His professor told him he couldn't publish it at the time because he'd done something illegal to prove his theory but he's been gone for 34 years so that doesn't matter any more. (He blew up a geyser in Yellowstone by throwing a bar of soap in it.)

An information board in front of Pillsbury Hall tells about the building and the university's geology department. It includes a photograph of a group of geology students on top of Harney Peak in the Black HIlls of South Dakota in 1922. I was astounded to find my father in the picture (lower right). Of all the pictures they could have used, that they got one with him in it is amazing. 


After lunch we went to the university's library that has archived records. We went through the 1922 and 1923 yearbooks and found more information. They are online but the yearbooks are all quite different which makes it difficult to find things. Each year had a different editorial board so there was no uniformity. The 1923 yearbook didn't include pictures of the graduating class but did have pictures of the juniors. Go figure.

We got a cloudy view of the skyscrapers of Minneapolis. We'll be going into the city again so hope for better weather the next time. We had rain jackets and an umbrella with us but left them in the truck when we set off on foot for Pillsbury Hall which was several blocks from the only place we could find to park. By the time we started back it was raining and we got drenched. We dried out while eating lunch in a great little Middle Eastern restaurant near where we'd parked. There's no shortage of eateries so choosing one was difficult. When school is in session there's undoubtedly no shortage of starving students either.


We had a couple of hours available so could have stopped off at the Mall of America which was on our way back to the campground. When I mentioned it to Jim he shuddered. Neither of us likes crowds or traffic so we decided to pass up the mall in favor of spending the rest of the afternoon in peace and quiet. A mall is a mall whether it has one floor or four.