About


This website is the collaboration of a number of parties. Beginning in mid 90s Social Studies instructor Kelly Mesker began teaching a Local History course at Parkers Prairie High School. Over the course of nearly twenty years, Mesker and his students accumulated a lot of information and a lot of artifacts. A letter Mesker wrote to the Parkers Prairie Independent this past spring about his time teaching this course can be found here.

A number of research papers done by Mr. Mesker's Local History course can be found here.

The purpose of this site is to share slices of this accumulated history. The process will ongoing. The Minnesota History course and the Parkers Prairie History Club will be digging through the files and adding to the website. Please feel free to contact David O'Brien with questions.

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Parkers Prairie Baseball History

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A couple of years ago while I was at a wedding reception for a former student, I was chatting with Gale Iverson about the History Club and some of the things we have been up to the last couple of years. He mentioned to me that Donna Herdman had pictures of a number of local farms. I jotted myself a note. I was pleasantly surprised when I came to school one morning and had a message from her. She had beaten me to the punch. The History Club had begun its annual application process and we were looking at activities for the summer. The focus for the year is the changing rural landscape. When Donna mentioned the pictures she had, the fit could not have been more perfect. These photos were taken by Donna and her husband during the 90's. The sheer number of photos is remarkable and they provide the visual evidence of the importance of agriculture in this community (not that a drive through the countryside would not be ample enough evidence). The History Club spent a day scanning
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