The Clearwater Area Historical Society has a new offering for residents interested in the history of the area, a DVD titled Crossing the Mississippi River at Clearwater Minnesota.

 

The DVD tells the story of how people crossed the Mississippi River at Clearwater from the mid-1880s to the present through photographs and video.

 

“It was a really fun project,” said Clearwater Area Historical Society member Karolyn Boucher. “Community members shared photos with us and we saw some we’d never seen before.”

 

Narrated by Clearwater resident George Simmons, the DVD begins with the first Clearwater ferry, and includes a video taken in 2014 of Dennis Miller, the last living Clearwater ferry operator.

 

The video was taken at the Clearwater Area Historical Society’s “Ferry Tales at the Landing” event, which they had invited Miller to attend. During the video he tells stories and answers questions from community members about his experiences as a ferry operator.

 

In 1930 the ferry was closed after a steel bridge was constructed in the same location from a secondhand bridge that was floated up the Mississippi from Anoka.

 

In the spring of 1943 the bridge was destroyed by ice jams. A ferry, which was built out of the lumber salvaged from the deck of the old bridge, operated once again until the new concrete bridge was completed in 1958. The DVD includes photographs of the ferry and the construction and dedication of the concrete bridge.

 

The DVD concludes with photographs of construction progress on the new Hwy. 24 Mississippi River Bridge, as well as images provided by the Minnesota Deptof Transportation (MnDOT) of what it will look like once it’s completed. The bridge is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017. 

 

Boucher said the DVD was a collaborative effort among numerous people. Photographs and content were obtained from historical society members and the community, the Stearns County History Center, MnDOT and others. Clearwater resident and recent high school graduate Patrick McRae built the DVD.

 

Along with Crossing the Mississippi River at Clearwater Minnesota, the Clearwater Area Historical Society has another DVD available, Clearwater Remembers, which is a collection of photos depicting early Clearwater life. It was created from the pages of the 1997 book of the same name that is out of print.

 

Each DVD is $10 and can be ordered from the historical society’s website at clearwaterhistory.org, their email at Clearwaterhistory@yahoo.com, or by calling Karolyn Boucher at 320-293-2242 or Sharon Lee at 320-558-6725.

 

Profits from the DVDs will be used to help pay for community events such as the trolley tours during Clearwater Heritage Days.

 

The Clearwater Area Historical Society is a non-profit organization whose mission is to chronicle the history of the Clearwater area with intent to actively collect, preserve and educate.