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250TH ANNIVERSARY: All-American Bear Contest winner revealed in commemorative section INSIDE
Community invited to honor the fallen at Vietnam remembrance event center to cities throughout the nation. White Bear Township was one of only 31 communities chosen to host The Wall That Heals in 2026, said White Bear Lake Historical Society Executive Director Sara Markoe Hanson. It is also the only Minnesota city on the tour. Community members still have a chance – until July 7 – to submit a loved one for inclusion in the traveling display. New names are no longer added to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., but a ceremony is held there every Father’s Day to commemorate veterans who returned home
BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Of the more than 68,000 Minnesotans who served in the Vietnam War, 1,077 never came home. These individuals – those lost and those who currently live in the community – will be honored at The Wall That Heals, a four-day memorial event and educational display hosted at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township, Aug. 6-9. The Wall That Heals, hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), brings a threequarter scale replica of the Washington D.C. Vietnam War Memorial and mobile education
MORE INFO Community members still have a chance – until July 7 – to submit a loved one for inclusion in the traveling display at The Wall that Heals, a four-day memorial event and educational display hosted at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township, Aug. 6-9. An application can be found at www.vvmf.org/ In-Memory-Program/.
SEE SUMMER MEMORIAL, PAGE 9
White Bear Lake’s connection to Revolutionary War BY LOGAN GION STAFF WRITER
While Minnesota became part of the United States in 1858, its history starts long before that. Part of that history, according to White Bear Lake Area Historical Society Creative Director Dan Jones, includes the Revolutionary War. “This area that we are in, White Bear Lake, was part of the Northwest Territories, which was, in 1776, controlled by the British,” Jones said. The St. Paul side of the Twin Cities metro, right up to the Mississippi River, officially became American territory when the Revolutionary War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. “People think, ‘Oh, we didn’t come around until the 1840s … but Minnesota was on the map before,” Jones said. The ancestors of White Bear Lake residents were also in America long before this city and township Kevin existed. Resident Kevin Donovan’s Donovan ancestor Ebenezer Varnum, for instance, fought in the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first engagements of The Revolutionary War. “My great aunt Gladys was an amateur historian … she started researching her family roots. This was in 1970. There was no Internet,” Donovan explained. “She drove around to various places and researched the family.” The oldest part of Donovan’s history Gladys was able to trace went back to 1728, when their ancestors left Northern Ireland and settled in New Hampshire.
PHOTOS BY PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Getting fired up for the 4th of July White Bear Lake will be celebrating the 4th of July with a variety of activities, including a fireworks display and vintage military airplane flyover. The fireworks can be viewed from West Park, Memorial Beach, Matoska Park, White Bear Lake County Park and on the water. Starting at 8:30 p.m., the Shoreview Northern Lights Variety Band will performing at West Park prior to the fireworks.
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