Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Minnesota/Archive 4

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

Interesting book about Twin Cities architecture

There's a new book out from the Minnesota Historical Society, the AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. It has a lot of information about the architecture and history of buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul, including some notes on historic districts and some buildings that have been demolished. It's written by Larry Millett, who also wrote Lost Twin Cities and Twin Cities Then and Now. It makes for fascinating reading, and I think other people here at WP:WPMN would be interested. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 15:09, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I picked it up a few weeks ago and finally cracked it open, it's an excellent resource and I also highly recommend it. I was able to track down the two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the Twin Cities and was able to get photos of one (the other is not very visible from the road). As a quick-reference, here's the citation using the cite book template:

<ref name=Millett>{{cite book |last=Millett |first=Larry |authorlink=Larry Millett |title=AIA Guide to the Twin Cities: The Essential Source on the Architecture of Minneapolis and St. Paul |year=2007 |publisher=[[Minnesota Historical Society|Minnesota Historical Society Press]] |location= |isbn=0-87351-540-4 |pages= }}</ref>

NOTE: you'll still want to put it in between the ref tags if you want it to show up at the bottom of the page. The page numbers are optional, but it's a big (600+) book and most entries take only one or two pages. --Bobak 15:15, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Star Tribune linking

I have sent this feedback to the strib about their policy of killing old news articles (which wreck our references)

"Please make old articles available when linked from wikipedia.org. Star tribune articles are often used for references on wikipedia but when they are archived the link goes dead. If you search for an article you can often find it with a slightly different URL. This discourages using the strib as a reference. Right now thousands and thousands of pages on wikipedia link to the strib as shown here, but many have their links broken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Linksearch&target=%2A.startribune.com&namespace=&limit=500&offset=0

I would like to be contacted either way on this issue.

Thanks, <my real name>"

-Ravedave 16:27, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Good luck. It seems that many newspapers now hide their archives behind subscription. BBC[1] and MPR[2] however do not, so those are more durable sources for articles of international and local significance respectively. Often content no longer available on the free parts of newspaper websites can be found on MPR. Kablammo 17:47, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

While their link cutting does hurt our external linking, I think we're all right if we can make sure to continue including the information (author/title/date) that would help someone find the article independently. The NYT and LA Times don't appear to cut links, rather have them redirect to the pay-first archive page. --Bobak

Bravo! Good idea. Hope it works. Cricket02 05:22, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Edit war at KMSP-TV

There seems to be an edit war going on at KMSP-TV, with two users arguing over formatting and wording. I don't think there's any constructive work taking place on the article, though. Someone should check on it and see if they can foist some progress onto the article. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 23:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Article names: Current or that used in the National Register of Historic Places

There was discussion on the article for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Depot Freight House and Train Shed (U.S. National Register of Historic Places), now officially called "The Depot" (including in Larry Millett's new AIA guide), on whether we should go with the name on the National Register (in this case, a very long and archaic name) or what people call it today. Ask Elkman put it, it might confuse tourists or others trying to find the location by asking locals. Redirects (and disambiguation pages) can help point everyone to the right article, regardless of which direction is chosen. However, looking at the Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places's position on article names ("The name of the article should be the current, formal title of the place. Other accepted names can be indicated in the first sentence with bold text."), it would be the current common name is the correct name to use. However, I wanted to first bring it up here so that we can all be on the same page and bring in opinions --though I didn't sense there was great passion on any particular side of this point. --Bobak 20:17, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Target corp up at FAC

FYI Target_Corporation is up at Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Target_Corporation. I plan to do a run through tonight. -Ravedave 20:22, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Columbus, MN

Columbus, Minnesota, which incorporated last year, needs a map and general formatting changes. DandyDan2007 20:29, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Might be able to help

Hey Wikiproject members. I'm a native Minneapolitan back home for a month with nothing to do. So I thought I'd take some photos and GFDL them for various Minnesota articles. I looked through the category and there are definitely photos I can contribute, but I also saw you have a list of articles that you are working on specifically. So I figured I'd ask if there's any ranking of needed photos by importance. I'm in Minneapolis but I'm wheeled, so anything in the extended Twin Cities area is a possibility. Natalie 16:39, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

St. Anthony Falls Historic District

Hello. This product of being bold may prove to be a candidate for deletion. Just "because it's there" I made a List of contributing properties in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District and linked that to Saint Anthony Falls. It could take many person-lifetimes to complete and I can't offer to straighten it out, but it may prove to be useful or not. Thoughts? -Susanlesch 02:34, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

It's handy for listing out what needs to be done. There are lots of "data page" type things on WP. This one seems to be sourced so I don't think it will be deleted. -Ravedave 02:57, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks and for the help. Rated it start for now. -Susanlesch 23:11, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I suggest re-titling the List article as "St. Anthony Falls Historic District" and providing some overview before the list. This could then be developed in more detail than would be appropriate within the article about St. Anthony Falls. The district deserves to be a separate article. FYI, a very incomplete article on another historic district that I worked on, barely starting its list, is Geneseo Historic District. doncram 00:12, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Grand Forks

FYI our neighbors to the west have Grand Forks, North Dakota up for FAC and would probably appreciate a revirew. Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota -Ravedave 02:57, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The article was promoted to FA status! --MatthewUND^(talk) 06:55, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Featured list possibilities

There are several recent featured lists that could be copied for Minnesota.

• List of counties in Arizona
• Current members of the Maryland House of Delegates
• List of state symbols of Maryland

and an older one:

• List of Pennsylvania state parks

I have been trying to work on our state park list for a while, and added a schnazzy map, but more text is needed. -Ravedave 18:12, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I am considering nominating List of Governors of Minnesota for featured list status. It is roughly modeled after the List of Presidents of the United States. Any thoughts/suggestions? -Gopherbone 20:14, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I-35W Mississippi River Bridge tragedy

I'm sure just about everyone's heard about this, this has turned a few articles into current events. --Bobak 23:50, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

YES I have been having a hell of a time editing out or straightening up information. Honestly there are many articles which have a mention of this bridge/incident when to us Twin Citians it is clearly an unrelated or vaguely linked topic. It has also led to people editing information in the WRONG place such as incorrectly stating the I-94 bridge went down. Sigh I guess CNN does encourage people to do stupid things. Davumaya 10:01, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Duluth GA/R

Please be advised that the Duluth, Minnesota aticle is currently being demoted from its GA status at WP:GA/R. The causes are: not enough references, too much lists, and random year wikification.--SidiLemine 13:02, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

At Duluth GA/R. Kablammo 16:27, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

University of Minnesota Medical Center or Saint Paul photo

Hello. Is Image:University_of_Minnesota_Medical_Center-Fairview-20050611.jpg the University of Minnesota Medical Center Phillips-Wangensteen Building? The photographer is from out of town and wasn't sure. It looks like other photos of the building but much larger than I imagined. Thanks in advance. -Susanlesch 03:05, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

• The photo includes several buildings that make up the U's Medical Center complex. This map gives the names of the buildings in the photo. --Gopherbone 03:54, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

• Thank you very much, Gopherbone. I changed the caption to "Phillips-Wangensteen, Moos Tower and other buildings in the East Bank complex" hoping that will be a start anyway. -Susanlesch 04:30, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Man, that picture is crooked. Do you have software to straighten it up? I'd guess it needs about 2 degrees CCW. --Appraiser 13:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

• OK I rotated it. -Susanlesch 13:41, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Photo help

Hello. Could anyone here evaluate this photograph at the top of Minneapolis, Minnesota and make software adjustments? We are so lucky to have the picture and maybe it is fine as is. AllPosters.com item# 2611855 is very close to the same skyline selling for $40 to $400 per copy. I was shooting for a fake blue to emphasize the lake but wonder what other approach is better, or if no changes is considered best and fairest to the photographer? Or maybe do you know of a recommended Wikimedia image lab where people can work in English language? I am at a total loss with image sofware (no idea if I should choose levels, brightness, contrast, saturation, lightness etc. or some combination of them) and keep hoping that someone would recognize that and fix this one. At the moment the trees are posterized to bring up their lightness, just a random guess. Thanks. -Susanlesch 02:44, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not too sure about the posterizing -- it removes a lot of colors in the trees and makes them look unnatural. (The Radisson Hotel downtown also looks a little bit strange with the posterizing.) I brought it into Paint Shop Pro and upped the saturation by 24% and decreased the lightness by 7%. Increasing the color saturation makes the sky and the water look bluer, while decreasing the lightness just a bit keeps it from looking washed out. Let me know what you think.

On a tangentially related note, I went back to try to take a replacement picture of the William Gray Purcell House, but I got the same problem that I had before -- the terra cotta chimney blends right into the sky, causing the same blown-out highlights problem as before. In fact, it was even worse than before -- I lost details around the leaves. So much for that attempt, I guess. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 04:18, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

• Boy thanks a bunch for trying. I think we should keep working on the skyline. The photographer's other shots that day on Flickr show he was there near or in the middle of a thunderstorm but software can fix that. Maybe a day away from it will get my perspective back. -Susanlesch 04:47, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Geography of Minnesota

Right now there is an article entitled Regions of Minnesota, which is not really a stand-alone article. It might make more sense to start an article on Geography of Minnesota and incorporate the Regions article (or do a move), and add additional information. (A comparision might be Geography of the United States, which however is not in very good shape itself, and includes a section on climate which may not belong.) I have enough unfinished projects and will not start another now; I post the suggestion here to see (1) if others agree, and (2) to see if anyone wants to take a crack at it. Kablammo 16:30, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I like that idea. Gopher backer 16:51, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it could work. I quickly perused the articles that link to "Regions". Most of them are via the State template, which could easily be changed to "Geography". But in the article List of regions of the United States, many states link to State Regions articles. Would it be just as appropriate to link to a geography article from there? It's a superset of information that may or may not make sense. Perhaps it could link to a Regions section within Geography?--Appraiser 17:26, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

It's interesting that the links for most states are just to individual regions. There are few statewide or superregional articles, and it looks like a good proportion of those few are just lists. I like your last suggestion, and link to the part of the geography article dealing with regions.

One problem with an article on regions is that regions differ (tourist regions, demographic regions, political subvisions, biomes, geological regions). An article on geography may be the place to describe those differences.

No rush to decide any of this; it's just floated as a trial balloon to see what everyone thinks. Kablammo 19:04, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and did this. I moved Regions of Minnesota to Geography of Minnesota, and then just copy & pasted the Geography section from Minnesota in as a start. I also updated the Minnesota template, but when I look at 'What links here' on Regions of Minnesota, I think everything in the template is still showing up. Did I miss something? Gopher backer 18:02, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

I think it might take a while for the servers to change the transclusion. Maybe check it again tomorrow.--Appraiser 18:49, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Another state up for FA

Oklahoma is up at Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Oklahoma.I know we have some state FA writing experts around who may want to give it a copy editing pass :). -Ravedave 04:07, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Man, I was reading that article, and it's almost as good as ours. :) ~ UBeR 04:16, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Hah. Our sub articles are incredibly robust that's my favorite part. Two are FA's... thats pretty kickass. -Ravedave

One of the links is to Oklahoma Supreme Court. It would be wonderful if Minnesota Supreme Court were as robust.--Appraiser 15:33, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Well get to it!  :^) -Ravedave 05:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Meetup?

Is there any interest in having another meetup? I'm thinkin someplace like a bar this time so we can mingle. -Ravedave 05:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Yay old st. anthony main: Pracna! Or Tugg's Tavern. In a twist of irony since the I-35W bridge has begun plaguing our articles, why not have a drink just upriver. Davumaya 10:05, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe everyone should all head out to Tenney and have Spottacus give a tour! Kablammo 18:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

All are welcome! I don't live there but I know everyone who does, and they'd love to have you. They've even been sprucing up their Social Hall in hopes that people will come out for a visit. And I'd host a barbecue and bonfire on my property there. If I sound overeager, that's because I am!Spottacus 18:48, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

We could ask the NoDak folks. Maybe Jimbo would come. Is there a place to float his yacht? Kablammo 19:07, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

The Bois de Sioux River is a couple of miles away, although if it rains hard we might be able to float it in a ditch. But seriously, I'd love to host a get-together. Consider it.Spottacus 21:51, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

• Is there public transportation there? I will be in Minneapolis for a couple weeks starting 17 September. -Susanlesch 20:01, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

• Although I wouldn't mind a site-seeing trip to the west coast where Tenney is, I'd really rather have a meetup in the cities, where all the people are. I think the population center of the state is near Elk River, but a meeting place on a transit line makes. I vote for Nordeast. --Appraiser 21:48, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

• Damn, I asked about this on the wrong page apparently... I'm also for anywhere in the metro, particularly in the downtown --but first ring suburbs like St. Louis Park, Rosedale or St. Paul (heh) also work. St. Anthony Main is always a fun place, Pracna has plenty space. --Bobak 14:52, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
• A walk in the woods sounded nice. I don't know if there is a train or bus. Spottacus, it was very nice of you to offer to host. I can get to Nordeast or St Anthony. Will check back. -Susanlesch 00:24, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
• Thinking, maybe there could be two, one up north and one in the cities. Two people mentioned Pracna. How about next weekend, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, 28, 29 or 30 September at Pracna on Main? Can anyone make that and what time? Do they require reservations or is it more like a bar? -Susanlesch 01:36, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

• Pracna is a restaurant/bar with a large side room (and large patio) and normally wouldn't need a reservation for a group of under 20 (just from my experience). A call wouldn't hurt, of course (once a date/time is set). As a college football nut (and very active participant in Wikiproject College Football), I lean against Saturday (unless its afternoon, not night). --Bobak 05:19, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I'd be up for another meetup. Should we be talking about it here? I almost missed in on Talk:WP-MN. --Marumari 20:29, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

• This Sunday 1pm or this Friday 7pm? If two people agree on a day and time I could help spam talk pages tonight. Also will post this on the page Marumari has here, thanks. If it turns out to be too much of a rush don't mind me but here's hoping you take a photo. -Susanlesch 22:13, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

• Either works for me, though I'd prefer Sunday at 1 PM. I can take pictures, assuming Pracna is a contributing property to the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District. If it isn't, then maybe some people could lean against the Pillsbury "A" Mill. (Or maybe I could just take normal pictures.  :)) --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 22:23, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

• Or, as proposed at Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Minneapolis, we could do October 7 as well. I think Appraiser said he wouldn't be able to do it before then. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 22:26, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

• Pracna is a part of the district, and is the oldest restaurant in the city (though there was a break in operation, so it is the oldest restaurant space in the city). I'm fine with either Friday 7 or Sunday 1. Just be sure to spam me so I know to go! --Bobak 17:10, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
• How about seconding October 7 at 1:00pm? If two people think so I will try to send some spam on Friday after work pointing to the meetup page. -Susanlesch 00:59, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

• Seconded! --Bobak 01:03, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
• Works for me too. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 04:11, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Please continue converstaion at Wikipedia_talk:Meetup/Minneapolis#2007_meetup —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ravedave (talk • contribs) 04:32, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

List of Minnesota state parks

List of Minnesota state parks is almost ready to go up over at Featured list candidates. The article needs copy editing and fact checking though. I have split the parks into groups of 7 for people to help out with on the discussion page. Any help would be appreciated! -Ravedave 00:20, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Disasters map

Hi. While working on the bridge article I made a map of disaster declarations during August and will check the SBA for fire counties as well and remove the dots. If you see any problems there corrections welcome. -Susanlesch 03:22, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

That's a lot of disasters. Would it be possible for you to color-code the dots or the counties to distinguish between flood, fire, bridges, droughts, and draughts? Thanks. --Appraiser 13:12, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Rating of fine arts organizations

I have rated (or in two cases re-rated) as High importance the following arts organizations:

• Guthrie Theater
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts
• Minnesota Orchestra
• Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
• Walker Art Center

They are probably as important to the culture of Minnesota as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art are to New York City. (Inexplicably the New York Philharmonic has not been rated.) I have not yet added them to the table on the project page, in case anyone thinks they should instead be rated lower.

All of these articles need work; all have been rated Start except for the Guthrie (B).. They could be fruitful sources of WP:DYKs. Kablammo 20:26, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Requests

Can we set up a requests section on here as a way of getting some organization of which Minnesota articles are yet to be created? I'd be happy to spend a little time sorting through some stuff to get them up if someone with better knowledge wants to create a sub-page or something. matt91486 05:51, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Summit Avenue

We should have an article about Summit Avenue, especially since it has such great architecture and many historic buildings. (There's actually an article at Summit Avenue right now, but it's about a band, not the street.)

There's just one thing, though: Should the article be called Summit Avenue, or should it reflect the fact that there's a larger historic district? The National Register of Historic Places calls it "Historic Hill District", while Larry Millett's book AIA Guide to the Twin Cities says that names such as Ramsey Hill, Summit Hill, Crocus Hill, Cathedral Hill, and St. Anthony Hill have all been applied to the area. It further goes on to explain that Summit Hill (also popularly known as Crocus Hill) is south of Summit and extends along the bluffs to Lexington Parkway, including Grand Avenue, while Ramsey Hill is generally the part north of Summit Avenue. Millett's book groups the buildings into those on Summit Avenue itself, those on Summit Hill, and those on Ramsey Hill.

With all that in mind, I'd like some comments on what the article should be named and what it should include. (Or, if we should have two or more articles based on some grouping criteria, I'm open to that too.) I'd like to make this a collaborative project since there's a lot to be written about the historic buildings and structures in the Summit Avenue area. Thoughts? --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 01:50, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the history of the Summit Avenue article, currently about the Minnesota band, you will see that it was once an article about the historical avenue.[3] The page was later replaced with an article about a less novel band (because the old article was previously deleted and redirected to the St. Paul article, per an old discussion). I added a disambiguation to the top of the page, so readers curious about the street could go to to St. Paul neighborhoods, which discusses the Summit-University neighborhood a little bit.

I think, however, the article should reflect on the great amount of information and history the street has to offer. I personally would have the article titled Summit Avenue (the band can go to Summit Avenue (band)). That would also satisfy WP:COMMONNAME. ~ UBeR 03:36, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree. The street has been, and will be, there for a long time; the band will not. Kablammo 13:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

• I would suggest creating a DAB page at "Summit Avenue", renaming the band to Summit Avenue (band), and creating Summit Avenue (Saint Paul street). There's also a Summit Avenue (book)[4], a subway station in MA, Summit Avenue (MBTA station) (see List of stations on the MBTA subway), and a coop (that's not in MN)[5]. From a global standpoint, I don't think the street trumps all the other uses enough to avoid the parentheses.--Appraiser 14:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Fine by me.Kablammo 15:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I understand that other things are named Summit Avenue but I don't think these are very notable. The likelihood of a 17-member co-op getting an article seems slim and so I don't think a disambiguation page would be useful. On another note, I have a book about Summit Avenue called St. Paul’s Historic Summit Avenue [6]. The book has some good chapters on the preservation and zoning requirements. The book also has some stuff on the early history and of course the architectural styles. So, I'd be willing to help out. P.Haney 01:23, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Mpls articles have a tradition of street articles: Eat Street and Nicollet Avenue both have pages (though I am considering merging Eat Street into Nicollet) Lake Street (Minneapolis) Hennepin Avenue etc. However the main reason for these street articles is that they are a very minor portion of the existing neighborhood's history and so operate more like separate expanded section pages. And in Minneapolis many of our major streets straddle the borders of neighborhoods proper and take on a life of their own. Lyn-Lake for example is a "fake" neighborhood branded by the business assoc and the n'hoods have little to do with the streets. Justification is there for Summit Avenue's own article. .:DavuMaya:. 17:46, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Economics help needed for Leonid Hurwicz on main page

Hello. Based on three general audience news articles today there is some information in place about the work of Leonid Hurwicz who is on the Wikipedia main page I have no knowledge of economics and would appreciate any additions and corrections by anyone who does. -Susanlesch 17:23, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I nominated it for DYK, the tag being his status as the oldest recipient of a Nobel Prize in any category. It would still use some fleshing out, both on his work and bio. Kablammo 20:45, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Kablammo, thanks. By a rough count it was 1089 characters, is now 3306, for five-fold expansion that DYK could ask for, I figure 5445. We are getting there. -Susanlesch 20:57, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Turns out it is a slow news week. The photo was used, the prize is still on the main page (after five days?). If you want to bail out on the nomination that is fine either way. Thanks for your help! -Susanlesch 00:12, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

This article is on hold for GA. No guarantee it will make it, but I will try to finish up the reviewer's list in the next day or two. Again if anyone in WikiProject Minnesota would like to try or maybe has some knowledge of economics (or maybe even attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) your help is most welcome! Best wishes. -Susanlesch 20:35, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

• Hi. I do have a degree from the University of Minnesota. But unfortunately I have never met Dr. Hurwicz, I have no knowledge of economics, or Poland, or Chicago, or Iowa. Go fish. What does that mean? -Susanlesch 09:00, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
• Punch line? JavaScript is my guess. -Susanlesch 09:43, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
• Peculiar, because I don't know JavaScript. Other than to copy someone else's code. -Susanlesch 14:29, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Hello. This article failed GA because I refuse to edit it until someone else replies here. Is anyone reading this a graduate or student at the University of Minnesota? Failing that, is anyone else from WikiProject Minnesota available to say, post a reply? -Susanlesch (talk) 11:35, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Fact check for New Brighton, Minnesota

I was looking through New Brighton, Minnesota (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) and I think there are a number of "facts" that are completely dubious:

• "This was all due to surveying errors in 1758 when the town was first settled as a copper mine for Indian traders." It couldn't possibly have been surveyed under the Public Land Survey System at that time. And since when was New Brighton known for copper mining?
• "But as early as 1735 when a white settlement was established in what is now Long Lake Regional Park near Rice Creek, the demographic shift towards a majority of non-Indians occurred." Again, this is highly dubious. Any whites in the area would have been voyageurs, who weren't known for making settlements.
• "Beginning in the early 1840s, New Brighton was one of the original "Wild West" towns created by Buffalo Bill Cody to promote settlement of western lands. This was also an outcome of the Land Ordinance Act of 1841 which engendered western settlement. With the help of the railroad, settlers were able to plow the prairies of New Brighton and begin farming, and New Brighton became a model "western" town." This is completely at odds with the history of New Brighton from the city's web site.
• "New Brighton's groundwater is highly acidic and contains elements of hydrogen sulfide. Arsnec is also present in small quantities." This might be sneaky vandalism in a paragraph of otherwise-factual information about New Brighton's water, as mentioned here and here.
• "The northern part of New Brighton used to be called Irondale. This is evidenced by the name of New Brighton's only high school, Irondale High School. This northern region used to be a company town around the turn of the 20th century of an iron mining corporation. Irondale High School stands on the site of the original company town's elementary school." Has anyone else here ever heard of iron mining in New Brighton? You'd think it would be documented somewhere, along with the Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cuyuna Iron Ranges.
• A lot of stuff in "Interesting facts" is pretty trivial and not all that interesting.

I think a lot of the contributions of Special:Contributions/209.98.241.228 are suspicious, at least toward this article. I'm not sure about their contributions to Longville, Minnesota (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views). Does anyone have any opinions about what we should do with this article now? Going back to the original Rambot article would be overkill, but I'm concerned about a bunch of New Brighton elementary school kids getting excited about looking for old copper and iron mines in the town. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 04:37, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Let's remove anything that sounds dubious that is unsourced.--Appraiser 13:05, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Agree nuke it from orbit. -Ravedave 14:35, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I had a chance to talk to an Irondale HS parent and I asked him where the name came from. He said that there used to be a foundry near where the school is. On the city's history page, it mentions, the "Harris Forge and Rolling Company, operating two iron rolling mills..."[7] I can't find any source that directly links Harris with "Irondale", but I think it is more likely than anything having to do with mining.--Appraiser 15:15, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

The only Indian copper mine which I found mentioned in the region was on Isle Royale, on Lake Superior. (SEWilco (talk) 05:28, 26 November 2007 (UTC))

Great River Road - region of Minnesota?

Need some input over at Template_talk:Minnesota. User:Flyingmember believes the Great River Road is a region of Minnesota - Ravedave —Preceding comment was added at 05:23, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

On the question posed above, the Great River Road is not a region or subregion, but a feature or cluster of features along the Mississippi, particularly the Hiawatha valley of the SE Minnesota region. Kablammo 16:48, 27 October 2007 (UTC) On the general question of regions, see Talk:Geography_of_Minnesota#Regions. Kablammo 19:17, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Deletion discussions

Deletion discussions on articles on subjects related to Minnesota:

• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shepard Road/Warner Road --NE2 00:37, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Result was Keep.

• Relates to List of foreign consulates in Minneapolis

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of foreign consulates in Oklahoma City P.Haney 22:31, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Subproject?

Does WP do subprojects? I'm thinking of doing a South of the River or Southern Twin Cities collaborative that involves all the southern suburbs and outlying cities up to maybe Northfield. The reason being most of this area is linked under a combined history and continues to be interlinked (County Road-42 is an example of why). As I continue to edit articles, things that happened in one suburb/city ends up directly relating everywhere. As well Northfield editors quipped that Burnsville Center is somehow integrated into Northfield's survival/economy (albeit as a Bvillian I have never met a Northfielder at our mall). I'd like to continue exploring these supposed links and make the project more encompassing. This would also assist in getting all our start/stubby suburban articles up to par since their combined populations are starting to rival Minneapolis. 64.122.208.184 18:36, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry this is me. .:DavuMaya:. 18:47, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Hm, might consider a new Category instead. We'll see. .:DavuMaya:. 15:25, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Subprojects are perfectly fine for WP! I've started one for the Minnesota Vikings of WP:NFL RyguyMN (talk) 01:10, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Rename article?

I think The quad cities should be moved. If you have suggestions, please click Talk:The quad cities. Thanks.--Appraiser 13:56, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Moved and cleaned up a little. Needs references and a lot of work. Any volunteers? Kablammo (talk) 01:21, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Photo map and coordinates

Please try to include geographical coordinates on articles of locations for which photos are desired, to help photographers find subjects. When looking at Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Minnesota I noticed that many requested state parks weren't showing in the category's map of requested photos. I added coordinates for all the state parks to the parks' articles so those will now show on the map. (SEWilco (talk) 05:04, 26 November 2007 (UTC))

Townships

Greetings! I see that the townships in Minnesota are named such that the county name appears in the article name only for disambiguation (if there are multiple townships with the same name), and I wondered if there would be any interest in moving to the naming convention "X Township, Y County, Minnesota" for all townships.

On a related note, I am able to provide county maps highlighting individual townships if that would be helpful; I've already done so for the townships in Indiana. Omnedon (talk) 19:44, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Sad day, help needed

Hello, anyone, could you possibly help me with the user who has been escalating and is now prolonging whatever on the talk page of Star Tribune? -Susanlesch (talk) 16:36, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Again a baffling lack of feedback here. Folks, yesterday as a member of the self-appointed Wikipedia Welcoming Committee, I was led to notice that one Talk archive page in Elkman's directory showed up in my watch list, so I welcomed that person at User talk:66.188.147.210. -Susanlesch (talk) 15:55, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Maybe nobody answered here because many watchers of this page are also likely to be watching the STrib page too. -- SEWilco (talk) 05:22, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I just signed on to the project

But where are the articles on or related to fishing and hunting in minnesota? Outdoor activities. I just added Common Pheasant to the project, but am unsure how to attract attention to it. (This article was already in the South Dakota project, but probably due to smaller human population of that state, it did not receive attention.) TableManners (talk) 04:57, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

There is a section, "outdoor recreation" in the Minnesota article. If you have a lot to add, perhaps you should create Outdoor recreation in Minnesota though; the contributors work constantly to prevent growth in the size of Minnesota. There are also articles about each of the state parks, and you may be interested in the articles in Category:Natural history of Minnesota. You may also be interested in North Woods. As for drawing attention, new Minnesota-related articles appear in User:AlexNewArtBot/MinnesotaSearchResult a day or two after they are created; some members of the project review the new articles on a regular basis. Additionally, adding the WP:MN template to talk pages may add some traffic, as it adds the article to Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Minnesota articles by quality/1 and Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Minnesota articles by quality log. Welcome to the project!--Appraiser (talk) 14:20, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget Ecology of Minnesota. A section on interaction between hunters/nature could be interesting. -Ravedave (talk) 20:27, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi, TableManners. I took a peek and liked your article. Somewhere I read about a Pheasant Fest in Saint Paul but a real live pheasant has been rare during my life (I might have seen one, don't know). Best wishes for the holidays and the new year. -Susanlesch (talk) 06:48, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Minnesota Relay

Hello. Does the state of Minnesota home page say that deaf access to phone services are interrupted until January? I think that is what this page says. Someone reminded me Wikipedia isn't a news service. I couldn't really find a good spot to add this in Minnesota. -Susanlesch (talk) 07:44, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Another thing I don't know anyone to ask about. Gadgets Affected by Analog Shutdown (Associated Press via Wired online). Does anyone know why that happened? -Susanlesch (talk) 06:43, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

What a shame this project has become. Best wishes for the holidays and the new year. -Susanlesch (talk) 08:19, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Why has this project become a shame? Because nobody mentioned an interruption in 7-1-1? --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 19:38, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh, my apologies. Elkman, when you get to be an old woman you might get it. Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan explained it once like this, "When a woman gets old they need money." Sorry for the drip (any drip). Regarding your next question, what is the value to society of digital devices if they leave no room for analog devices? Thanks for asking. Maybe it would help to see if you can read the "Criticism" section in the DHS article. I myself only added some of it. I see at least two versions of that page (not unusual so perhaps I ought to "empty my cache" and collect my technical support paycheck. Good luck, I left a note on the DHS talk page by the way.) -Susanlesch (talk) 22:04, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I don't have a complete hatred for old analog devices. In fact, I've been listening to a lot of recordings from this site, including the "Panel Pulsing Lovers Tape" and sounds from 5XB switches. I've never figured out how the long distance test number in this tape is supposed to work, though. (It's 7 minutes into the presentation.) --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 22:56, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

You, like the other members of this project sound totally lost to me. Sorry. I may try back again later, or may have to quit this place. -Susanlesch (talk) 05:03, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

You could always hand out some maps. Showers (talk) 06:54, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Greetings, Showers. I don't believe we have ever met. What is your interest in this project? -Susanlesch (talk) 00:30, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh, dear. The young man in Neiman Marcus was able to muster "she won't be needing the social club." For chrissake. In the old days of the Internet, you know what people did? They got by with fewer characters. -Susanlesch (talk) 08:42, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings!

For those many persons to whom I sent a barnstar at one time or another minus a few. Sorry but hell could run over and nobody here would know. Take care of yourselves please! -Susanlesch (talk) 17:59, 24 December 2007 (UTC)