“We had a bunch of stuff, in the end,” said Blaine Historical Society President Orville Lindquist. “We’d talk to someone, and hear their story and maybe get some photos.”
That stuff they organized was sorted into themes and stories that eventually became the book. There’s a lot of stories of names – including that Blaine itself was named after United States Secretary of State James G. Blaine. Plenty of other hints of history come up in other names.
“People may drive down Radisson Road, and they’ll think to themselves ‘I wonder if that has anything to do with the [Radisson] hotel?’ And the answer is ‘yes, it has everything to do with the hotel,’” said Lindquist.
Fogerty Arena, Laddie Lake, and other famous landmarks also have a history in the people who lived here.
“There’s a lot of that stuff that hiding kind of in plain sight, you just have to scratch the surface, and that what we tried to do with the book.”
Lindquist hope that this book will help people who live in Blaine understand and appreciate their history.
The historical society will have another presentation at the library next month. The topic of that discussion will be Places in the History of Blaine. You can register for a seat at the talk on the library’s website. The book is available to check out from the library or to buy from the Blaine Historical Society.
