The exhibit was put together by the Anoka County Historical Society.
I tried to find something for farming. I tried to find something for fur trading. I tried to find something from a number of different generations of the family,” said Anoka County Historical Society archivist/curator Erin McBrien.
Many things in this collection belonged to the Dupre family, the family with the namesake road that runs through town. One of those items is an old fur stretcher, from when fur trading was the main business in the city.
“It was a huge thing. It was the main reason why European immigrants came in this direction, and the main reason they survived,” said McBrien.
Also in the exhibit is the mention of the indigenous people who lived here before the Europeans arrived. That part of the area’s history however, is a little less clear.
“We can’t know what we don’t know. So we can really only guess at the sheer amount of historical and cultural knowledge that is lost or at last obscured,” said McBrien.
For Centerville City Administrator, Mark Statz, his favorite item is the collection is a small tool box that was traded between indigenous people and the French settlers.
“It was sort of a gift from one to the other in exchange for some other goods. I think it’s one of our most prized items,” said Statz.
While recognizing that the area’s history does go back thousands of years, the majority of this exhibit focuses on what is known from some of the people who lived here.
“The people who are remembered are the people who stayed, at the very least,” said McBrien.
Anyone who wants to check out this exhibit can stop by Centerville City Hall. It will be up for a few months before it is rotated to something new. There will also be a city hall open house on July 17 before the Fete des Lacs parade.
Mark Statz also said that if anyone else in the city has historic artifacts and doesn’t know what to do with them – the city would happily accept these items as donations and hopefully be able to display theses items in the future.
