This particular Untold Stories of Central Minnesota is the first in a series of three concerning the Untold Story of Immigration in our area. As it is a topic that is often at the center of local news, immigration laws, patterns, and the immigrants themselves are often scrutinized publicly by community members, but how much is actually known about what brought them here and what people go through in order to become an included part of the community.

In Part One, Arts & Cultural Heritage Producer Jeff Carmack visits the Stearns History Museum for a celebration of the opening of an exhibit featuring an ethnic group that has had a determining role in how our area was shaped. While only making up about 5% of our population, this group has produced many upstanding citizens over the years, including one of our current U.S. Senators, Amy Klobuchar. They are the Slovenians, and the exhibit “Farmer, Miners and Refugees: Slovenian Immigration in Minnesota Since 1855” is currently open at the Stearns History Museum through January 2017 when it will travel to Duluth, Ely, and then the Slovenian Embassy in Washington D.C.

This program is funded in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Legacy Grant.

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