At the April 15 Hastings City Council meeting, Matt Carver, Executive Director of Dakota County Historic Society (DCHS), presented an annual review and discussed upcoming events of the Dakota Historic Society sites.
“For those of you that don't know, Dakota County Historical Society has three historic sites that we operate within the county itself. We operate the Lawshe Museum, St. Paul, which is where my office is normally located. The Sibley sites in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society, which is at Mendota, and then we operate the LeDuc Estate here in Hastings and we've been operating that site in partnership with the city since 2005, when it was turned over from the Minnesota Historical Society to the city of Hastings,” Carver explained.
This site opens for tours May 16 through October 20. Seven school groups will be coming through with upwards of 700 students coming through the sites. The historic society also visits schools.
“Within the last year, we have probably reached about 1200 students doing programs and presentations related to the fur trade in the Sibley site, but then also the Civil War,” Carver said. “That's one of the other more popular ones we do with our history trunk that was created and talking about the history of the Civil War, Minnesota but then also William LeDuc’s connection to that.”
Carver shared future events and thanked the city for CIF funds that were used over the past two years. With the grant money they will be able to install security fencing and are planning to put in new exhibits.
“And one of the exciting things we're working through right now, the Minnesota Historical Society is looking to turn back over about 2000 artifacts related to the LeDuc family,” stated Carver. “So, when they took over operations of the house and then right before they turned the site over to the city of Hastings almost everything from the collection there was taken to the Historical Society in storage since 2005. Some of this stuff that will be coming back hasn't been seen for 60 to 70 years, if at all, so we're really excited for the opportunities this presents. We're going to be using CIF funds to help purchase shelving units that will be storing as many of these artifacts as we can. And because our museum is temperature controlled anything that is extremely sensitive or fragile and needs that temperature-controlled environment, we'll be storing at our Lawshe Museum in South St. Paul.”
In the next few months, the DCHS will finalize the George Daniels design. George Daniels and his wife who was from Prescott, were former slaves. George met William LeDuc when he was quartermaster, and he lived as a hired hand on the site in the carriage barn through the hired hand room. Even though he wasn't the only one that had lived there, they would focus on his life. The entire carriage barn is three separate sections. “As you walk into the left side of the carriage barn, you'll learn the story about George and Chloe, and how they met,” Carver explained. “Then as you go into the middle section, the large one, you'll learn about their family and what they did while they lived here. And then where they left and homestead in White, South Dakota. And then as you start to transition into the third room on the far right, that's where you'll learn about a lot of these early Black families that settled in Hastings and the surrounding region in Minnesota. The final design is ongoing and should be done within the next month. And then we'll have about 200 to $250,000 left to put into that project. And we hope to have that done within the next three years.”
Another project Carver talked about is the Black Heritage Trail concept plan which would go through Hastings. It would focus on businesses and important parts and regions of the community where early Black families settled around 1940 to 1950.
On a final note, on April 27, the DCHS will be hosting an event in South St. Paul. “It is about basically bringing the descendants from these early Black settlers that again settled in this region, bringing their descendants together,” said Carver. “We were hoping to do it here in Hastings but as far as attendance numbers and we're looking to do it at LaDuc, but it would not have the space. We’re up around 100 attendees right now and within the next week or so we'll have those finalized numbers, but we're probably expecting around 100 to 125. We also have an exhibit at our Lawshe Museum that focuses on the Black pioneering families, and it has a really heavy focus on the Hastings community.”
