REFLECTIONS
Howard Lestrud, columnist for the Steele County Times, recently met with Aaron Isaacs, director of the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. Isaacs holds two of the many streetcar books he has helped author. Staff photo by Howard Lestrud
Our current generation likely thinks streetcars of the past are really vehicles of the future. Not!
It was a very unlikely venue as the Norske Torske Klubben of St. Paul hosted a guest who brought Minneapolis and St. Paul streetcar history to life at a club meeting Nov. 18 in Oakdale.
The Norwegian men’s club is a social club organized for one purpose: to eat torsk and talk smart. Often, the club listens to a noticeable retread in the sports world, or to someone carrying Norwegian history in their backpack. An assistant of the Norwegian prime minister was once a guest.
A close friend of mine from Forest Lake, Bob Hansen, often tweaks my cell phone about an interesting guest coming to the monthly Norske Torske Klubben meeting. “Are you interested? he asks.
On a recent Saturday, streetcars were on the menu with the torsk.
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum runs two streetcar lines in Minneapolis and Excelsior. Until 2005, when it went its own way, it was part of the multi-modal Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM), which at its peak had two streetcar lines, a roundhouse, an interstate tourist railroad, a historic depot, an operating steamboat, and vintage buses. It’s hard to relate the Streetcar Museum’s history without spending some time on MTM’s many enterprises, so bear with us, because it’s an interesting tale.
Aaron Isaacs, director of the Minnesota Streetcar Museum, was the authority who brought a detailed history of streetcars to the hungry Norwegians at their torsk dinner. He also is a historian of other transits.
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum collects, restores, and exhibits electric streetcars that operated in Minnesota. The collection includes streetcars from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Duluth, Winona, Moorhead, and the Iron Range. The Museum holds the largest collection of Minnesota streetcars anywhere.
Isaacs calls streetcars “railroads in the street.” Minneapolis and St. Paul both used streetcars as public transportation. St. Paul initiated streetcars in 1872, and Minneapolis followed on 1875, said Isaacs.
Streetcars are no more and are now being seen as cabins or churches. Streetcars disappeared in 1954. There have been attempts to bring them back, but they fail in the end., Isaacs remarked.
Go to the Minnesota Streetcar Museum and find all you want to learn about the streetcar history of the past. Read this invitation on the website, https://trolleyride.org:
“Step back to the days when the streetcar was king — when Twin Citians went to work, to school, and to play by trolley!
“Visit the historic displays in our station, shop our unique gifts and souvenirs, then take a nostalgic ride on one of our historic streetcars along a scenic route between the lakes. Your Motorman will provide interesting information about the car and Minnesota streetcar history.”
The website will provide you with streetcar history that will keep you reading for awhile. Put a live visit to the Streetcar Museum on your calendar for late April 2024.
The museum is typically open from late April to October and is located at 4291 Queen Ave. S. Minneapolis. Call 952-925-3543.