Isanti County Historical Society

by Kathy McCully
Today I had the pleasure of meeting Governor Dayton. We toured our facility from the outside — indoor tours impossible at this time. Until you are up close and personal with a fire such as this, you cannot imagine the charred remains, debris and odors that accompany them. His concern and sympathy was expressed several times and said he was sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, as was I. Governor Dayton will be joining our Facebook page to keep up-to-date on our progress. Impressive. 

The most important thing I wanted the Governor to take away from today’s meeting was to accentuate the fact that this building was built by community donations and that we were a modest historical society—without a large budget. 

If there is one thing to come out of this, perhaps others can learn from our disaster how to prevent the same type of thing happening at their facility. We are an organization that was started 46 years ago with the simple mission of preserving Isanti County history. This mission still applies today. We will continue.

The visit was arranged by State Representative Kurt Daudt, who is also a member of the Isanti County Historical Society Board of Directors. Also present were Steve Elliot, Director of the Minnesota Historical Society, and Andrea Kayer, Deputy Director of MNHS. At 10:30 a.m. the City of Cambridge, as well as representatives from the Isanti County Historical Society, met at the Isanti County Government Center to present to Governor Dayton a synopsis of the July 1 storm damage (by Mayor Marlys Palmer and her cohorts) and discuss how the city handled the disaster. 

Then I recapped the arson fire and spoke of the tremendous loss of artifacts, archives and the entire building and offices. The Governor was then taken on a short tour of the City of Cambridge to view remaining damage, and closed his visit at the Historical Society.