The community should be encouraged by recent action that designates the Grand Mound Historic Site, a significant and valuable site in our area, as a National Historic Landmark.
That action, along with a planned review of the state’s 2003 decision to close the site to the public, is also encouraging.
It makes little sense to designate the site a National Historic Landmark without allowing the public to experience the values that have led to this designation. For many, the site and its history is unknown and will remain that way while it is closed.
The site, located 17 miles west of International Falls, was closed when the state cut by 25 percent the funding it provides to the Minnesota Historical Society. The society has owned the site since 1971.
The 2003 decision was upheld in 2007 by a state report that recommended the site remain closed and rejected ideas to use the site as an educational center.
At that time, a renewed effort to reopen the site was launched by Koochiching County commissioners, Koochiching Museums Director Ed Oerichbauer, Koochiching Economic Development Authority Board and the International Falls City Council.
Local leaders rejected several claims made by the historical society in its 2007 report to lawmakers and encouraged a partnership between International Falls and Koochiching County to reopen the site. Other avenues for leadership in opening the site were also considered.
Local leaders rightly cited the educational, interpretive and spiritual significance of the site.
A main contention of the society’s report is that public opinion is divided on the appropriate use of the site because it is considered a sacred burial site.
Clearly, no one wants to see the site used in a disrespectful manner. Instead, the site represents tremendous opportunities to explain in a respectful and educational way the significance of the culture that created the mounds.
We encourage the state to consider how the Kay-nah-chi-wah-nung Historical Center, near Stratton, Ontario, has made people aware of the rich nature of its heritage and provides an opportunity for visitors to see something they can experience at few other places. That center has been called “a sacred living link between the past and the present.”
County Commissioner Mike Hanson, who represents the Grand Mound area, wrote in 2007 that “Today’s society needs more places that remind us of our connection to the past.”
The Grand Mound Historic Site represents an opportunity to celebrate the cultures and the past that have made us what we are today. The recent designation as a landmark and the effort to review the 2007 report should lend credibility to effort to further explore how the site may be reopened to the public.
