What does it mean to be American? To John Ireland, the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul, being American was second only to his belief in God. As bishop, he was deeply committed to education, racial equality, and establishing the Catholic Church in America. A lesser known part of Ireland’s legacy is his involvement in the colonization movement on the Western frontier. Between 1876 and 1881, then Bishop John Ireland operated the Catholic Colonization Bureau of St. Paul, working as a land agent to sell over 400,000 acres of land and establish nine Catholic colonies across Western Minnesota, in the largest Catholic colonization scheme in American history.

Consisting of over 1,000 connecting lakes and streams, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in Northern Minnesota is the most visited wilderness in the U.S. In the early 1900s, the local economy was almost exclusively dependent on logging and mining within the nearly one million acre wilderness. As environmental degradation progressed, debates over the use and management led to the landmark 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act, a compromise between recreational and local business interests. While continued challenges face the Boundary Waters today in the form of upstream mining operations, thousands of visitors enjoy the wilderness and work to protect this unique natural resource.

Drawing from a multidisciplinary approach and with respect and dignity for alcoholics, three treatment centers in Minnesota – Pioneer House, Hazelden, and Willmar State hospital – pioneered a new frontier in addiction treatment that would come to be known as the Minnesota Model. Following nearly a century of temperance movements, alcoholism was seen as a character flaw with no viable treatment options. Today, the Minnesota Model has become the framework for thousands of treatment programs across the world. From the revolutionary but simple idea that alcoholics can help each other, the Minnesota Model has paved the way for dignified addiction treatment.