An interactive Web site featuring a potpourri of information about the Minnesota River went online about two months ago.
The project of the Water Resources Center at Minnesota State University features an array of interactive features, including video interviews with people such as John Fritsche.
In 1854, John Fritsche’s greatgreat-grandfather settled on the banks of the Minnesota River outside the new town of New Ulm. Today, the 68-year-old Fritsche dwells on the same spot along the Minnesota River.
Fritsche’s is one of many stories center staffers Scott Kudelka, Kim Musser and Rick Moore believe should be preserved to chronicle the history and changes in the Minnesota River Valley.
Musser said one of the focuses of the Web site project was to have an interactive impaired-waters map of the Minnesota River Basin.
“The site has a huge diversity of information,” Musser said. “And right now we’re working on a couple of big projects, trying to summarize the trends of the river.”
She said that includes water quality changes in the river.
Another project being worked on is an interactive site that follows the journeys of explorer Joseph Nicollet in 1838. It will show Nicollet’s journal entries describing tributaries as they entered the river with modern 360-degree panoramic images of the same spots today.
Moore, a geographic information specialist, has been compiling a host of maps and photos, going back more than a century, to provide images of how the river and the area around it has changed.
Kudelka said $50,000 in state grants launched the project, and he hopes its cache of interviews can be expanded.
“We’re trying to get a diverse group represented. We have a traditional farmer and an organic farmer. People who canoe the river. People who know the history,” Kudelka said. “One area we’d like to do more with, that we haven’t done yet, is interviewing Native Americans.”
The Minnesota River Basin Data Center site can be found at www.mrbdc.mnsu.edu.
“The site has a huge diversity of information. And right now we’re working on a couple of big projects, trying to summarize the trends of the river.”
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