PiPress Archives

A collapsed bridge span lies in a river as emergency crews work nearby.

First responders work to rescue people on a collapsed bridge deck.

Onlookers view a collapsed bridge behind yellow police tape.

Rescue workers use boats to search for people near a collapsed bridge lying in a river.

It was 18 years ago today that the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

Pioneer Press photographers took hundreds of images that day. You can see a few of them here: www.twincities.com/2025/07/23/t...

01.08.2025 14:13 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

How a St. Paul newspaper wiretapped the city’s police force 90 years ago Conversations captured by a private investigator on the payroll of the St. Paul Daily News led to the ouster or suspension of more than a dozen police officers in 1935.

The St. Paul Daily News hired a private investigator to tap the phones and bug the offices of the city’s police department.

The conversations he recorded uncovered evidence of rampant corruption in its ranks, leading to the ouster or suspension of more than a dozen officers — including the chief.

01.07.2025 15:13 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

A man with a notebook and a pen crouches down next to a hippopotamus, whose mouth is slightly open.

Pioneer Press reporter Bill Martin interviews a seemingly talkative hippopotamus named Miss Oklahoma in the basement of St. Paul Auditorium in March 1952.

To find out what she was doing there, visit our #ThrowbackThursday gallery at twincities.com/throwback.

📸: Pioneer Press file photo

26.06.2025 13:59 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

‘Jaws’ sank its teeth into Twin Cities moviegoers 50 years ago Local moviegoers mobbed the two metro theaters that had won exclusive rights to screen that summer’s hottest blockbuster: the Gopher Theater in Minneapolis and — somehow — the tin…

“Jaws” premiered 50 years ago today at a pair of local movie theaters that had won a bidding war to screen the original summer blockbuster.

20.06.2025 13:45 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Hortman began legal career with win in landmark housing discrimination case As a young attorney working for a legal aid organization, Hortman took up the housing discrimination case of a Minneapolis woman.

A case that began with a complaint about a broken furnace ended with the largest jury award for a race-based housing discrimination claim in U.S. history because 27-year-old Melissa Hortman saw “that there were these larger issues. Not every lawyer would pick up on that,” a former colleague said.

19.06.2025 19:54 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Two barge-mounted cranes lift a section of a bridge span into place, completing its central arch. The downtown St. Paul skyline is in the background.

Barge-mounted cranes raise a 108-foot, 61-ton steel arch beam into place in the center span of the new St. Paul High Bridge above the Mississippi River in March 1987.

📸: Former PiPress photographer Rich Marshall

For more photos, visit our #ThrowbackThursday gallery at twincities.com/throwback.

19.06.2025 14:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A pair of pedestrians walk down a sidewalk while two others cross a street in a busy downtown street scene from 1906. Behind them, a building under construction has a sign painted on its wall that reads, “Emporium: Fastest growing store in the Twin Cities.”

This early downtown St. Paul street scene was captured in 1906 at the corner of East 7th and Robert streets looking northeast.

The Emporium department store is under construction in the center. Now covered by a glass facade, the building still exists as Metro Square.

📸: Pioneer Press file photo

12.06.2025 13:38 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The front page of an extra edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press from June 6, 1944, with a banner headline reading “Invasion” in large capital letters. A subheadline reads “Allied forces land in France.”

Most of St. Paul was asleep when news of the D-Day invasion reached the city via radio at 2:32 a.m. on June 6, 1944, about a half-hour into the battle for the beaches of Normandy.

The Pioneer Press published this extra a few hours later.

Read more about that day: www.twincities.com/2019/06/06/7...

06.06.2025 13:38 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Four men in gym shorts and sandals exercise with medicine balls on the roof of a building. A sign next to them reads, “To protect our sun deck privileges, we must not offend our neighbors in the surrounding tall buildings. Therefore all sun bathers must wear gym pants. No one is permitted on the sun deck in the nude.”

Members of the St. Paul Athletic Club, including former mayor Mark Gehan on the left, dutifully don gym shorts as they exercise on the club’s rooftop deck on July 16, 1941.

To view our previous #ThrowbackThursday images, visit twincities.com/throwback

📸: Former PiPress photographer Jack Loveland

29.05.2025 22:19 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

100 years ago, ‘Gatsby’ got mixed reviews in Fitzgerald’s hometown papers The book’s lukewarm reception in the local press may not be surprising given its author’s complicated relationship with St. Paul, one historian said.

“Of plot there is very little, save for some hectic love affairs that are not above reproach, the author’s aim and interest all being centered on Gatsby himself,” wrote the books editor of the St. Paul Daily News. “Personally I don’t think the fellow was worth so much effort.”

05.04.2025 14:11 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

A paddleboat steams down a river with the St. Paul skyline in the background.

The paddleboat Capitol makes its way down the Mississippi River from St. Paul on July 1, 1932. The 280-foot excursion steamer was a frequent visitor to the city during the summer navigation season.

To view all of our #ThrowbackThursday photos, visit twincities.com/throwback.

📸: Pioneer Press files

03.04.2025 17:21 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

That time John Dillinger shot his way out of a St. Paul apartment building As a Ramsey County jury downplayed St. Paul’s crime problem in March 1934, John Dillinger was shooting his way out of a Lexington Avenue apartment complex.

On this date in 1934, the most wanted man in America traded shots with St. Paul police at a Lexington Parkway apartment complex.

31.03.2025 17:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

2,350 Minnesotans were sterilized under state’s 1925 eugenics law — most of them women Spurred on by proponents of the pseudoscientific eugenics movement, Minnesota was one of 32 states to enact such a law during the first half of the 20th century.

“There was a lot of bad science happening at that time, and it was used to justify some pretty horrible behavior,” the grandson of one of the women said.

28.03.2025 17:01 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

A woman carries a skeleton out of a building with a sign above the door that reads “The Science Museum,” while a man beside her carries taxidermy animals.

Moving day at the Science Museum of Minnesota brought skeletons out of the closets in 1964.

The museum was moving from the John L. Merriam mansion in St. Paul to new digs at the Arts and Sciences Center.

See more #throwbackthursday images: twincities.com/throwback

📸: Former PiPresser Don Church

27.03.2025 13:09 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 1

Sign up for From the Archives, our weekly St. Paul history newsletter Get an in-depth look into St. Paul’s past by signing up to From the Archives, our weekly local history newsletter. Enter your email below to sign up. If you have an account with us already, y…

@nickwoltman.bsky.social does a great weekly history newsletter from the Pioneer Press, I recommend subscribing if you're into that sort of thing!

www.twincities.com/2025/03/13/s...

23.03.2025 17:10 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

One of the FBI’s original 10 Most Wanted Fugitives was caught in St. Paul — by a bunch of kids A gang of local boys led police to the cave hideout of a wanted killer after recognizing his photo in the newspaper.

In March 1950, a gang of Dayton’s Bluff middle schoolers led police to the cave hideout of a convicted killer after recognizing his mugshot in the St. Paul Dispatch.

15.03.2025 14:06 — 👍 8    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

A police officer gives a stern look to a man dressed in St. Patrick’s Day regalia who is carrying a beer on the sidewalk.

“That’s a no-no,” St. Paul cop Frank Langan tells this St. Patrick’s Day reveler as he tries to conceal his beer can outside Gallivan’s bar in downtown on March 17, 1976.

To see a gallery of all our #ThrowbackThursday photos, go to twincities.com/throwback

📸: Pioneer Press photographer Bill Davis

13.03.2025 14:35 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

The words "From the Archives" in a gothic script against a background of newspaper front pages.

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14.02.2025 20:39 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0