Moments In Time: Growing up in Mineral Center

Although not much is left of the town of Mineral Center these days, it was once a bustling settler village full of homesteaders, many of whom came from Wisconsin in search of a better life. The town was located on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation which was opened to white settlement though the passages of the Nelson Act in 1889. The town’s life was brief; settlers began coming to the area in the early 1900s and just over 30 years later nearly everyone was gone and the town died. Nona Smith was born and raised in Mineral Center. She now lives in Grand Marais. She was twelve when her family left the community in 1936 and she remembers life there well. Listen to her story of growing up in Mineral Center in this edition of Moments In Time.