March-April 2013 the Band Goes Abroad - Arts & Entertainment P
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Inside this Issue... Staff Pairs - Features p. 3 Thrift Shopping - Op/Ed p. 5 Spring Sports Captains - Sports p. 8-9 March-April 2013 The Band Goes Abroad - Arts & Entertainment p. 11 The Official Student Publication of Centennial High School A Matter of Perspective Five Cities, Five Histories: A Survey of the Centennial Area Joe Bourdage Centennial area were already com- Blaine Editor-in-Chief ing in. In 1850 French-Canadian Frederick W. Travers settled on To the west of Centerville Tucked away fifteen miles north the northern shore of Rice Lake Township in Anoka Township, of the twin metropolises of Min- in what would later become the farming was not so viable. An neapolis and St. Paul lay several “German area” of Centerville 1847 field survey of the area bustling suburban communities Township, a six-by-six mile allot- concluded that the area that was that many of us call home. The ment of land at the southeastern to become Blaine was “unaccept- cities of Centerville, Blaine, Circle edge of Anoka County. Two years able for either man or beast except Pines, Lexington, and Lino Lakes later other French-Canadians when frozen up.” Undeterred by senator and later unsuccessful tersen, a former banker who had are the places where we work, settled in the “French area” on the the poor land was the area’s first presidential candidate James G. suffered much from the Great play, attend school, and grow as eastern edge of the future town- resident, Phillip Laddy of Ireland, Blaine of Ripley’s home state. Depression, announced that he community members. As robust ship, settling in what is now down- who in 1862 settled a farm near In the seventy years to follow had an idea. He gathered Thomas as the area is now, things were not town Centerville. In 1854 settlers the present-day intersection of Blaine Township grew slowly, Ellerbe, head of an engineering always this way. When Minnesota LaMotte, Peltier, and LaValle (who Highway 65 and County Road 10. mostly as a result of its poor soils and architecture firm, and Paul became the thirty-second state on have since left their namesakes on He died shortly after moving, and and untamable wetlands. The Steenberg, president of a major May 11, 1858, the five-city area landforms in Centerville) laid out his family (wisely) relocated to population grew from 128 people construction company, to help that is now home to nearly ninety the basic network of the town. Minneapolis. Today Laddy Lake in 1880 to only 941 by 1940. The him form a cooperative com- thousand people was but an open Land in Centreville (as the on the northeast corner of that area’s prospects changed after munity in southeastern Blaine expanse carved out into unsettled French spelled it) was fertile, wild- intersection bears his name. World War II as displaced veterans Township. townships. The development of life (especially fish) was abundant, Englishman George Townshend built starter homes in the southern In May 1946 a cooperative the Centennial area over the past and its location was ideal. By 1857 was next, settling on the present- portion of the township. As a re- village of 1,203 acres was an- one hundred fifty years has been the town consisted of about three day Centennial campus near 103rd sult, Blaine grew in size, boasting nounced. Petersen set minimum a story of trial and error, realized hundred people. When they de- Ave. and Lever Street. He too 1,694 people in 1950, 20,640 in and maximum prices for houses opportunities and cooperative clared the founding of their town remained for only a short time. It 1970, and 57,186 by 2010. and required owners to buy failures, frontier settlement and on August 11, 1857, the residents was not until 1865 that Blaine re- As other settlements, notably at least one $100 share in the territorial dispute. named their settlement Centreville ceived its first permanent resident, Circle Pines, Lexington, and cooperative. He had a vision for a In Part One of this special for its central location between Greenberry Chambers. Spring Lake Park, sprang up community that would have adult Inscriptions report, I present to you Anoka to the west, Stillwater to Chambers was a former slave alongside Blaine around 1950 and education, recreational facilities, a brief history of the Centennial the east, and St. Paul to the south. from Kentucky who after the began annexing its territory, Blaine and municipal utilities (gas, water, community. As time passed new settlers Civil War left the Union Army incorporated itself as a village in etc.) that would all be collectively began to stake out homesteads and settled with his wife and 1954 and later a city in 1964 to owned. Petersen hoped to create a Centerville west of the lakes (in present-day three kids on the Townshend avoid further losses. community in which all members Lino Lakes) in the so-called “Ger- site. Hard work and perseverance The popularity of Blaine in the relied on one another to promote When Minnesota received its man area.” The French-Canadians allowed Chambers to farm the metropolitan area was enhanced the common good and collective territory status in 1849, one of the were insistent on preserving their unfit land. His good fortunes did by the University of Minnesota- well-being of the settlement. first tasks for the new territorial language, so most children were not last, however, and the sheriff aided construction of the airport Drawing inspiration from the legislature was to organize the raised in bilingual homes. Con- foreclosed on his farm in 1875. in 1952 and the establishment of national cooperative emblem, two immediate area around the capital flict between the different ethnic To this day the body of his son Northtown Mall in 1972. Today pine trees surrounded by a circle into counties and townships. groups at the Church of St. Gen- George Chambers remains buried the area that was once considered (pictured above), the new effort Guidelines set forth by the Land evieve (where parts of the mass somewhere near the entrance to uninhabitable is one of Minneap- was named Circle Pines. Carl Eck, Ordinance of 1785 remained in were given exclusively in French) Centennial Elementary. olis-St. Paul’s fastest-growing and later the first mayor of Circle place, so when Anoka County was led the Germans of the town to Others began to move into the most popular suburbs, drawing Pines, became the first person to given its independent status in establish the Church of St. Joseph area around 1870. In 1877 the visitors worldwide to its renowned buy one of Petersen’s cooperative 1857, the legislature divided it into of Rice Lake in 1891. The two residents of the area organized National Sports Center, a 600-acre “Cemesto” homes in 1947. eight townships: Anoka, Water- churches shared clergy until 1939. themselves into a township sepa- sports complex opened in 1990. While the idea of collective town, Round Lake, Bethel, Co- Today the nearly thirty-eight rate from Anoka. Moses Ripley of ownership of all parts of the lumbus, St. Francis, Oak Grove, hundred residents residing in the Maine, the first chairman of the Circle Pines community was novel (and to and Centerville. city’s 2.41 square miles of the city Board of Supervisors, suggested outsiders, frighteningly socialistic), While the legislature worked in live on the former territory of the that they name the township While enjoying a picnic near it proved impractical. The utopian St. Paul, the first settlers of the French area. Blaine, after famous Republican Golden Lake in 1945, V.S. Pe- Story continues on page 2 Blaine Centerville Circle Pines Lexington Lino Lakes 2010 Population: 57,186 2010 Population: 3,792 2010 Population: 4,918 2010 Population: 2,049 2010 Population: 20,216 Total Area: 34.05 square miles Total Area: 2.41 square miles Total Area: 1.97 square miles Total Area: 0.69 square miles Total Area: 33.21 square miles Features 2 The Search for a Superintendent Anthony Wroblewski Features Editor The mysterious higher powers There are two kinds of super- an advisory committee, comprised would be a member of the strategic-plans and followed at the district office have been intendents, or commissioners of of members of the community district’s school board and then through with them, meeting all of busy, as a new superintendent has education: there are state-level (parents, teachers, elected offi- nominated to the position, but his goals. been chosen for the next school commissioners of education (Al- cials, etc.,) who interview possible Dietz was the previous superin- Starting in July, Dietz will have year. Dr. Dixon, our current ice Seagren serving Minnesota,) candidates for the position. The tendent at Weseca public schools to tackle many issues regarding superintendent, has been serving and district level superintendents stakeholders then interview all before accepting this position. our schools, but will anything the district for the past two years, such as Dr. Dixon or Mr. Dietz. first-round candidates and give Dietz holds a Masters in Science change significantly? It is a likely and while we are sad to see him The latter’s duties are overseeing feedback to the board of educa- in Educational Administration and ‘no’; however, it is important to go, we are also glad to welcome executive authority in the district, tion. This process allows the has served schools in California stay informed and keep an ear to Mr. Dietz. But just how is a while also implementing policies adults whom this decision effects as principal and superintendent. the chest of the community.