History takes the day at Museum

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--The Brown County Historical Society Museum Annex was the setting Saturday for eighth graders from New Ulm Area Catholic Schools and a home-schooled 13-year-old to show off their History Day projects.

Home-schooled eighth-grader Noah Bernhardson of New Ulm doubled as a project presenter and as event organizer at the Annex.

Bernhardson whose project about the Berlin Tunnel and the part it played in the Cold War wrote to Brown County Historical Society Director Bob Burgess following the History Day regional competition at Minnesota State University at Mankato.

While he was competing at Mankato, the idea came to Bernhardson that "people in New Ulm would be interested in seeing what students from the New Ulm area presented at History Day."

Bernhardson asked Burgess for the use of "a small room" at the museum for that purpose. Burgess was so taken by the idea that he offered the meeting room in the Annex.

While introducing Bernhardson as the event's organizer, Burgess said, "I'd like to make this an annual event, but, of course, I haven't talked to Noah yet."

This year's History Day theme was "Frontiers," and students could present their ideas either as a written thesis, exhibit (display), multi-media presentation or as a dramatic performance.

All four methods were demonstrated at the Annex.

David Rysdahl, an eighth-grader at Cathedral NUACS, presented the life and trials of Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball, as a live, one-actor performance.

Rysdahl played Robinson as he grew up and became a star baseball player, including the important role Branch Rickey played in helping Robinson break through the "color barrier." The presentation included recorded racial epithets which he heard early in life.

This was followed by two video presentations. The first, on the importance of Ellis Island's role in welcoming immigrants, became a recitation when the co-producers, Amanda Domeier and Kayleigh Wolf, both eighth-graders at Holy Trinity Middle School, reported their video was in the hands of a person who had gone on vacation so it wasn't available for viewing. However, they gave a detailed description of what was on the video.

Then, they played the video created by the Sharon Wurtzberger Group titled, "Revolution of Pointe," about the frontiers in ballet.

Meanwhile, Bernhardson's "Run Silent Run Deep: Operation Gold and The Cold War Frontier," featuring a three-dimensional miniature reproduction of the Berlin Tunnel was one of three exhibits which were available for viewing during the afternoon.

"A Frontier of History: The Flying Machine," the story of the Wright Brothers historic flight, was chronicled by Doug Meyer, 14, a Holy Trinity Middle School eighth grader, complete with a replica of model B--the plane that actually flew--and the derrick that was used to propel planes into the air. It replaced pushing the plane off a cliff as the favored way of getting them into the air, Meyer said.

The third exhibit proclaimed in large type: "Walt Disney Revolutionizes Animated Films." It told the story of Disney's rise to success; neither of its creators, Johanna Esser, 14, and Allison Betsch, 14, could be there for the program, but their exhibit did make it all the way to the state finals at the University of Minnesota before losing, Johanna's mother said.

Alex Waibel's thesis was titled, "The Traverse des Sioux Treaty of 1851." Waibel struck a familiar theme when he said, "I was able to do most of my research at the Brown County Historical Society because they had a lot of stuff on it."

Burgess, in assessing the afternoon's activities, said he's pleased about how much the Historical Society is used by students for research, but he was a little disappointed that more local history wasn't used in the students' History Day projects.