This is an anthology of anecdotes about the Minnesota frontier, dating primarily from the 1840s and 1850s. The material seems to have been collected directly from original settlers who were still alive in the early twentieth century. There are abundant descriptions of early logging operations, agriculture, building practices, plagues, infestations, flora and fauna, and floods. Accounts of local culture range from descriptions of Indian-white relations to boarding-house life, foodways, dances and other festivities. Several settlers were attracted to Minnesota for the celebrated health of its climate; others recall its life-threatening cold.