Jeffers Petroglyphs Historic Site, Comfrey, Learn about the animals that live on the prairie by examining animal pelts and making plaster animal tracks to take home. While at the site, view the rock carvings and learn more about the people who created them on guided tours at 10:30 a.m., 1 or 3 p.m. Offered daily at 2 p.m. Adventures in Nature is a hands-on series that provides opportunities to learn about American Indian culture, prairies and archaeology. A new theme will be explored each week.

Barnes and Noble - Calhoun Village, Minneapolis, Please join Neal Karlen for a talk and signing of his new book Augies Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip. Augie Ratner, the proprietor of Augies Theater Lounge & Bar on Hennepin Avenue, was the unofficial mayor of Minneapoliss downtown strip in the 1940s and 1950s. In a few blocks between the swanky clubs and restaurants on Eighth Street and the sleazy flophouses and bars of the Gateway District, the citys shakers and movers and shake down artists mingled with gangsters and celebrities, comedians and politicians, the rich and the famous and the infamous all of them met at Augies. Mixing careful research with long-supressed family and community stories, Neal Karlen, Augies great-nephew, tells the real story of the seamy underside of Minneapolis, where Jewish mobsters controlled the liquor trade, invented the point spread in sports betting, and ran national sports gambling operations. Even after Mayor Hubert H Humphrey supposedly cleaned up the town, organized crime quietly flourished and Augie was at the center, observing it all. Neal Karlen, who has written for the New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, is the coauthor of six books. For more information call 612-922-3238.

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Cut, color and create your own mythic Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox puppets and learn surprising trivia about these Minnesota folk heroes. The History Center offers this daily art activity for kids and adults free with museum admission.

Historic Forestville, Preston, Campers (age 8-12) will don a shopkeeper's apron to work in a 19th century general store. They will price goods, candle eggs and compound medicines. Outdoors, they'll gather eggs and tend to the chickens. In the parlor, the children will participate in songs, music, games and storytelling from the 1800s and they will experience the aromas and activities of cooking on a wood burning stove in the kitchen. Campers should dress for outdoor activities and bring a bag lunch.Scholarship Information: A grant from the Peyton Education Fund provides for a limited number of full scholarships. To request a scholarship prospective campers should write a brief letter describing their interest in history and why they would like to attend the camp. Please include name, address, telephone and date of camp. Mail letter to: Historic Forestville, 19th Century Homestead Camp, Scholarship Request, 21899 County 118, Preston, MN 55965. For additional information please call 507-765-2785.

Magers and Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, Please join Neal Karlen for a talk and signing of his new book Augies Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip. Augie Ratner, the proprietor of Augies Theater Lounge & Bar on Hennepin Avenue, was the unofficial mayor of Minneapoliss downtown strip in the 1940s and 1950s. In a few blocks between the swanky clubs and restaurants on Eighth Street and the sleazy flophouses and bars of the Gateway District, the citys shakers and movers and shake down artists mingled with gangsters and celebrities, comedians and politicians, the rich and the famous and the infamous all of them met at Augies. Mixing careful research with long-supressed family and community stories, Neal Karlen, Augies great-nephew, tells the real story of the seamy underside of Minneapolis, where Jewish mobsters controlled the liquor trade, invented the point spread in sports betting, and ran national sports gambling operations. Even after Mayor Hubert H Humphrey supposedly cleaned up the town, organized crime quietly flourished and Augie was at the center, observing it all. Neal Karlen, who has written for the New York Times, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, is the coauthor of six books. For more information call 612-822-4611.

Harkin Store, New Ulm, Learn about our nation's flag, how it has evolved, what the design means and what the flag looked like in the 1870s. The gift shop will have flag-related items for sale along with books, toys and handcrafts.

Mill City Museum, Minneapolis, Beginning with the arrival of Minnesotas first rail line in 1862, Minneapolis boomed in population, flour milling, lumber production and warehousing as a rail network extended throughout the Upper Midwest. Take a guided tour to discover the impact of railroads on the Mill City, visiting railroad landmarks such as the Stone Arch Bridge, Milwaukee Road Depot and the Minneapolis Eastern Railway engine house and trestle. Along the way find clues to the vanishing railroad landscape and learn about the future of Twin Cities rail. The tour will begin and end at Mill City Museum, where participants can visit the museums gallery, included in the price of the tour.

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Ride through the history, culture and cuisine of one of St. Pauls most changeable districts, University Avenue. From a country road, streetcar line and urban highway, the Avenue is now a light rail route that both divides and defines the district. Investigate Frogtown and the Hmongtown Marketplace and discover what was lost in Rondo, the city's historic African-American neighborhood. Experience the beauty of St. Agnes Catholic Church, one of St. Pauls architectural gems, and get to know the story of Pilgrim Baptist, home of Minnesotas oldest black congregation. Along the way, experts from Gastro Non Grata will provide hearty samples from the neighborhoods best purveyors. The bus for the 2.5-hour tour leaves from the Minnesota History Center; some walking is involved. Food samples are included in ticket price.

Mill City Museum, Minneapolis, Take an in-depth look at the historic Washburn A Mill complex and the award-winning Mill City Museum building. A museum interpreter will take visitors into the buildings many nooks and crannies, highlighting the lives of the men and women who worked there, how the building functioned during its peak flour milling years and the many changes to the building over time.This is the only opportunity for a guided tour through the entire museum building and the only chance to see some of its non-public spaces. The tour includes admission to the museum gallery, Baking Lab, Water Lab and Flour Tower show.

Jeffers Petroglyphs Historic Site, Comfrey, Discover the material culture and innovations that American Indians developed in order to survive on the prairie. Visitors will take part in a hands-on activity investigating reproduction items that would have been used in daily life and packed on a travois. The roles and responsibilities of various members of an American Indian family will be explored. Plus, guests can compete to see who can hitch up and pack their travois the quickest and race to a finish line.

Mill City Museum, Minneapolis, Take an in-depth look at the historic Washburn A Mill complex and the award-winning Mill City Museum building. A museum interpreter will take visitors into the buildings many nooks and crannies, highlighting the lives of the men and women who worked there, how the building functioned during its peak flour milling years and the many changes to the building over time.This is the only opportunity for a guided tour through the entire museum building and the only chance to see some of its non-public spaces. The tour includes admission to the museum gallery, Baking Lab, Water Lab and Flour Tower show.

Forest History Center, Grand Rapids, Sip sumac lemonade, savor sauteed day lillies, nibble on a fresh fiddlehead and munch on acorns. Learn which common plants growing in northern Minnesota forests are edible and how to responsibly harvest them. Join a nature hike to learn where certain plants grow and the best time to pick them. Then head back to the Visitor Center where you'll learn how to prepare the items. There will be an opportunity to sample nature's delicacies and to learn the cook's recipes.

Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, Onamia, Children can learn how to weave a dream catcher and make one to take home. The dream catcher is a woven web believed to protect the dream world of the person who sleeps beneath it. The cost for the dream catcher kit is $5 and it includes materials for the dream catcher and an instructional handout. Please allow an hour to make the craft. This project is recommended for children ages 8 and up. Cost for the kit does not include admission to museum.

North West Company Fur Post, Pine City, Costumed interpreters will demonstrate how hides are converted to leather and then to moccasins. Moccasins were essential to voyageurs, clerks and the Ojibwe. Visitors will see how Ojibwe crafters produced fine buckskin for clothing and footwear using a process called "brain-tanning." Visitors can also scrape hair from deer hides, help stretch and soften the hides and try their hand at sewing leather.

Historic Forestville, Preston, Step back in time with costumed guides who will demonstrate the weekly task of bread and butter making in the late 1800s. Enjoy the aroma of freshly baked bread from the wood burning oven and taste butter from the churn. Traditional techniques of bread and butter making will be shown with opportunities for hands-on participation.

Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, Enjoy the beauty and history of Minnesota's North Shore during an open house at Split Rock Lighthouse and State Park. Admission is FREE to both the Lighthouse and the State Park. Tour the light station, keepers house and fog signal building. Stop by the Visitor Center to see exhibits on the North Shore's tourism and commercial fishing industries, and view a film about the early shipping industry on Lake Superior.

Historic Fort Snelling, St. Paul, Travel back to the World War II era to learn about Minnesotas role on battlefields and at home. Costumed staff, period displays, weapon firing demonstrations and an encampment of Allied reenactors occupy the historic fort during this special weekend devoted to Minnesota's Greatest Generation. Participate in many hands-on WWII activities for families including crafts, games and obstacle course.

Subtext: A Bookstore, St. Paul, Please join Dick Bancroft and Laure Waterman Wittstock for a signing of their new book We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of the American Indian Movement. The American Indian Movement, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, burst into that turbulent time with passion, anger, and radical acts of resistance. Spurred by the Civil Rights movement, Native people began to protest the decades centuries of corruption, racism, and abuse they had endured. They argued for political, social, and cultural change, and they got attention. Dick Bancroft, an activist and key documentarian of AIM, provides a stunningly intimate view of this major piece of American history from 1970 to 1981. Veteran journalist, Laure Waterman Wittstock, who participated in events in Washington, DC, has interviewed a host of surviving participants to tell the stories behind the images. This is the inside record of a movement that began to change a nation. Dick Bancroft has been the unofficial photographer for the American Indian Movement since 1970. He has traveled the world to take these photographs. Laure Waterman Wittstock (Seneca Nation), a writer and media consultant, covered the early years of the American Indian Movement as a journalist. For more information call 651-493-3871.

Common Good Books, St. Paul, Please join Judith Koll Healey for a talk and signing of her new book Frederick Weyerhaeuser and the American West. The Weyerhaeuser name looms large in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and Arkansas, attached to paper mills, cabinet factories, and vast tracts of land, both forested and cut over. Frederick Weyerhaeuser, the man who started the lumber empire, significantly shaped the American economy and landscape from Wisconsin westward in the nineteenth century. The author narrates the life of the extraordinary man through newly available resources: his extensive correspondence and journal entries as well as the letters and diaries of family members, friends, and business associates from around the country. She frames Weyerhaeusers many commercial opportunities and business decisions within both the familys internal dynamics and world events. She offers a thoughtful perspective on his achievements as well as the limitations of his vision for the expansion of the American West. Judith Koll Healey has been a philanthropic professional for thirty years and has lectured internationally on the topic of art and the unconscious. She is the author of two novels.For more information call 651-225-8989.

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Discover how Gilded Age robber barons, intrepid entrepreneurs, crime bosses, vaudeville impresarios and influential politicians transformed a down-and-dirty river port into the gleaming power center of St. Paul. Enjoy bar stops in two of downtowns most storied buildings and get an exclusive peek behind the scenes at one of St. Pauls most celebrated landmarks. A trolley will take participants to the various watering holes. Ages 21 and up only. Drink purchases are not included in the tour price.