The St. Croix Collection is an extensive local resource of yearbooks, journals, German alien papers, maps and legal work. This collection is full of local history dating back to the mid-1800s. Most locally recorded or documented works can be found here. According to Stillwaterlibrary.org, there are more than 55,000 photographs, postcards, documents, letters and oral history that make up the collection. This collection is a great resource for teens who want to learn more about their families and the history of where they live.

“Primary sources are very important in this capacity because while they reflect the biases of the time, nonetheless, they provide important context into how people understand their own world and the way they were experiencing things and it really humanizes a lot of broader big picture narratives,” junior Soren Peterson said.

Learning about history, specifically local history, is crucial to understanding the present.

“There’s hardly any teaching of what activity occurred in Stillwater and resources on history that we are still seeming to lack,” Junior Charlie Kern said.

This resource can help fill the gaps of what’s not taught in school. It is great for personal research as well. Cami Anderson from the Stillwater Library explained that many people will come to the collection looking for photos of their historic homes. The resource is easily accessible to the public.

“It’s unique because there’s not a lot of public libraries that have an archive within the building. So we have people that come in and they can just poke around whenever the library is open,” Anderson explained.

As of now, the majority of people utilizing the collection are older or new families that just moved to town. However, Kern and Anderson believe it is important for more young people to use the collection.

“If there was an interest for teens to come in and use it that would be amazing,” Anderson said.

One way teens can use the collection is by researching families. The collection has yearbooks from SAHS with great photos of parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents. It offers a unique look into a relative’s life.

“My moms’ side of the family has been in Stillwater for as long as I can remember. At least five generations,” Kern said.

Another way the collection can be of use is as a research facility. The collection has unique pieces of history that cannot be found in school. For example, Kern is a member of the Native American student Alliance and is “planning on using the collection to research tribal land and photos” to further his knowledge of local tribal history.

With such a vast collection of history, the collection is an amazing resource for personal family research or school project material. Primary sources are key to understanding our history and should be utilized.

“[It’s] remarkably interesting, and very cool. The problem with our communities is the fact that we’ve got all of these fantastic resources like the St. Croix collection, but there’s really no way of communicating,” Kern explained.

To check out the collection for yourself, it is accessible whenever the Stillwater area library is open.