University of Minnesota. Northwest Experiment Station (Crookston, Minn.)

The Minnesota State Legislature and the University Board of Regents created the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in 1885 near the University’s Minneapolis campus. The 1897 Biennial Report of the Board of Regents explained how the subsequent experiment sub-stations were established, “A law, enacted at the last session of the state legislature, required the regents to purchase and equip two substations, each to contain not less than 320 acres, and appropriated $20,000 for that purpose, and the additional sum of $10,000 for the biennial period of 1895-96 with which to pay the expenses of conducting experiments.” At their May 1, 1895, meeting, the Board of Regents appointed an agricultural committee “to carry out the provisions of this act.”

The 1897 Biennial Report of the Board of Regents also noted that the committee visited Crookston and “made a careful examination of several tracts of land…”James J. Hill’s (of the Great Northern Railroad) offer to donate land for the substation was accepted and the deed for the land was executed on August 21, 1895.

...