University of Minnesota. North Central Experiment Station (Grand Rapids, 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.” After the committee’s evaluation of possible locations, one sub-station was established in Crookston, and the other in Grand Rapids, which was called the Northeast Sub-experiment Station and opened in 1896. Warren G. Pendergast was named the first superintendent of the Northeast Sub-experiment Station.

“It has been the effort to direct energies of the station towards solution of those problems which are of especial interest to the settlers in the cut over pine regions, which embrace so large an area in the state,” Herman H. Chapman, second superintendent of the Northeast Sub-experiment Station, reported in the 1899 Biennial Report of the Board of Regents.

At their May 6, 1912, meeting, the Regents voted to recommend new official names for all experiment stations under the administrative umbrella of the University’s Department of Agriculture. The Northeast Sub-experiment Station became the North Central Experiment Station.

The 1916-1917 President’s Report stated that the North Central Experiment Station’s Guernsey herd development was continuing as well as experimental projects in “field crops, garden crops, orchard crops, soils and fertilizers, the use of peat as barn litter, preservative treatment of fence posts, and experiments in land drainage.”

An agricultural school “where farm boys get a broad and practical training in the business and art of agriculture” opened at the North Central Experiment Station on October 18, 1926 ( North Central Quarterly announcement, September 1926 issue). The first academic year saw 18 students enroll in the School’s program, which was intended to fill a gap in secondary education in agriculture. The station’s name was changed to North Central School and Experiment Station. After decades of fairly steady growth in student enrollment, the School’s administrators recognized in the 1950s that agricultural education opportunities were now readily available in the students’ home communities. The decision was made in 1963 to phase out the school program, and the North Central School closed in 1965.

The North Central Experiment Station’s focus on research included work in areas such as crops and livestock as well as wild rice, tourism, agricultural engineering, environmental issues, forestry, and horticulture.

In October 1998, the Educational Planning and Policy Committee of the Board of Regents recommended that branch Experiment Stations change their names to Research and Outreach Centers, and the Board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation at their October 9, 1998, meeting. The North Central Experiment Station became the North Central Research and Outreach Center.

Station Names

Station Superintendents

From the guide to the North Central Experiment Station records, 1899-2001, (bulk 1900-1942), (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])