Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Kirsti Marohn, Minnesota Public Radio News

Construction is underway on a new museum next to Camp Ripley near Little Falls to honor Minnesota’s military veterans.

When Randal Dietrich looks out over a frozen field next to Highway 371, he envisions a place where people will come to hear the stories of the roles Minnesotans have played in conflicts from the Civil War to the present day.

They’ll hear the stories of men and women who sacrificed and still carry scars, of those who gave their lives and lie beneath white grave markers in the nearby State Veterans Cemetery, connected to the museum via a walkway.

“Those stories of those Minnesota veterans buried there are the kinds of stories that we want our museum to reflect,” said Dietrich, executive director of the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum. “So those artifacts of those individuals can be found right next to where they’re remembered, and adjacent to Camp Ripley and the Mississippi River.”

The museum has outgrown its existing 90-year-old building next to a busy airfield. It’s located behind Camp Ripley’s imposing gates and guard station, which sometimes deter potential visitors, Dietrich said.

“Folks don’t always know that they are welcome to come and see our current space,” he said. “To move beyond that hurdle and be right out here on the highway is such a game changer when it comes to audiences and accessibility and exposure, and the chance to do some big things.”

Every inch of the current museum is crammed with glass displays of guns, uniforms and medals. Some of its many artifacts are kept in storage. And there’s little room to tell the stories of the 43,000 Minnesota veterans who’ve served since 9/11, Dietrich said.

“Hence the need for us to go out and find a new space to create a brand-new vision,” he said. “This state’s never built a military and veterans museum from the ground up, dedicated to veterans.”

The new space is a former sunflower field east of the Mississippi River, donated by the property owner. The Legislature provided $32 million to build a 40,000-square-foot museum. Its backers are raising private donations to fill it with galleries, classrooms and theaters.

The new museum will be more immersive and interactive, connecting the artifacts with the people and stories behind them, Dietrich said.

“It can be transformative to help understand the experiences of folks and hear the actual veteran stories,” he said. “You don’t hear that right now in the museum. You don’t hear the voices of veterans. So in our new space, you’ll walk through and you’ll hear their accounts.”

One of those voices will be Neil Rondorf’s. The Thief River Falls native commanded the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, a Cold War-era nuclear-powered submarine. It carried Tomahawk missiles during the Gulf War.

The decommissioned submarine’s sail and rudder were transported from a shipyard in Washington state. They will be restored and on display on the museum grounds.

In a video interview that will be featured in the new museum, Rondorf described visiting the site and seeing his old vessel.

“It was just a fascinating moment to know that I had been in that submarine halfway around the world in our nation’s defense and in critical moments. And I was just a kid from northern Minnesota,” Rondorf said. “So I hope that that inspires the next generation.”

The museum also will tell the stories of military families and the sacrifices they made, Dietrich said, especially post 9/11 veterans who served multiple deployments.

“If we send off a Minnesota man or woman overseas and on deployment, the family bears a lot of the brunt of that,” he said. “It’s not just one person out there. It’s a family that really is serving.”

Along with the submarine parts, the new museum grounds will provide space to display helicopters, tanks and other relics. And organizers have been tracking down other artifacts, including a 50-caliber gun from the USS Ward destroyer.

A St. Paul-based reservist crew helped man the gun, and they’re credited with firing the first shots in defense of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The gun sits on the Minnesota Capitol Mall, but there’s a petition to relocate it to the new museum.

The new facility will spotlight some prominent Minnesotan veterans. One hall will showcase items donated by Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., who served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under President Ronald Reagan.

But it also will highlight lesser known service members, including World War II veteran Don Halverson. The museum organizers hope Halverson will serve as its first volunteer guide when it opens in 2026. The 101-year-old grew up in Minneapolis and served in Italy with the 34th Red Bulls Infantry Division.

“I just figured I’m damn lucky to make it,” Halverson said in a video interview. “A lot of guys, so many guys, never made it. I’m glad I lived to see all the memorials and all this stuff.”

Dietrich and others have been traveling the state and collecting veterans’ accounts. He called it a humbling experience.

“It is so remarkably Minnesotan,” Dietrich said. “There’s something to the idea that it’s something in the water in Minnesota that leads to good, humble people doing really hard work and doing it as a team.”