Museum News

Curt is writing character-driven columns for the museum’s newsletter — as preparations mount in anticipation of the 2026 opening of the $32 million museum expansion at Camp Ripley.

A history major at Macalester College, Brown spent more than 30 years in Minnesota journalism — working for the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, the Associated Press, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minnesota Star Tribune. He wrote a popular Minnesota History column in the Star Tribune from 2014-2024.

Brown was named Minnesota Journalist of the Year in 2012 for his six-part serial narrative and e-book, “In the Footsteps of Little Crow” — published on the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Dakota War. His books include “Minnesota 1918,” which chronicled the trifecta of woe when the flu pandemic, WWI and forest fires ravaged the northeastern part of the state. His first book, “So Terrible a Storm,” detailed a wicked 1905 storm that walloped Duluth and led to Split Rock Lighthouse’s construction.

Curt lives on a trout stream near Durango, Colorado, and looks forward to this opportunity to tell more stories about Minnesota veterans’ sacrifices and contributions as the new museum becomes a reality.