The Brown County Historical Society Museum is expected to see a lot of traffic next week during. Wednesday, Sept 10 through Friday, Sept. 12 New Ulm will host the 2025 Preserve Minnesota Conference. The two-and-half-day event will bring nearly 200 history enthusiasts to the community to take part several history themed seminars. One of the seminars is dedicated to the restoration work related to the historical society’s museum, which was once New Ulm’s post office.

NEW ULM – The City of New Ulm has long attracted its share of historical interest, but next week the eyes and ears of historians from across the state will be focused on the city for the Preserve Minnesota Conference.

Every year for the last 45 years, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has held the Preserve Minnesota Conference in a different Minnesota community. This year, it is New Ulm’s turn. The two-and-a-half day conference will start on Wednesday, Sept. 10 and run through Friday, Sept. 12 and will bring close 200 historian-minded people into the community.

“We’re pushing close to 175 people coming to this conference,” SHPO coordinator Michael Koop said. Registration is still open for the conference. Generally, we push towards 200 total attendees.”

Over the decades, the Preserve Conference has operated under different formats, but typically it held in the fall and features historical seminars and tours throughout the multi-day event. Each year, there is a keynote speaker from the community. This year historian Daniel Hoisington will deliver the keynote address on the second day of the conference held at State Street Theater.

The title of the address is “Gut Heil: New Ulm as an Intentional Community.” The talk will explore the origins of New Ulm and how it was founded by the German Turners, who came with a strong philosophical vision for the community.

Koop said Hoisington was the natural choice for the keynote speech as he has done a great deal of research on the Turners and has a passion for Turner Hall in New Ulm.

Hoisington’s keynote address will only be one of several historical talks given throughout the conference. A total of 19 historical sessions will be held throughout the conference, in addition to three historical tours closing out the conference on Friday.

The history lessons begin Wednesday, Sept. 10, with an opening reception at August Schell Brewing. Guests will be able to learn the history of Schell’s as the second-oldest family-owned brewery in the nation. Most of the history seminars will be held on Thursday, Sept 11 and will cover topics ranging from historic preservation work, heritage tourism, archaeology in the Minnesota River Valley, historic tax incentives and the history of Artstone buildings.

Koop said the idea behind the conference is to provide extra training for historical preservation. The topics of the seminar vary from year to year, but certain topics are always part of the discussion. Koop said the historic tax credits seminar is always popular because it offers communities options for revitalizing historic buildings.

Every year SHPO accepts recommendations for possible seminars. This year was unusual in that many of the recommendations came from locally from New Ulm.

One of the of early sessions during the conference is on restoration work related to New Ulm’s former post office, which is now the Brown County Historical Society’s museum. The presentation for this seminar will be given by New Ulm’s Mayor Kathleen Backer.

“It is unusual for a mayor to recommend a seminar and then give the presentation,” Koop said. “But we are happy to see.”

There will also be another seminar on heritage tourism, something New Ulm has widely embraced in the community.

Koop said he is personally interested in learning more about New Ulm’s layout. How the community’s German roots have influenced it.

Koop will also serve as a seminar presenter. He will be discussing American Artstone, the concrete product fabrication company that began in Fairfax and then moved to New Ulm. Koop has conducted research into Artstone. He said the research gathering process was a lot of fun. He met many property owners outside of New Ulm who have buildings built by Artstone. He is excited to share his research with those also interested in the company.

Koop said there is a lot of excitement in state history world about the conference. The only downside is that many of the seminars are being held concurrently, making it impossible to attend them all.

Preserve Minnesota Conference is held through a collaboration with SHPO and local individuals. Members of New Ulm’s Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) were vital in coordinating efforts. New Ulm City Planner John Knisley and City Building Inspector Ellwood Zabel, with the direction of the HPC, have led the charge to arrange the conference.

Knisley said it was a lot of work to coordinate the conference, but they were excited to bring it to New Ulm.

“The idea is to not only promote the heritage preservation work in New Ulm, but the businesses that have a long history in the town,” Knisley said.

The greatest challenge was finding places in New Ulm that had the capacity to host seminars but also had historic significance. Several of the conferences will be held at Turner Hall and State Street Theater with a special reception at The Grand Thursday night.

Knisley said he was most interested in the historical tours held on Friday afternoon. One of the tours will have attendees transported by horse drawn trolley.

Knisley said they were able to find a 30-person horse-drawn trolley that will be pulled by a team out of Le Suer. This tour will explore some of the historic homes on S. German Street.

A full list of conference seminars is available on the Preserve Minnesota Conference website https://mn.gov/admin/shpo/conference/

The general public is welcome to attend the conference and its events, but registration is required in addition to a registration fee.