Make Two Harbors history

Talk about it

The Wikipedia page on Two Harbors is about to become longer.

The Two Harbors Community History Committee will meet this weekend to discuss how best to expand on the current Two Harbors history already listed in Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

According to John Iversen, who was raised in Two Harbors and now splits his time between Berkeley, Calif., Two Harbors and Argentina, the idea was raised when Two Harbors High School graduate Mary Wistrom Seckner posted in September on her Facebook page that prominent peace activist Phillip Berrigan was born in Two Harbors.

Iversen said Seckner brought up a good point: “Why didn’t we know about this?” he asked.

The Community History Committee will meet at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Two Harbors Public Library. All are welcome. There will also be a social hour at the Vanilla Bean at 12:45 p.m. RSVP to Iversen for the social hour at 834-3517.

The Community History Committee has more than 90 members and 10 administrators for its Facebook group page. It plans to add sections to the Two Harbors Wikipedia entry about the Two Harbors Health Center and the Two Harbors City Band, which Iversen said is the longest-continuously playing municipal band in the country, as well as the history of other cooperative and municipal ownerships.

Iversen said he hopes the meeting will bring out volunteers to write other parts of Two Harbors history. The group wants to collect the history for future generations, and to write it while the people who feature in it are still alive, he said.

“It’s the rich history of cooperation among the people of Two Harbors to come together for the common good,” Iversen said. “Two Harbors is an excellent example of that cooperation.”

Dave Battaglia, former Two Harbors mayor, city councilor and state representative, said he is glad for the committee’s interest and called their mission a remarkable endeavor. He said he was privileged to work with a lot of the community during his time.

“If they want some information that they think I might have to share, it’s available,” Battaglia said.

Iversen said the group will organize more at this weekend’s meeting and hopes to have a first draft by this summer during Heritage Days. He says the group would like to meet again during that time.

“We’re trying to set up a way to communicate to see who’s interested and what subjects people bring,” he said of the time between the meetings. One option they’re considering is having the group communicate through Google Docs, a shared document system online.

Iversen said the group will also look at other towns’ entries on Wikipedia for ideas. Iversen said he found Cloquet’s entry to be a good example.

“We realized our community cooperatives and municipal ownerships were at least as big as Cloquet’s,” he said.

Tags: two harbors