Antique Cars, and Stockyards
A lot of people even those from the surrounding area, have never heard of my city, New Brighton. It’s in the Twin Cities, a suburb of the capital, St. Paul.
But there is some cool history in our little suburban city.
Every year the city host “Stockyard Days” a week and a half of activities, and celebration, for the town, looking back at our history and celebrating our city. New Brighton started out as a cattle raising and trading town, the town has always sat along a railroad, and this made it a perfect place for the trade, especially since it was still within reach of the Twin Cities. It has since become almost entirely residential because this industry has disappeared in the area.
As for “stockyard days: there’s a parade, festival in the local park with vendors and food, fireworks, and even an antique car run that comes to town, from our sister-city: New London.
This is really unique as many of these cars are well over a hundred years old, and they have to take back roads so that they can drive the 120 mile route between the towns. I’ve even seen a car from the 1800s in past years!
The Antique Car Runs website boasts: “It is truly a magnificent tour that is regarded by many as the premier brass era antique car event in the nation.” It’s an impressive event as it draws in car owners from all over the US and some from Canada even. I personally love antiques and old pop culture in general, so its interesting for me to see this in my own city, and jump back in time since these cars are actually running.
In addition to Stockyard Days though, we have a small city museum that has tons of pictures and a number of artifacts from old town New Brighton. As well as an old caboose next to the museum for show.
My Grandpa has told my family that he used to live just Northeast of downtown Minneapolis, and remembers that kids used to get bussed to school from the farm town that was New Brighton – it’s not a farm town anymore, to say the least. My grandparents have lived in the city since the 1960s and my Mom attended Irondale High School in New Brighton, just as I did.
Yes I live in one of many small suburbs in my area, but I believe it is truly unique, and there is a lot of history here, not only for the town, but also in my family.
