The interview with Harriet Villemin (Mrs. Alex) Cameron was conducted by Dr. Charles Vandersluis in December 1953. Mrs. Cameron discusses leaving her homestead cabin near Northome, Minnesota and arriving in Blackduck, Minnesota. She also discusses herding cattle, cutting hay, and attending a wedding. She describes early religious services, mail delivery, and teachers near Bemidji, Minnesota in the early 1900s. The interview is a continuation from BCHS 054a. An additional interview is recorded in BCHS 103a.
Harry Carlson discusses businesses in early Bemidji; the early Bemidji Pioneer newspaper; El Carson losing his grocery store; early doctors; helping Doc Henderson stitch up a man's wound; being in the Great Northern wreck of 1898; Tom Joy's homestead; Freeman Doud; the athletic field; early cemeteries; the early jail; and Charlie Miles. The interview is continued from BCHS 104a. The recording is dated June 1955.
Photographer Niels Hakkerup discusses how he first came to Bemidji; his acquaintance with Chief Bemidji; taking photographs in lumber camps; his first studio on Third Street; where he got his equipment and training; photographing the Catholic church on Third Street; doing corporate work; burning his hand with magnesium; photographing lumberjacks; and a popular photograph of old John Smith. Hakkerup then discusses a photograph of Little Cloud published in the Minneapolis Journal; Charles W. Vandersluis interjects with a story about Long John dying of diphtheria; an award-winning photo of Mrs. Danielson; other award-winning photographs; a photograph of a young Ojibwe man standing on the shore with his bow in the air; and the lumber waste of undersized trees. He also identies a number of phograph subjects. One background speaker might be Dr. Vandersluis's father, Charles W. Vandersluis. At one point. Dr. Vandersluis addresses his brother, Angus.
