Vern Oech

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with... 52,557 students in 2011–2012. Minnesota's athletic teams are known collectively as the Minnesota Golden Gophers and compete in in NCAA's Division I, as members of the Big Ten Conference for most sports. The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, but it was later moved about a mile downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of University and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from Pillsbury. It was upgraded from a preparatory school to a college in 1869. The campus now has buildings on both river banks. The 'East Bank", the main portion of the campus, covers 307 acres .
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Beach is a city in and the county seat of Golden Valley County in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The population was 1,019 at the 2010 census. Beach was incorporated in 1909. The mayor of Beach is Walter Losinski. Beach was first settled around 1900. It was named for Captain Warren C. Beach of the... U.S. Army's 11th Infantry. Beach had lead an expedition of railroad surveyors through the area in 1880. The post office was established in 1902, and the town was incorporated first as a village in 1908 and as a city in 1909. It was named the county seat of Golden Valley County in 1912. In April 1911, the then ex-president and long term fixture of the Badlands region, Theodore Roosevelt, made his last trip to the area, stopping in Beach and nearby Medora. His visit to Medora passed without incident, but the visit to Beach was marred by a strongly negative reception to Roosevelt's speech. He first expressed surprise that the town of Beach even existed, based upon such marginal land. This was undoubtably due to the lack of flora and fauna, the wear and strain he endured in the 10 years he ranched in the area, and Rocky Mountain and Great Plains blizzard of 1886-7.
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