minnesota has long been a meeting place for prairie and forests great lakes and rivers prehistoric people and wildlife before the marking of time as b c or eighteenth there were thousands of people in minnesota by the middle of the seventeenth century european explorers found as many as thirty thousand native americans here as the united states of america was formed europeans began to come here to harvest first and trade with the native people in seventeen eighty seven some of this land became a part of the northwest territories of the united states of america in eighteen zero three the louisiana territorial census was taken about six thousand people of european descent were found to be living here as the fir tree diminished and the value of the land itself to see people came here just ten years the territorial minnesota became the thirty second state to be admitted to the union on that day the township of white bear lake was born through one hundred fifty years the township has grown and thrive day afternoon everybody thank you first of all thank you very much for coming today the weather came out in our favor this afternoon it's going to be a little bit warmer but it's awful nice we certainly thank you for coming out this afternoon for remarks and we have the first governor of the state governor simply townships of minnesota i greet you as a first governor of this newly created state of minnesota white bear town is exemplary the results of the struggle recently fought by your representatives to washington for minnesota to become a state but without any traces of the handiwork of civilized man to that end hammocks society ever growing through immigration and supported by the growing strength of its commerce however if you look to our bright future do not fail to honor the old settlers whose toils have made today possible the fact they urge you to form amongst us society for the memory lose ation of the past so your grandchildren and great grandchildren will know the sacrifices and accomplishments of you and your mothers and fathers who can imagine what the future of your township will be i can see a growing a population and prospering to the endeavors of its citizens in the fields of agriculture and what you take on that new game with bases and bad is unlikely to prosper in our british bring and fall season it takes up too much space to be played in a bar no matter how big and surely would never be played o far in the distant to even imagine and a good day to not some proclamation to read entire state of minnesota and where as from the original eight hundred eighty five town board of james marie moses let me guess heard most krueger i don't know how to pronounce that house of representatives of the state of minnesota that is recognized as made eleventh two thousand and eight to december thirty first two thousand and eight as white or townships one hundred fiftieth anniversary celebration dated may love in two thousand and eight signed kelliher speaker of the house anthony search chair of the rules and legislative administration and myself state representative right and i also have greetings from the governor of the state of minnesota dear citizens of white bear township on behalf of the state of minnesota congratulations whiter township's one hundred fiftieth anniversary sesquicentennial this year let us remember our abundant natural resources our enterprising citizenry and our hopes for a bright future in the land of ten thousand lakes again congratulations as you celebrate your know and then yesterday i saw the governor and he had it is a special no congratulations and wishing you a bright and prosperous future way to go at him plenty i've been asked to make an announcement yesterday there was a delegation at the governor's fishing opener up in breezy point there was about twelve of us here representing explorer right there and it was announced that white purely will be the host of the two thousand i governor's fishing opener and so we will hope that everybody will come thank you very much to well we have we've been very very fortunate in the township and to have really great representatives in the state and the legislature and carol is just one in a long line and we certainly appreciate your efforts they were tirelessly for us over the course of the last month or so we have had a thing in the paper of the asking residents to take a picture that would be the best for us white bear township and how they feel about it and how it how it appears to them and we were extremely fortunate to get it we got ten or twelve i think responses seventeen responses and every one of them was just fabulous if you go in the administrative office they're lined up along the desk and you can see the pictures everyone is it streaming high quality in every any one of them could have been a winner oh ever at this time i am going to announce the winner and the winner of the photo contest  and it's called swinging on white and white bear beach and we chose this a part of it you know there was a really hard decision but if you look at the picture we try to choose a picture that  somebody from any generation for making fifty on up and beyond he could be my grandchild sitting there swinging looking out at the link the the property itself if you look at the vivid colors this is just the picture white bear township in the fall for the absolutely gorgeous colors the serenity looking out on the pristine lake which has been there and which we try very hard to protect but still if you look at it very closely you can see houses along the lake which are those are look towards the future in the development and how we protect that development and you can just imagine in the little boy's mind he's thinking you know what his future is and to lose it except that i really wanted to thank a lot of volunteers you just don't understand how much work it takes to put on an event like this especially when we're kind of starting from scratch yeah it's  absolutely wonderful and i i see bill short oh to the audience i'd like into raises hands really short is one of my just senior staff members and  the historical things they brought us and have set up an administrative office be sure you take one or two of the brochures or the bookmark so that they have the times and dates and places for the other events to us celebrate the hundred fiftieth anniversary of the summer and fall our wind up one will be in the park here this fall yeah no we're looking forward to that and actually if we had some volunteers that wanted to help the the township was organized on may eleventh eighteen fifty eight the same day as statehood and then the last hundred fifty years we've seen white bear township roll in many ways expanding into communities bear lake and north oaks and expanding around its old bond reis to a population today of some twelve thousand people we're very proud to remain a township very proud of our heritage and we're looking very much forward to our future it's going to take you from my point of view i think i think that it's great that we have been able to maintain the township here within the northeast metro area it's very encouraging in that to be able to look back and see the past and she where you came from and where you're going that makes it a little bit easier to chart out the future and i think that people appreciate that and they  they like that we've remained a township and they like this form of government the greatest part about the township is a board members that i've served with and the board members before us have always had one concern and that's been the people who live here