Paleontologist Alex Hastings held up a fossilized animal skull and showed it off to a couple of Girl Scouts who passed through Bad Weather Brewing on a cookie sales mission to the taproom’s patrons on a sunny weekend day.
The giant beaver skull is several times larger than the beavers that roam Minnesota today. Hastings told the curious onlookers that the prehistoric creature was the size of a black bear and tapped in at 200 pounds.
“So the giant beaver lived about 12,000 years ago here in the cities to about 10,000 years ago, and it is a good choice for our state. Of course, beavers, the modern beaver is still very widespread across the state. It’s an important part of our ecology here,” Hastings said.
A fossilized skull of a giant beaver found in Minnesota was on display in St. Paul as part of an effort to raise awareness about a bill that would make it Minnesota’s state fossil.
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Dana Ferguson | MPR News
Hastings and others from the Minnesota Science Museum are working to raise awareness about the giant beaver and about their effort to make it the state’s official fossil. While Minnesota has a variety of state symbols, ranging from a bird to a flag to a muffin to a state beverage, it’s among a handful of states that hasn’t adopted an official state fossil.
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The giant beaver fossils are part of the science museum’s collection and they were discovered in Minnesota. Hastings said that makes them a good fit.
“What’s really fun about the giant beaver is that it would have actually been around when the first people were settling into Minnesota,” Hastings said. “So the first inhabitants in this land would have been encountering the giant beaver.”
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A few years ago, the Minnesota Science Museum asked people to vote on which fossil should be the official one. Hastings proudly notes the giant beaver was the overwhelming winner.
The bill to designate the giant beaver as the official fossil isn’t even the only one about beavers this session. There’s also legislation to permit human consumption of beavers of the non-giant variety. The two proposals are unrelated.
Unfortunately for University of Minnesota fans, Hastings said gophers don’t date back far enough to meet the criteria for a fossil, so another giant rodent should fit the bill.
“I don’t know of any dated gophers that go back that far, but we do have dated beavers that go back that far,” he said. “And why can’t we get love for all rodents here in Minnesota and not just gophers?”
Bad Weather Brewing co-owner Joe Giambruno displays a special beer he brewed to raise awareness about a bill that would make the giant beaver Minnesota’s state fossil.
Dana Ferguson | MPR News
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Joseph Giambruno, who co-owns Bad Weather Brewing, said he heard about the museum’s effort to recognize the giant beaver as the state fossil and wanted to do something to help. So he brewed a beer in collaboration with the museum.
“It’s a black IPA, it has some roasted chocolate malt characteristics. The hops we chose are more on the piney side, so kind of like you’re chewing on a pine tree, like a beaver would do,” Giambruno said.
Hastings said the name — Epoch Beaver — also has deeper meaning.
“It’s spelled E, P, O, C, H, that’s epoch, as in, like the Pleistocene, the Ice Age, epoch. And it’s a really nice new black IPA,” he said.
Giambruno said it’s his first foray trying to sway policymakers with his brews.
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“We’ve had folks out for different charity events and certain things,” Giambruno said. “But this is the first time we’re working with someone to lobby lawmakers.”
Kelsea Gilliland, of Minneapolis, said she was sold on the new beer and the policy proposal. She sent an email to her legislator to encourage them to pass it.
“I think it would be fun if I could be a part of it, and I don’t want to get left out,” she said. “I think our state should have a state fossil.”
Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, will take all the help he can get making it law.
“Maybe it’s not something that’s a high priority for a lot of people, but if we can get enough support, maybe we can, you know, get it across the line,” Myers said.
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While the bill has a ways to go, he’s hopeful the nod to Minnesota’s prehistoric past will bring legislators together.
BREWSTER, Minn. — Lots of hugs were shared, tears were shed and utter shock was witnessed as a rural Minnesota family was surprised with the Best Christmas Ever early Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14.
More than two dozen people caravaned behind a Brewster Fire Truck to deliver gifts to Austin and Stephanie VandeKamp and their 6-year-old daughter, Callee, in Brewster, Minnesota, in Nobles County.
Friends and family join Best Christmas Ever committee members for a group photo before leaving the Brewster Fire Hall to deliver gifts to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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“We just came to bring some joy to your life,” said Sue Hagen, one of the local coordinators for the nationwide nonprofit
Best Christmas Ever organization,
which surprises families who have experienced hard times. “Last year, with the loss of Jaelee, none of these gifts we’re bringing to you will ever replace her, but we just thought that your family deserved a little joy this Christmas.”
The Vande Kamps gave birth to their daughter, Jaelee, on Feb. 4, 2024. Shortly thereafter, Jaelee was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, TAPVR (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return). She spent her first eight months in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she had 10 surgeries and ultimately required continuous dialysis.
Stephanie didn’t get to hold Jaelee until she was 50 days old, and stayed with Jaelee for much of her hospitalization. When she did come home, Austin would go to the hospital to stay with their youngest daughter.
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They were finally able to bring Jaelee home on Sept. 23, 2024. Because she was dependent on respiratory support, someone had to be awake with her 24/7, so Stephanie got very little sleep, family friend Ashley Prins detailed in the nomination letter she sent to Best Christmas Ever.
People wait in line bearing gifts to deliver to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025, in rural Brewster.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Jaelee died unexpectedly on Dec. 9, 2024, while attending regular follow-up appointments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jaelee’s death compounded the loss the family was still feeling from the sudden death of Stephanie’s dad from a heart attack on Easter morning 2022.
“The community just rallies around a family and they don’t even know who it will be,” Hagen said, noting that Bedford Industries, Sanford Worthington and District 518 were among employers who stepped up alongside community members to “help uplift a family.”
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Locally, the Best Christmas Ever program is sponsored by the Astrup Family Foundation, owner of Sterling Pharmacy stores, which provides $5,000 toward a life-changing gift for a local family who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. Business partners included Worthington Federal Savings Bank and Runnings who, along with Sterling Pharmacy, had giving trees set up at their businesses in recent weeks to accept gifts and monetary donations for the recipients.
The VandeKamps were nominated for the Best Christmas Ever program by family friend Ashley Prins.
“I would love to make this year a joyous season again for them in regards to holidays and I would love to see the three of them be able to get away on a vacation and enjoy their time together as they missed out on so much of that during this life struggle,” Prins wrote in her letter.
Stephanie, left, and Austin VandeKamp share a look as daughter, Callee, stands between them as they listen to Sue Hagen talk about the Best Christmas Ever program Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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In addition to a mound of neatly wrapped gifts — most of which were for Callee — the family was presented with a monetary gift of $7,403.07. The local Best Christmas Ever committee will work with the family on how the gift may be used.
“I don’t know what to say,” Austin said after accepting the money.
“Merry Christmas,” replied Chad Nixon, representing Worthington Federal Savings Bank.
Callee opened her largest box, which contained a child-sized recliner just for her, as well as two stuffed animals to match the chair. Stephanie and Austin received Minnesota Twins jerseys reflecting their favorite current Twins players.
Among the people on hand Sunday were last year’s recipients, the Adrian and Melissa Gonzalez family, of Worthington. The Gonzalezes lost their son, Emmitt, to cancer in September 2023.
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Hagen also presented the family with over $1,000 in gift cards to local businesses, and noted that donations are still coming in. The Best Christmas Ever committee will meet again with the Vande Kamps after Christmas, she said.
The VandeKamps were completely surprised by the gesture — after admitting a bit of fear as to why a fire truck with lights on and siren blaring pulled into their rural Brewster farmyard.
“I thought right away my barn was on fire, my lambs were running everywhere, then I saw a big wad of cars and I thought, ‘what’?” Austin said.
Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.
So Minnesota: Lego King of Minneapolis builds Minnesota landmarks one brick at a time
Many kids will find Lego sets under the Christmas tree this holiday season, but the popular toy isn’t just for children.
Jeff Esler fell in love with Legos as a child, and that love affair has never ended.
“I am the Lego king of Minneapolis,” Esler said. “So my friends call me.”
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A decade ago, Esler immortalized Nye’s Polonaise Room in Legos and posted it on Facebook.
“That one, it kind of went really viral,” Esler said. “I think I got 100,000 shares.”
Esler’s fame grew after he went on to use toy bricks to build mini masterpieces of Minnesota landmarks.
“I did Matt’s, and then I did Gluek’s,” Elser said. “I did the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in Cloquet. Then, probably the Split Rock Lighthouse. The Grain Belt sign.”
Each project costs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They take a ton of bricks and days to build. Esler has sold some models and given others away.
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“I do the landmarks, because they click with people,” Esler said.
Esler plans to keep building some of Minnesota’s most recognizable places one brick at a time.
Federal prosecutorsannounce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
