3D History Trek

A summer day. A lakeside streetcar station in Minneapolis and passengers climbing on and off the big yellow cars. Children are excited, elders are reminiscing, but these streetcars are more than a nostalgic ride. Streetcar technology shaped American cities at a time they were growing at an incredible rate. Here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul we are fortunate to have the Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM), which runs cars like the one in this image as museums on rails.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most American cities were small enough to walk wherever you needed to go. As the culture changed, more people moved to urban areas from the countryside and public transportation was needed. The answer was the omnibus, large horsedrawn carriages that were uncomfortable for riders and difficult horses to pull. Railroads were the trending technology in the 1830s and it wasn’t long before people figured out to put the vehicles on rails, which were easier for horses to pull and more comfortable to ride. The idea took off in the 1850s and in 1872 the first horsecar started rolling in St. Paul, MN.

As a horse owner, I can confirm that they eat a lot, p**p a lot, and sometimes go lame or get sick. It took 5 or 6 horses to keep a streetcar running and people were searchng for a way to mechanize the horsecars.

Frank Sprague was the man who solved the problem of creating an electric railway. Minneapolis got its first electric line in late 1889 and St. Paul started theirs a month later. Soon the whole system had been converted to electric and the horsecars were obsolete.

Switching to electric meant rigging the entire system with powerlines and there would eventually be 523 miles of streetcar lines in the Twin Cities. This was all privately funded, mostly be a group headed by Thomas Lowry. The streetcar company, which became the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, had a franchise with each city. This included building the tracks, plowing snow on the roads, and maintaining the pavement along the rails. Lowry even built two amusement parks just outside of the cities to drive traffic. At one time, there were over 400 of these streetcar amusement parks in the country.

Streetcar ridership peaked in the 1920s, dropped during the Depression, and rose again during World War II. The arrival of the automobile cause trouble from the beginning, including a sort of proto-rideshare known as jitneys. The streetcar company got the jitneys banned and when buses began to draw away ridership, they simply bought all the buses.

Unlike streetcars, the buses didn’t stop at every corner. They were also cheaper to run and could go places that streetcars didn’t reach. Just as the horsecars had given way to electric railways, the streetcars gave way to buses and the last streetcar ran in 1949.

The impact of the streetcar system goes far beyond the tracks that still lie under some streets. Development followed wherever the streetcar lines went and fashioned the shape of the cities that we still have today. The infrastructure needed to power and run the system can be found scattered throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul. Today we have the modern light rail system and the route of the Green Line, which runs near my studio, was deliberately chosen to follow the path that the streetcars travelled for over 60 years.

The image was taken at reconstruction of a 1901 streetcar stop at Bde Mka Ska where you can enjoy a ride on an original streetcar. The black and white photograph is from the same location in 1939. Visit the Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) for more information.

I partner with historic sites, museums, and heritage tourism groups to tell place-based stories using 360° photography. Contact me to reach a wider audience with the stories your organization has to share.

https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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Accessible. That word comes to mind when I am taking shots like these at Kolossi Castle in Cyprus. I never take for granted that I can climb these steps and ascend the winding staircase to the castle roof. I never take for granted that I have the opportunity to explore places like Kolossi far from my Minnesota home. Nothing can replace an in-person visit, but one of the activities I enjoy most with 3D History Trek is partnering with organizations who are inspired to create virtual experiences as outreach for those who can’t visit sites in person.

In April of 1191, the king of England Richard I was heading to Acre to join the Crusades when a storm struck his fleet and scattered the ships. The ship carrying Richard’s sister Joan and his new fiancée, Berengaria of Navarre, ended up anchored off the south coast of Cyprus at Limassol. Several other vessels were wrecked nearby. Survivors of the wrecks were taken prisoner by the island's ruler, Isaac Komnenos, who also looted the belongings of both the living and the dead.

Starting an argument with Richard, a man who would later be known as “Lionheart”, turned out to be a very poor decision on Isaac’s part. After a few brief conflicts between the two, Richard conquered the island and Isaac died in prison. Richard and Berengaria were married at nearby Limassol Castle, and she was crowned Queen of England. At the wedding they enjoyed a sweet wine called Commandaria, which will show up in our story later.

A castle was built on this site around 1210 by the Frankish military and was granted to the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers). After ruling Cyprus briefly, Richard sold the island to the Templars, but the Templars were disbanded in 1313 after they got too big for their armored britches and the castle and its land passed back to the Hospitallers.

The castle you see in these images replaced the 1210 building. It was constructed by the Hospitallers in 1454 under the Grand Commander of Kolossi, Louis de Magnac. The castle stands 21 meters high and each of the four sides is 16 meters long. The entrance was accessed by a drawbridge and above that is a machicoulis, an opening in the battlements for pouring scalding water or oil on any uninvited guests. The machicoulis is currently the site of many cellphones dropped by tourists from the roof.

In addition to its military role, Kolossi Castle was important because it was part of a wealthy property that included 60 villages and a large sugarcane plantation. Western Europeans became acquainted with sugarcane during the Crusades when they occupied ports in Palestine and Syria, where there were already sugar plantations and sugar factories. From the time of the Crusaders until the 16th century sugar was one of the most essential agricultural products in Cyprus.

One of the products created at the Kolossi plantation was the sweet wine Commandaria, named after the site which was the location of the Grand Commander. In addition to this wine being served at the wedding of Richard and Berengaria, it was a favorite wine of the Plantagenet Kings. You can still enjoy Commandaria today. It is considered the oldest named wine still in production and demonstrates that history is not only a feast for the eyes and the mind, but your taste buds can enjoy the story as well.

Contact 3D History Trek to share your sites and stories in immersive 360. https://3dhistorytrek.com/

An old mudbrick house on the backstreets of the Cypriot village of Alampra. These old, abandoned houses are a common sight on the island, where I have worked as a long-term staff member at the archaeological site of Idalion. The traditional building materials of these old houses closely reflect the architecture of the ancient site we are excavating. The houses tell stories of both continuity and change.

Mud brick is made from a combination of clay soil, chopped straw, and water that is mixed together and dried in the sun. (“Adobe” is a type of mudbrick that refers to the sun-dried earthen brick associated with Spanish, Arabic, and Native American heritage.) The materials for creating mud brick are local, which gives the architecture a connection to the landscape and results in regional variations. Mountain villages in Cyprus used a dark, volcanic stone while coastal villages incorporated coral stone and shells into the walls. Inland areas, like Alampra, used the local limestone.

A lime plaster covered the mudbrick once the walls were in place. A roof of timber beams and ceramic roof tiles completed the structure. The plaster protects the mud brick from eroding while allowing the brick to breathe so moisture doesn’t build up in the core. I live in a small mud brick house around the corner from this panorama and I can attest to the ability of the earth walls and small windows to moderate temperatures.

Mud brick houses can survive for centuries with regular maintenance. Once the plaster begins to break off the wall, however, the bricks begin to erode. As the decades pass, walls grow weaker and begin to collapse. The roof comes down, spilling roof tiles as it goes. I have included a photograph in the comments of two houses that appear to have been built around the same time, but one has been maintained while the other has been declared dangerous due to neglect. You can see how the neglected building has lost its protective plaster.

We use these crumbling houses to teach the students on the Idalion excavation about site formation processes. They can see and understand how the ancient city they are excavating developed into the archaeology they see today. We also take them to the abandoned village of Agios Sozomenos to teach them about the conflicts and violence that shaped the modern history of the island.
I would love the opportunity to travel through Cyprus and record in 360° photography the architecture of the old houses and the disappearing traditions that went into their construction.

Often, when you peer through the broken windows of these homes there is furniture just where someone left it, personal items scattered on the floor, and the black and white photographs of forgotten ancestors frowning from their frames on the walls. It makes me wonder about the last person who lived there, the person who knew the names of the ancestors and called the house a home. It is a good reminder for those of us in fields like archaeology to take a moment and step away from the databases, the drones, and the 360 cameras and remember that we got into this work to tell the stories of people.

Contact 3D History Trek to record and share your historic and archaeological sites. https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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How do you like to “do” a history museum? Do you stop at every exhibit and read every word, or focus on the displays that connect with your interests? Those exhibits are only one way that museums generate knowledge, and they hold only a small fraction of the museum’s collection,.

Behind the scenes at a museum are the storerooms where they protect and study the objects in their care. Many objects require special storage to prevent them from degrading over time, and the storeroom of a large museum may contain millions of artifacts, Even a smaller museum, like the Anoka County Historical Society in the image, are responsible for thousands of artifacts.

Museum storerooms are not just spaces where objects are kept, they are also places of discovery. This is where researchers study these old objects with new techniques, new technology, and new questions to find new ways to share the human story.

Each item in a collection needs to be carefully recorded and stored in a database. The picture with this post shows a staff member and two volunteers reviewing the museum records in preparation for moving the entire collection to a new location after the building they had been occupying was sold. which is a major undertaking.

Next time you visit a history museum (or any museum), remember the work happening behind the walls in the storerooms. Better yet, consider volunteering. You might be the next person uncovering amazing stories hidden on the shelves in a museum’s storeroom.

3D History Trek supports museums and historic sites with 360 virtual tours that help them compete in a crowded digital world while sharing their mission with a wider audience.
https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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When the city of Saint Paul purchased land along Lake Como in 1873, many people were shocked by the $100,000 price tag. After all, there was plenty of green space available for people throughout the small city. A rapidly growing population and the Industrial Revolution saw these natural areas quickly built over. At the same time, the city developed crowded tenements and a gritty urban core. The response was a nostalgia for the countryside, along with a belief that social ills were the result of people being cut off from nature.

The Saint Paul Board of Park Commissioners had originally enlisted the guidance of renowned landscape architect Horace W.S. Cleveland, who was inspired by the Picturesque style, which sought to harmonize human spaces with natural landscapes. He was replaced by Frederick Nussbaumer in 1891, who took a different approach. He added exotic gardens, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, elaborate topiary, and even banana trees in the summer. The park was a major draw for urban residents, and many of these enthusiastic visitors came by streetcar.

These two panoramas picture the historic streetcar station and the footbridge that allowed passengers to safely cross over the tracks. The St. Paul City Railway streetcar reached the edge of the park in 1892. In 1898, they were given permission to extend the line through the park. In exchange they agreed to build several bridges and a new station to replace the old wooden waiting room.

Both the footbridge and the nearby Lexington Avenue bridge use the Melan arch in their construction. In the 19th century, both concrete and steel were becoming more available for bridge construction. Josef Melan, an Austrian engineer, introduced a system in 1892 that used arched steel beams set in concrete. This method resulted in an attractive look along with ease of construction and rapidly became popular across the United States. By 1924, there were over 5,000 bridges built with this method in the country, and it remained popular into the 1930s.

The five steel ribs in the arch of the Como Park Footbridge feature a lattice design, used in Melan bridges with long spans instead of arched I-beams. During the construction of a Melan arch bridge, the curved metal beams support the concrete while it hardens. After the bridge is finished, the concrete arches carry the load.
The rise of the car led to the end of the streetcar service in 1954. The footbridge fell into disrepair. Vandals destroyed the railings, and concrete crumbled. Finally, the site was fenced to protect the public, and it was assumed that the bridge would never be safe for pedestrians again. When funds were made available to stabilize the structure, engineers found that it would be possible to rehabilitate the bridge and reconstruct the decorative railing. In 2015, the bridge opened for pedestrian use and became a landmark in the park.

Como Park is now a 450-acre oasis that draws an estimated 5.1 million visitors a year. There is a golf course, ice rinks, a conservatory, the lake, and even a free zoo, which makes a visit an affordable family outing. The streetcar station has been renovated and is used for events. The station and the footbridge sit in a quiet corner of the park that was once the main entrance. They are a reminder of the human need to be in green space, even if there has been a century and a half of tweaking to nature’s original design.

3D History Trek uses 360 photography to create immersive virtual tours of historic and archaeological sites. Contact us to support sharing the important stories you have to tell.
https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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3D History Trek in enjoying the Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums conference in Mankato, Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums. It is great to chat with the folks from all the amazing historic sites and museums who stop by our exhibitor table. We are glad to share how Google Street View helps museums get found by potential visitors and how virtual tours can draw more visitors including those elusive youngsters attached to their phones.

The poster sessions are in the Ellerbe Building, which has been preserved by incorporating it into the construction of the Civic Center. The building was the site of Mankato's first private banking institution in 1865. The First National Bank operated here from 1868 - 1974. and the building in the panorama was built in 1913 by architects Ellerbe and Round in the Prairie style.

3D History Trek would be happy to set up a free consultation with other historic sites and museums to discover how virtual tours can elevate the reach of your site. If you are simply a fellow history nerd you loved to explore old buildings, enjoy the view of this wonderful, old bank.

Visit the 3D History Trek website to learn how we can boost the visibility of your historic site.

https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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We are glad to be a sponsor for next week's conference and look forward to meeting with fellow history nerds. 3D History Trek will have an exhibitor table set up so stop by and see what our tours can do for your historic site.

A huge thank you to our 2026 conference sponsors! 👏 We couldn't make it happen without their support.

Visit them (in addition to other exhibitors) in this year's exhibit hall!

I must admit that I was distracted looking at the landscape and missed my turn on a drive from Red Wing, MN to St. Paul. I was looking for a place to turn around when I saw a steeple on a hilltop and couldn’t resist exploring.

The steeple belongs to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in New Trier, MN. As the name of the town indicates, the first non-Native settlers were mostly Germans along with immigrants from Luxembourg. They brought with them their Catholic faith and in 1856 built a small log cabin to serve as the first church.

The parish grew rapidly and within a few years a bigger frame church was built, but even that became too small and in 1864 a large stone church was built. This, in turn, was replaced in 1909 by the existing Beaux-Arts church designed by George J. Ries of St. Paul. The cornerstone from the old church is installed in the vestibule, and an 1862 statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands watch over the door of the main entrance.

Several things stand out about this church. The Beaux-Arts architecture is unusual for a small, rural town. The prominent setting on the hilltop overlooking New Trier creates a powerful landmark and reflects the church’s central role for the early settlers. By capturing these images in 360° panoramas I hope that I have conveyed a sense of the setting of the church and its accompanying cemetery.

The church building stands as a symbol of how immigrant communities shaped the cultural and physical landscape of rural Minnesota. Many residents in the modern town can trace their families back to those early settlers who came to a land rich with the archaeology of thousands of years of previous human occupation.

At 3D History Trek we firmly believe that you should regularly miss your turn, get lost, or otherwise be willing to ignore your plans and simply explore. You never know what gems of history you might find.

Visit the 3D History Trek website for more information on our work with museums and historical societies and contact us for a free consultation for reaching a wider audience with your site.

https://3dhistorytrek.com/

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3D History Trek is currently booking virtual tour shoots of museums and historic sites. Find our information below.

The area around the Mississippi River town of Red Wing, MN, had the perfect mix of resources for developing a successful pottery industry. The bluffs along the river held rich deposits of clay, perfect for creating the storage containers that people relied on in the days before refrigeration. There was wood to fuel the kilns, labor to run the shops, and the location along the river made it convenient to ship finished pottery.

For the settlers moving into the area in the 19th century, stoneware pottery was essential for everyday storage. Some of these early settlers brought pottery-making skills with them from their homelands such as Germany. A few also brought the entrepreneurial spirit to recognize opportunity and launch businesses founded on these resources.

The Pottery Museum of Red Wing preserves and shares this history. This is reflected in a locally focused collection of over 6,000 pieces that range from bulky sewer pipes to graceful Art Deco figures. It is one of those museums that some people might drive past, thinking it is not for them because they are not pottery collectors, but specialty museums like this are gems of information on all sorts of subjects. In addition to local history, visitors will learn about subjects such as technology, industry, labor, and the changes in art and design over time. The objects are connected to the people who produced them—the workers, designers, and owners. This is all presented in an area of the city where many of the historic structures associated with pottery production still exist.

I love historic sites and museums, so my opinion may be a little biased, but when I was shooting my 360° panoramas, a couple came in with a girl about 10 years old. As the girl moved from exhibit to exhibit, I overheard her call out to her parents in an excited voice, “This is so cool!”—a spontaneous positive review that warmed my history nerd’s heart.

3D History Trek is here to share our love of history and collaborate with museums and historic sites to help them broaden their reach and win the attention of a digitally-focused audience. Do you have a site you want to promote? Explore our website and book a free consultation. http://3dhistorytrek.com/

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