Mystery Of The Historic Newspapers In Minneapolis Coin Boxes Remains Unsolved

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – For some unknown reasons, a person has started to regularly place historic newspapers in Minneapolis coin boxes.  So far, the mysterious ‘newspaper fairy’ has replaced current Star Tribunes with old issues chronicling notable events on seven occasions in the past ten days.

Is the person trying to bring our attention to something special that happened in the past, or perhaps history in general?

Credit: Star Tribune

According to Star Tribune, “the headline news in the old papers has ranged from Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon to the death of former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey to the victory parade after the Minnesota Twins’ surprising 1987 World Series win.”

In each case, the person bought a copy of that day’s Star Tribune and then replaced the display issue under glass with one of the historic papers.

“I assume this person is a newspaper lover,” said Steve Yaeger, the Star Tribune’s chief marketing officer. “In addition to leaving a newspaper, they’re buying a newspaper. I consider that a fair trade.”

The first time a historic newspaper was replaced was on November 16 and the most recent took place on Tuesday this week, but the motivation behind the swaps remains a mystery. There seems to be no recognizable pattern and very little that could offer clues why newspapers are being replaced.

“Five of the historic papers were issues of the Star Tribune or its predecessor, the Minneapolis Tribune. One was a Duluth News Tribune, another an issue of the Duluth Herald, a paper that merged with the News Tribune in 1982.

Other historic editions that have appeared included Gerald Ford taking office as president after the resignation of Richard Nixon; the assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; the presidential inauguration of George H.W. Bush; and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Star Tribune reports.

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Jessica Erickson, a Star Tribune route driver, found two of the historic papers. Another driver discovered the others.

“Being a route person, I deliver the same stuff every day,” Erickson said. “This gives us something to look forward to. What will we find today? Where will it be? It’s like a scavenger hunt.

“It got me excited about my job, about history, about people,” she added. “I’m excited that somebody’s giving like this. The whole thing’s amazing.”

Erickson has the seven historic papers sitting in her workspace, but said she may put them back in the boxes — just not in the windows. That way, she said, someone else can discover an old paper “and feel the joy I feel.”

This historic newspaper marking the Minnesota Twins’ 1987 World Series victory parade was found recently in a Star Tribune coin box. Credit: Star Tribune

Yaeger said the series of swaps shows the enduring power of print media.

“Even in this digital age, everyone is still fascinated by old newspapers,” he said. “If you walk into a room with an old newspaper, everyone wants to look at it.”

The Star Tribune still sells thousands of newspapers every day from coin boxes, Yaeger added.

“This is a really good town for single-copy newspaper sales,” he said. “There are tons of people who get their news every day from a newspaper box, and as long as they want to do that, we’re happy to provide it that way.”

But if Longfellow residents want to keep taking their trip back in time, they’d better hope the newspaper fairy has a good stock of papers saved up.

Why the person replaces new issues with historic newspapers remain an unsolved mystery, at least for now.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer