Trygg Historical Maps

06/26/2025

We had the pleasure of meeting with Ryan Rodgers who interviewed us for this story about Bill Trygg Sr.’s life & work.

05/22/2025

Bill Trygg Sr.'s series of 46 maps is based on information from the Original Land Surveys in the mid-1800's to early 1900's.
Users of the Trygg Maps have said they are an irreplaceable source of information relating to the historical geography of Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin, Michigan & Iowa.
Maps are available for purchase at https://trygghistoricalmaps.com/

03/20/2025

The last sunset of winter filled the sky with brilliant colors!

12/18/2024

Venus was shining in the southern sky at the office tonight.

10/08/2024

Bill and Margaret Trygg watched the aurora borealis over Fall Lake near Ely with Iris, a young woman from Germany, who was attending Ely Junior College in the 1950's.

Iris recently sent a copy of Bill’s sketch of the aurora borealis from her scrapbook.

Last night Bill’s granddaughter Kris captured photos of the aurora borealis shining over the water.

09/18/2023

Grandpa Bill Trygg Sr sparked my interest in photography when I was 11.

Last night on the anniversary of his birth, I was enjoying the starry skies, gentle glow of the northern lights, & beautiful reflections on the water.

04/28/2023

Earlier this week the aurora borealis & aurora australis lit up the night sky around the world.

Over 200 years ago, on July 20, 1817, Major Joseph Delafield wrote in his diary “About 10 o’clock in the evening saw a most splendid Aurora Borealis or Northern Light, which quite illuminated the Northern hemisphere – in the course of 15 minutes it reached the zenith by flashes of light & then gradually disappeared.”

Major Delafield was an agent for the Boundary Commissioner working to define the boundary between the United States & Canada. He & others were camped on Petite Isle de St. Regis on the St. Lawrence River when he wrote about seeing the aurora borealis.

Major Delafield’s diary details trips made on the border waters from New York into Minnesota from 1817 to 1823. The diary is written in ink in small script & consists of 12 thin booklets 3-3/4” x 5-7/8” bound in plain red leather. It was published in 1943 in “The Unfortified Boundary: A Diary of the First Survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods.”

In 1962 Bill Trygg Sr wrote to Major Delafield’s grandson, General John Ross Delafield. “I have enjoyed very much reading ‘The Unfortified Boundary.’ I have found it most helpful in connection with an appraisal project I am now working on in behalf of the Chippewa and Ottawa Indians of northern Michigan which involves the determination of what the country was like and the extent of habitation and settlement during the period of 1836 when they ceded the lands to the U.S. government. Major Delafield’s bits of information about establishments as early as 1820 are very helpful to reconstruct a true and factual picture of the early day settlements.”

Bill Trygg included some of Major Delafield's notations along the Minnesota-Canadian border in his series of Composite Maps; available for sale at https://trygghistoricalmaps.com/

03/08/2023

Dr. Helen Knuth was an officer in the WAVES from 1944-1946 & was stationed in Washington, D.C. Her sister, Margaret, was married to Bill Trygg Sr.

Helen earned her Master’s & PhD at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

She was Acting Curator of the Dawes Collection at Northwestern, taught at several schools & colleges in the Midwest, & was Dean at Milwaukee Downer College. Helen was a Professor of History at Clarion University in Clarion, PA from 1958 until her retirement in 1977.

In the 1960’s Helen researched & wrote reports for several Native American Tribes on the economic & historical background of lands ceded in the 1800’s. The reports were exhibits for the tribes’ cases at the Indian Claims Commission in Washington, D.C. The tribes were seeking adjustments to what had been paid when their lands were ceded.

Helen’s friends said she was an inspiration & role model to women students.

I hope her life continues to inspire us.

02/24/2023

Enjoying the sunshine and blue skies at our office today.....
with a glimpse through the trees of nearby Moss Lake and the hills of the Laurentian Divide 14 miles to the south.

01/30/2023

We're enjoying the sunshine & view from the office of Moss Lake & the distant hills of the Laurentian Divide.

01/03/2023

This presentation on January 11 will be available via Zoom as well as in person at the Lake Superior Estuarium in Superior, Wisconsin. Please click the link for more info.

The River Talks will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, at the Lake Superior Estuarium in Superior, with “Nimaawanji'idimin Giiwitaashkodeng: Working with Fire to Heal the Land on Wisconsin and Minnesota Points,” an in-person and Zoom presentation by Evan Larson, University of Wisconsin-Platt...