The SPAM Museum, 101 3rd Avenue, Austin, Minnesota ~ 2023

Driving near Austin made this museum a must-stop 😊

It first opened as Hormel Foods First Century Museum in January 1991 in Austin's Oak Park Mall. It was later rebranded as the Spam Museum and a larger one opened in September 2001-2014. In April of 2016, the museum opened in its current space in downtown Austin. 

It was a blast, especially the spam can train running at the ceiling level throughout the entire place.

The train runs through the gift shop as well.

On the 75th anniversary of the Hormel Company, Dwight Eisenhower wrote a letter to the company with his congratulations and his thanks for all of the spam he and the GIs in World War II ate.

This was 14,000 square feet of fun and we took some souvenirs home for ourselves and our friends.

There's a bronze statue in front of the museum of a farmer with two pigs, reflecting Hormel's history as a pork producer and the originations of SPAM. Cheers to SPAM!

George Floyd Square ~ Minneapolis, Minnesota

George P, Floyd (October 14, 1973 - May 25, 2020), an African American, was murdered by white police officer, Derek Chauvin, on this site on May 25, 2020. The Cup Foods Grocery Store employee called the police after suspecting Floyd of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Police forcibly removed him from the car he was in and handcuffed him down on the street. Chauvin sat on Floyd's neck and back for around 9 minutes, asphyxiating him. The other police officers present watched him doing it and prevented bystanders from interfering. The killing was filmed by bystanders and therefore could not be refuted by the police. 

The site at Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street is still set up as a memorial to Floyd and we visited in September, 2023.

Nearby is the "Say Their Names" art installation commemorating people killed by police.

Arguments in Minneapolis are still taking place as to what to do with George Floyd Square, if anything. Whatever happens, I don't believe the name George Floyd will ever be forgotten. RIP

(Mural by Jasmine Bruce in Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 2021)

Portrait in the Chicago History Museum:

Derek Chauvin is currently serving his 22 1/2 year prison term. The other three officers involved in the killing were sentenced to short terms and have been or will be released this year (Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, And Tou Thao).