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Vietnam 50 Years Later: Inside the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum

There will soon be a new place to visit honoring the stories of Minnesota's history in world conflicts, including the Vietnam War. The new Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum is under construction just outside of Camp Ripley in Little Falls, and is expected to open in late 2026. When it opens, it will honor not only Minnesota's service members and their sacrifices, but the refugee experience as well. For the past 50 years, the former regimental headquarters building-turned-museum has served Camp Ripley well. But Doug Thompson, the museum's curator of collections, says these quarters are now just too cramped to do the museum justice. "In totality, in all of our our collections, I would say that that number is between 70,000 to 80,000 individual artifacts, ranging from ribbon bars to submarines," Thompson said. MMVM Inside, you'll find items from the Revolutionary War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and beyond. All of it is meaningful to Minnesota. "Everything that you see in the museum today was donated by a Minnesota family and veteran, so it gives a real good connection for Minnesotans to their history," he said. The new museum will also feature a state-of-the-art archive room, a classroom for students, as well as a dedicated space to continue recording and preserving stories of Minnesota's veterans and refugee communities. "It's who we are as a state. We've been shaped by that. The leadership that those communities have demonstrated at various levels, first responders, state legislature active in their communities, we want to have those stories be part of those facilities," Thompson said. Finally, a facility to call their own, built just for them, that lays the groundwork for future generations to remember and honor their past. This story is part of the WCCO documentary "Vietnam 50 Years Later: Reflection on a War that Changed Minnesota," by reporter Pauleen Le and photojournalist Art Phillips. Watch the full documentary below, or on our YouTube channel.