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RARE ORIGINAL 1937 MINNESOTA RESIDENT FISHING LICENSE & VINTAGE GOOD THUNDER ADVERTISING WALLET
Offered is an authentic 1937 State of Minnesota Individual Resident Fishing License application/license, accompanied by its original advertising fishing-license wallet from C. C. Bruscke & Son of Good Thunder, Minnesota.
This is an excellent piece of 1930s Minnesota fishing, sporting, and local business history and would make a great addition to a collection of Minnesota licenses, fishing memorabilia, hunting & fishing ephemera, or southern Minnesota history.
LICENSE DETAILS
* State: Minnesota
* Year: 1937
* Type: Individual Resident Fishing License
* County: Blue Earth County
* License/Application No.: 310061
* Original fee: 50 cents
* Includes the original printed application/license form with period handwritten entries and official county processing.
* The document was intended to authorize fishing by angling in Minnesota during the 1937 season.
* Printed regulations provide a fascinating snapshot of 1936–1937 Minnesota fishing laws, including seasons, daily bag limits, possession limits, and minimum sizes for various species.
* The reverse/interior includes regulations for the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers.
ORIGINAL ADVERTISING WALLET
The accompanying brown/orange paperboard wallet is printed with:
“FISHING LICENSE
Must Be Carried On The Person!
USE THIS WALLET
and make
OUR STORE YOUR HEADQUARTERS”
It prominently advertises:
C. C. Bruscke & Son
Good Thunder, Minn.
Additional advertising promotes:
* Fishing and Hunting Supplies
* All Kinds of Sporting Goods
* Garden and Bench Tools
* “Our Own Hardware”
The wallet features period graphic illustrations and bold early-20th-century typography, making it interesting as advertising ephemera in its own right, in addition to being the original holder for the fishing license.
HISTORICAL INTEREST
This piece offers a wonderful glimpse into everyday life in 1930s rural Minnesota. A local hardware/sporting-goods business used the fishing-license wallet as advertising, encouraging customers to make the store their headquarters for fishing, hunting, sporting goods, and tools.
The original license also preserves the fishing regulations of the period, including historical limits for species such as walleye, northern pike, muskie, crappie, bass, bullheads, trout, lake trout and salmon.
CONDITION
Original vintage condition with significant age-related wear.
* Paper/cardboard shows expected toning, discoloration, creasing and surface wear from approximately 90 years of age.
* Wallet has edge wear, bends/creases, scuffs and general handling wear.
* License has folds/creases from being stored in the wallet.
* Handwritten entries remain visible.
* Printed text remains generally strong and legible.
* There are areas of staining/soiling consistent with age and storage.
* The license has been handled and folded and is not a pristine/mint example.
* Please examine all photographs carefully as they are an important part of the condition description.
This is an original historical document and advertising piece—not a modern reproduction.
COLLECTOR APPEAL
A particularly interesting item for collectors of:
* Vintage Minnesota fishing licenses
* Minnesota sporting memorabilia
* Fishing & hunting ephemera
* Blue Earth County history
* Good Thunder, Minnesota history
* Vintage hardware-store advertising
* Early 20th-century advertising
* Minnesota paper collectibles
* Fishing regulations and sporting history
* Local business memorabilia
* Historical documents and ephemera
A scarce and highly displayable piece of 1930s Minnesota fishing history with a wonderful local connection to Good Thunder and Blue Earth County.
Please review all photos for the exact condition and contents of this historic item.
