I attended the Minnesota Genealogical Society's Northstar conference on 10/3 and 10/4 in Edina. It seems that the genealogists are more obsessive than the local historians at the AASLH conference. Judy Russell (http://legalgenealogist.com/) was the main speaker and was quite informative and interesting. I think that digging into some of the families of Lyle will help explain the history of the area.