Editing Bena, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[File:Big Fish Supper Club & Resort.jpg|left|thumb|alt=65-foot long wooden structure shaped and painted like a giant fish, flanked by a log cabin structure with sign reading "The Big Fish"|The Big Fish and the Big Fish Supper Club]]A post office called Bena has been in operation since 1898.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=MN&county=Cass | title=Cass County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=12 April 2015}}</ref> Bena is a type of bird mentioned in the poem ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA87|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=87}}</ref> The Ojibwe word ''bina''' is the word for partridge, a very common bird in this area. 
Both the [[The Big Fish (roadside attraction)|Big Fish Supper Club]] and the National Register of Historic Places listed Big Winnie General Store are landmarks associated with the city of Bena.

From 1901-1911, the Bena Boarding School, an [[American Indian boarding schools|American Indian residential school]], operated in Bena.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Interactive Digital Map of Indian Boarding Schools |url=https://boardingschoolhealing.org/digitalmap/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition |language=en-US}}</ref>  Hundreds of Native American students were brought to the school.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Paul Buffalo Biography -- Tim Roufs -- University of Minnesota Duluth |url=https://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/Buffalo/PB36.html |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=www.d.umn.edu}}</ref>

Late in [[World War II]], a logging camp manned by prisoners of war was located at the site of an old [[Civilian Conservation Corps|CCC]] camp near Bena.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/44/v44i08p290-303.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019113116/http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/44/v44i08p290-303.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-19 |url-status=live |work=Minnesota History|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|first=Edward J. |last=Pluth | date=Winter 1975 |title=Prisoner of War Employment in Minnesota During World War II |page=295 |access-date=June 20, 2014}}</ref> Two German POWs escaped from the camp in 1944 for a short period.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/54/v54i03p112-123.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019165354/http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/54/v54i03p112-123.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-19 |url-status=live |work=Minnesota History|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|first=George H. |last=Lobdell| date=Fall 1994 |title=Minnesota's 1944 PW escape |access-date=May 5, 2017}}</ref>