Before We Were M State: Detroit Lakes
The Detroit Lakes technical college got its start in a vacated garage on East Highway 10 and offered two classes.
With the aid of a dedicated Citizen’s Advisory Committee and the support of local and state governments, the Detroit Lakes Area Vocational Technical Institute won designation by the State Legislature in 1965.
That same year, the Detroit Lakes community showed its support for the institute through the successful passage of a $750,000 bond issue to initiate the development of a new facility. Designed for 200 students, the building was completed in 1967. There were 75 students enrolled in the institute’s first class.
The college quickly grew, and over the next three decades, there were five major additions and remodeling projects at the campus. The largest of those was a $5.2 million project that took place in 1992 and 1993.
By 1980, the institute offered nearly 30 courses, and the student population exceeded 500 at the main campus in Detroit Lakes. Another 95 were enrolled at the college’s recently-added satellite centers in White Earth and Red Lake; by the ‘90s, two additional satellite campuses were operating, in Wadena and Twin Valley.
Robert Dobrenski, the institute’s then-Assistant Director, commented in the 1980 yearbook that, “We are striving to give our students the maximum opportunity to grow, to mature and to improve judgment; and most of all, the opportunity to get the skills and self confidence to hold good jobs in our society today.”
Popular programs in the pre-M State days in Detroit Lakes included nursing, small engines and diesel mechanics, business and administrative work, and construction, among others. Student life opportunities included events, groups and activities such as holiday dances, Pep Club, “Snow Daze” royalty contests, a Student Senate, Native American Student Association, intramural sports, Ag Tech Club, Earth Club and many more.
In 1992, the State Board of Technical Colleges determined that tech schools needed to be of a minimum size or merge with other tech schools. In response, school board members and administrators in rural west central Minnesota began exploring the possibility of establishing a multi-campus technical college.
It was agreed that any new college developed should be large enough that it would have economic efficiencies as well as a strong political base in the State Legislature. The result of those conversations was the creation of Northwest Regional Technical College, a six-campus college with locations in Detroit Lakes, Moorhead and Wadena as well as Bemidji, East Grand Forks and Thief River Falls. The college officially opened in July of 1992.
Bringing those campuses together was “a tremendous undertaking that aligned the curriculum of duplicated programs and more than one campus,” according to a historical overview published by the Minnesota Technical College System in 1995. An interactive television system was put in place to connect the six campuses as well as other state colleges and universities in the region, including the college in Fergus Falls, and, “In addition, the Custom Training Services Division was organized and what was formerly six independent CTSs now were formed into one.”
Read more about the early histories of our campuses in: