December 2020
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Your Holiday Guide to Southwest Minnesota!
Bringing light to the night See page 2
ABOVE: Larry Johnson, president of the Prairie Home Hospice Board of Directors, and Marshall High School student Araya Rock decorate a tree at Independence Park in Marshall in preparation for this year’s Light Up the Night event, sponsored by Prairie Home Hospice and Community Care. LEFT: Horse-drawn carriage rides are a popular attraction during the event. Photos / Per Peterson
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2 – SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020
let there be lights Prairie Home Hospice’s Light Up the Night event in Marshall will begin Nov. 27 When the wind blows as hard as it did back on Nov. 7, there aren’t a lot of outdoor activities to take part in outside of kite ying. So why not hang thousands and thousands of Christmas lights? That’s exactly what a group of Marshall residents did that day in preparation for the 4th Annual Prairie Home Hospice and Community Care Light Up the Night event in Independence Park in Marshall. Tara Plante, Marketing and Development director for PHH, said Light Up the Night is one of the group’s main fundraisers of the year. But in true PHH fashion, it’s not just a money-maker to help support PHH’s eorts — it’s a community event. “We wanted to add another fundraiser to not only BY PER PETERSON
tracY area headlight herald
raise more funds, but to give back to the community that has supported us for 35 years,â€? said Plante. “Without the community there is no way we would still be there. So we wanted to do something that would give back to the community, be something fun for the kids, has a volunteer air, so we thought, “How about a holiday lights show.’â€? The “nights of magicâ€? begins Nov. 27 (Black Friday) and goes through Dec. 27. The park will be open from 5-9 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and a drivethrough route at the south end of the park will be open from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (weather permitting).
LIGHTS continued on page 3
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MORGAN MAHONEY of Prairie Home Hospice strings lights up in a tree at Independence Park in Marshall on Nov. 8. Mahoney is originally from Wabasso. Photo / Per Peterson
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Lights Continued from page 2
There will be horse-drawn carriage rides, hay rides, holiday carolers, ice skating, sledding and a warm-up area by the fire pit. (Entertainment and events will be limited). Free will donations will go to Prairie Home Hospice. A holiday parade through downtown Marshall — starting at the Wooden Nickel and ending at the park — and a 7 p.m. fireworks show will kick off this year’s festivities on Nov. 27. Tracy native Kayla Daniels will perform in the shelter. There is no charge to get into the event — which initially took place at Southwest Minnesota State University but was moved to the park because of its abundance of trees — but free will donations are appreciated, in part, to help pay for all the lights and other amenities that are used to make the event the best it can be. “We have about a half a million lights,” Plante said. “We only probably put lights on 60% of the trees in the park. Hopefully someday we can expand to the highway. For now, we’re just trying to get the inside of the park and add more lights every year. Every year we try to add more lights, but it’s expensive. Everyone knows if you try to put lights on a 30-foot tree … it’s $300 to $400 a tree. It definitely adds up.” And so would the electric bill — if PHH had to pay it. The City of Marshall, Marshall Municipal Utilities, Kesteloot Enterprises and Coleman Electric partner with PHH to make sure its costs are minimal and power will be supplied for all those lights. “We probably have 20 panels of power (units) throughout the park, which is huge,” Plante said. “The first year at SMSU we had generators for the whole thing — we had 30 generators we had to start and keep going all night. The City also bought us timers, so all the lights are on timers — everything comes on at 5 and shuts off at 9, which is slick. It’s all done through volunteer efforts, sponsors and partners.” Plante, who said it takes three donated Marshall Mini-Storage storage units, plus a trailer, to store all the lights and cords, said it takes two or so months to put the lights up in the fall and about the same amount of time to take them down in the spring. “It’s year-round,” Plante said. “It’s crazy. We’re lucky we have the help of the city. It’s a job for everyone, but we’re glad to do it.” There won’t be concessions this year because of the pandemic, but packets of cider and cocoa will be gifted to attendants, thanks to Thrivent Financial
5,000 Free Circulation Published by Above the Fold Publishing, LLC 207 4th Street, Tracy, MN 56175 (507) 629-4300 • FAX (507) 629-4301 www.swmnsailor.com tara@headlightherald.com per@headlightherald.com Tara Brandl – Publisher/Advertising Sales Per Peterson – Editor April DeSchepper – Ad Composition Julie Johnston – Office Manager Lisa Sell – Advertising Manager PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR: The publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication in any subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement.
ERIN JENSEN is one of many volunteers who helped string up Christmas lights on Independence Park trees this fall. Photo / Per Peterson
and Lozinski Construction. “It’s a tremendous community event,” said Plante. “The reason we do it is because we want a true community event, outside, that families can go to year after year — and not have to pay. You know, Christmas is tight for everyone, so we’re doing what we can to give back.” Plante said the PHH board talked about canceling the event this year, in light of the pandemic, but that was a very brief discussion, she said. “It took about 30 seconds — the committee and staff agreed that if anyone needs it this year, or needs anything this year, this is definitely the year to do it,” she said. “We knew we just had to go with it. We’re just like, ‘We’ve gotta go with it.’ People need to get out, enjoy the holidays and the good stuff of the year.” PHH Marketing Assistant Morgan Mahoney is from Wabasso and said as an “outsider” to Marshall before she moved there, she now appreciates all that goes into putting the event on. “For me, it’s really cool to see everyone come to town and how much people in the area cherish events like this. For me, being an out-of-towner, it’s been fun to meet all the people and all the different business sponsors who we contact. You know, it takes a village.”
Mahoney started at PHH in March and has attended every Light Up the Night event up to this year. Mahoney said spending so many hours stringing lights has given her a new appreciation for all that goes into putting on the event. “Usually you just come and you don’t know how many people it takes and how many sponsors there are,” she said. “I got pretty sore from all the decorating.” “I have two little girls, so I’ve seen it in action,” she said. “Now, behind the scenes is a little different role. It’s kind of fun to see how we can grow it and make it different each year.” Prairie Home Hospice started from humble beginnings, and there are now two hospice houses in Marshall (the Lockwood House and McLaughlin House), as well as an assisted living facility in Cottonwood. “Three facilities — it’s great for our patients, but it’s more money to run them,” Plante said. “Everyone knows what it costs to run a house, and running three facilities just costs more. With Prairie Home Hospice, we just want quality care for our patients, and in our facilities, the nurse-to-patient ratio is never more than two-to-one.” Plante said 20% of PHH’s budget needs to come from fundraising and marketing.
PHH puts on several events throughout each year, including the annual charity auction in the spring, Tough Enough to Wear Pink and smaller events such as fudge sales. Besides the main attraction at Light Up the Night — those 500,000 twinkling lights that would make Clark Griswold proud — the event features horse-drawn carriage rides and hay rides. The only difference from last year is that those rides will be at a limited capacity. “Typically, our trolly takes 20 people around, now it will be 10,” said Plante. “And the hay wagon takes 15 — we’ll probably do only five or six at a time. We’ll encourage mask-wearing and social distancing as well.” Sponsorships for the event, Plante said, have gone from between $5,000$10,000 in sponsorships to more than $30,000 in sponsorships (about half of that is in-kind). As far as cash donations go, “In-kind is great, but it’s not cash money,” Plante said. “But a lot of people give of their services, which is great, but it doesn’t pay the bills. But we’re so thankful for it.” Plante said about $4,000 was brought in the first year, and in the second and
LIGHTS continued on page 4
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It’s good friends like you who really light up our year! Thanks for bringing us so many smiles and great memories. We really cherish the times we’ve shared with you in 2020. And we look forward to serving you again soon.
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Lights Continued from page 3
third years, that grew to more than $8,000. “We’re hoping every year that goes up — this year was hard for everyone, so we’ll see what happens,” she said. “This is the year we hope to catch up and make a little money. For the first three years, we just broke even, which is fine, but now it has become a fund-raiser for us, or it will be hard to keep going.” Plante said every year about 700800 volunteers — churches, schools, businesses, organizations and random teams — put in several hundred hours to deck the park. PHH started a “We Grow Together” tree program where people, businesses or organizations can sponsor a tree for $100 and decorate it themselves. “I think we did 10 trees last year, and we have about 20 trees this year,” Plante said. “It gets 20 trees decorated, and it gets us money for Prairie Home Hospice — another great way to be involved. They have so much fun doing it, and it’s good networking.” Plante and Mahoney appreciated the nice stretch of weather the area was graced with in late October and early November. It made decorating all the trees and other areas of the park much more simple. “It makes it so much easier,” she said. “Typically, the last three years, we won’t get like a week or two window — we start decorating in October, but we end up cancelling several days because of weather. So when we get a whole nice week, it’s phenomenal.” “It’s not easy, but luckily, for my first year, we’ve had pretty nice weather,”
ON COLD NIGHTS at the Light Up the Night event, it’s good to have a fire pit to warm up next to. Photos / Per Peterson
added Mahoney. “If it’s not cold, it’s pretty fun. It will be fun to see it all lit up and know that I was a part of it this year.” When possible, there is entertainment in the shelter area of the park — church choirs, outdoor movies, kids playing piano, etc. “Our dream is just to grow every year,” Plante said. “It takes a lot of work and money, but for us, it’s just worth it. Every year, I get at least three parents who say, ‘I really couldn’t give my kids a Christmas this year — this is their
Christmas.’ That’s phenomenal.” • Everyone who attends the “Light Up the Night” event are asked to respect the 6-foot social distancing rule and wear masks and gloves to keep everyone safe. Entertainment will be limited, and for kids who have a letter they want to give to Santa, they can mail them to 408 East Main St. in Marshall or drop them in the donation boxes at Independence Park. • This year’s event will kick off on
Friday, Nov, 27, with the Holiday Light Parade in downtown Marshall, followed by a firework display at Independence Park. The parade line-up will take place at 5 p.m. near Holy Redeemer Church and the parade will start at 6 p.m. The route will follow Main Street to Lyon Street follow Lyon Street to Independence Park, where the fireworks display will take place at 7:30 p.m.
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Are you running out of room in your g to upgrade? g home or looking DAWN DEUTZ covers a bush at Independence Park with a string of lights in preparation for this year’s Prairie Home Hospice and Community Care’s Light Up the Night event, which begins Nov. 27.
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LAST STOP CD SHOP owner Ray Alderman appreciates how vinyl records have made a comeback in popular culture. Photos / Trina Thomas
VINYL’S COMEBACK CONTINUES The crackle sound as a vinyl record spins and produces music through the speaker can take you back into a moment where it didn’t coexist with downloadable music. The 2020s have proven that one player of music isn’t mutually exclusive with the listener, and a music album can be loved in all playable forms. Owner Ray Alderman of The Last Stop CD Shop of Marshall sees Generation X and Millennials as the ones to thank when it comes to bringing back vinyl record popularity to his store. “Obviously, there are collectors all the way up to their 80’s but I’d say it’s predominantly an 18-25 demographic. To them, it’s unique and cool. You see it in a lot of movies where someone pops that needle onto the vinyl and hear that bit of a crackle and pop when it first hits down and it’s just grown from there,” Alderman said. “Growth” is an understatement, as 2020 was the first year since 1982 that vinyl exceeded sales of CDs. Part of that traction was social media. In the ‘80s, people were able to show off their vinyl collections to their friends when they would come to visit, and now collectors can post pictures of their music
BY TRINA THOMAS
Special to the Sailor
assembly to the entire world on social media. For Alderman, although he purchased the Last Stop CD Shop in 1994, his personal vinyl collection started for him at the age of 12. “I always wanted a record store when I was growing up as a kid. At graduation time when we wrote down what we thought everyone in our class would do when they were an adult everyone said that I’d one day own a record store,” Alderman said. “They say don’t take your hobby and turn it into a business but I’d say it’s worked out pretty good.” Ma & Pa shops aren’t the only places to get vinyl, as younger generations are turning to Good Will stores or estate and garage sales to find cheap vinyl in bulk to get their collection started. Classic vinyl albums such as The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” The Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” and Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” is what you’ll find at Alderman’s store on Main Street in downtown Marshall. Alderman’s collection doesn’t stop there, and he believes that the vinyl legacy won’t end anytime soon - even in a tech-savvy music era. “Downloads still serve a purpose, but I think people are starting to realize that CD and vinyl quality is worth something,” Alderman said.
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‘Such a storm at such a time you’ll never see again’ Nov. 11, 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard caught many unawares From Above The Fold: It is our honor to once again be bringing our readers in the region the writings of the late Bill Bolin, an iconic and beloved historian, educator and coach in Tracy for many decades. Bolin passed away October 15, 2017, and he is missed by so many to this day. Bill started writing for the Sailor in 1997 in hopes of passing down many of his experiences, especially to his children, grandchildren and the many students he encountered in Tracy Area High School from his student teaching in 1956-57 until his final retirement in 2010. The Tracy Area Headlight Herald, with permission from Bill’s family, is reproducing his popular columns in this edition of the Sailor, as well as in editions yet to come:
Last April I wrote about the tragic April 20, 1940 auto accident that claimed twelve young lives on the southeast outskirts of Slayton. This article also relates to 1940 – the November 11, 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. This powerful storm took 169 lives in Minnesota and the upper mid-west. Twenty-two of these deaths in Minnesota were duck hunters who perished by drowning or freezing to death in what most say is the worst hunting disaster in American history. My focus will center on hunters and the storm. Fewer and fewer young people know anything about this weather phenomenon that literally out ran every warning and caught most totally unprepared. Many of the participants are now gone, and no doubt the majority
History Is Life Bill Bolin of men experiencing the wrath of nature that day 60 years ago, were men or teenage boys. The men who narrowly escaped death, miraculously saved or helped save others from certain death, or saw death by drowning, hypothermia or freezing are a part of what Tom Brokow labeled as the “Greatest Generation�. Those men still alive are in their late seventies or eighties and were hardened by the great depression of the 30s and WWII. Their experiences in life were seldom talked about and probably most of the Armistice Day experiences were never passed down to my generation or those younger. One such story never before written down was that of my dad, a Ford dealer in Slayton and his friend, Dr. Paul Keller, a local dentist. Ironically, years later I started my forty-year teaching and coaching career at Tracy. Dr. Keller had been a dentist in Tracy and had left before I came so I didn’t have a chance to talk to him about that memorable hunting trip. However, a few years later his son Scott, a lawyer, became my next door neighbor. Younger than I and not a hunter Scott had never heard one word
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ABANDONED VEHICLES in the aftermath of the 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. MN State Historical Society photo
about his dad’s experiences that 1940 Armistice Day. Dad and Dr. Keller were hunting North Badger Lake about three miles southeast of Slayton. The weather was warm and a light drizzle punctuated a nice fall day. Hunting was slow but by mid-morning the wind switched to the northwest and the drizzle changed to sleet. With the northwest wind and sleet came the ducks. Dad was to tell me later that ocks of mallards, sometimes 100-200 birds would come directly into the decoys. Shooting was fantastic for a short time, but soon the wind velocity increased, the sleet turned to heavy snow and temperatures plummeted below freezing. First it became almost impossible to retrieve a bird, even with our great Chesapeake “Old Joeâ€?. Next the ice began to form around the boat and decoys even with the strong northwest wind. Dad said you could hear the ducks coming over and into the decoys, but the snow was so heavy that you couldn’t make them out. They realized that hunting was secondary and that they had to get out of North Badger. Luckily, they were a relatively short distance from shore and the car; the lake level was low, only 2-3 feet deep. They knew that tipping the boat over and getting entirely wet could be a disaster. With two men, a dog, the heavy wooden decoys that they had picked up, guns and shells, plus a lot of mallards, chances
of NOT capsizing in the wind was poor. They decided to get everything into the boat and they themselves got out and pushed it to shore. I was told that it was grueling work, but both were young and at times the wind actually helped them. When they got to the car it started right up and they headed home. They plowed snow and eventually reached Highway 59. Here Dad said visibility was almost zero and soon they were stuck on the curve a mile east of Slayton near the old O’Brien, later Payton and now Doug Magnus farm. They left everything in the car and made their way to the farm home. An hour or so later the farmer, who needed to pick up some medicine and other supplies, took Dad and Doc into Slayton via tractor. Three days later dad went out to haul in the car; “Old Joe “ was ďŹ ne but the upholstery was destroyed and many of the ducks had been chewed up. Later Dad took me along with the wrecker and I still recall seeing cattle frozen to death and still standing near Hadley. This was a happy ending – for twentytwo hunters November 11th, 1940 was their last hunting trip. Many were to use the wooden decoys for ďŹ rewood in an eort to survive, some crawled under their boats and huddled with their dog, some knew the territory they hunted so
BOLIN continued on page 7
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A RESCUE PARTY, left, carries the body of a hunter who died in the 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. A search party, right, heads on in an ice-encrusted boat seeking hunters lost in the storm. MN State Historical Society photos
Bolin Continued from page 6
well that they found shelter in shacks or cabins, others somehow “lucked outâ€? and were rescued. For twenty-two the ďŹ nal answer was: “none of the aboveâ€?, they perished in the “White Hellâ€?‌ that was the Armistice Day Blizzard. The late, great Minnesota wildlife artist Les Kouba was hunting that day in CocaCola Slough between LitchďŹ eld and Hutchinson in West Central, Minnesota. He and three friends became stranded in a drift in the middle of nowhere. They began to reect on the gravity of their situation, when out of the blizzard came a Holsum Bread truck that picked them up. Kouba often was to remark, “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that bread truck.â€? The wonderful art print that we have in our home: The Armistice Day Storm was inspired by his experience that deadly day, back in 1940. Two of his famous “Shelterâ€? series of three also reect an early winter blizzard. Most weather analysts claim that this storm and cold wave were the most severe ever to hit Minnesota in November. Their records show that 16.8 inches of snow fell in Minneapolis in a 24-hour period and 26.6 inches at Collegeville – home of the “Johnniesâ€?. In a 1955 Minneapolis Star and Tribune article a Chicago writer, R. Whitaker, did a marvelous article on the 15th anniversary of the storm. Some of my comments reect on what he wrote then. He interviewed Martin Hovde, who in 1955 was chief of the Minnesota Section of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Hovde said how even ďŹ fteen years following the storm he would start getting telephone calls each November 9 and 10 asking about the possibility of having a storm like the one in 1940. Hovde told the callers, “I feel safe in predicting that you will not live to see another such storm at such a time – you, or your children.â€? The calls always seemed justiďŹ ed as that ominous day was the last many saw a husband, father, son or brother alive. Whitaker writes: “The physical magnitude alone of the storm would explain the unique place it occupies in weather bureau annals. The usual winter storm varies from 1,000 to 1,500 miles in diameter. The gales of the Armistice Day storm at its height bueted the Rockie Mountains to North Atlantic states, 2,500 miles apart.â€? We here in southwest Minnesota were to bear as heavy a brunt of the storm as anyone. We did manage to avoid the huge loss of life inicted in the backwaters of the Mississippi between Red Wing and Winona, or the freighters on Lake Michigan driven in against the
The roofs of marooned cars on a snow-clogged Minneapolis street bear mute testimony to the storm’s power.
shoals and breakwaters suering a huge loss of life. On Lake Kandiyohi, southeast of Willmar and just north of Lake Lillian, three hunters found themselves seeking shelter in a dilapidated summertime shack. After burning everything that would hold the building together they knew they would have to act the next morning at sunrise to survive. Whitaker writes: “Tuesday morning numb with
cold the three men forced their way to the edge of the now solidly frozen lake. Then, fully aware of the peril, they cut the rope from their fast frozen boat and lashed themselves together alpine style. It was a skidding exhausting struggle across the wind swept lake, but the men reached shore safely. The three men ďŹ nally reached a farm house and safety.â€? Not until the next day did they hear the ďŹ rst grim news of the death and
destruction the storm had left behind and of the lengthy list of hunters who were known to have drowned or frozen to death. In the Mississippi bottom lands some of the most tragic and likewise some of the most heroic stories unfolded. Among many heroes the â€œďŹ‚ying grandfatherâ€? Max Conrad of Winona is still remembered. Many said later that they owed their life to him. Despite the gale force winds Conrad ew until the “living were rescued and the dead collected.â€? Some of his exploits sixty years ago were recounted by C. B. Bylander in the November-December 1990, Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. Likewise, the famous outdoor writer Gordon MacQuarrie, covering the storm for the Milwaukee Journal in 1940, had his writing reprinted in a NovemberDecember 1995 Ducks Unlimited magazine. He, like Bylander, help us to remember Max Conrad’s heroism in the storm Whitaker’s 1955 story for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune tells of one particular incident. “Among the heartfelt tragedies was that of Gerald Tarras, lone survivor of his hunting party. The seventeen-year-old watched helplessly while his father, then his father’s long
BOLIN continued on page 9
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Bolin Continued from page 7
day sixty years ago when at the time friend, and ďŹ nally his own brother froze to death, one after age of twenty-four he guided Pivic the other. Rescuers found the boy and Coyle from certain death. The three men were having fabulous hugging his dog for warmth.â€? shooting and had limited out in no Some of the victims showed time. However, as the ducks were evidence of their struggle to live as they were found with their ying the weather was suddenly knuckles skinned to the bone and changing. Herman was to say: “I have lived faces battered from the pounding here all my life but I’ve never seen they had given themselves in a anything like this. Let’s head for futile eort to ward o the last fatal shore now, there’s no time to pick drowsiness that comes before death up the decoys. We’ll get them by freezing. In the 1985 book “All Hell HERMAN BECKER, Heron Lake, like many later.â€? Luckily, their motor started Broke Loose,â€? a collection of some other Minnesotans his age, has vivid memories as Herman had covered it with all of the Armistice Day Blizzard. Submitted photo their extra clothes. On October 167 Armistice Day accounts, I 23 while visiting with Herman he particularly enjoyed the comments of Stan Pivic of Hopkins who relates his story of hunting recalled that his greatest problem was the slush freezing in Heron Lake on that horriďŹ c day. His host and guide, on the side of the boat that made progress diďŹƒcult if not and ultimately the man to save Pivic and his friend impossible. They beat on the ice with oars to keep the Hugh Coyle’s life, was my friend Herman Becker. boat going. By the time they reached shore the snow Herman is quite possibly the dean of all duck hunters was heavy and the winds horrendous. Survival became in Minnesota; at eighty-four he still vividly recalls that a concern. Herman suggested they turn the boat over
and huddle underneath it. But as they prepared to do so Herman found some bearings – a line fence running from Okabena Creek to within forty rods of his home, but ž miles away. One careful step at a time ďŹ nally brought them to the house. Forty-ďŹ ve years later the two men said, “Herman was the stabilizer, who kept his head and kept us alive by making the right decisions at the right time.â€? By the way, Herman tells me that he never did recover any of the nearly 100 wooden decoys that they had set out. They would be worth a small fortune today. Stan Morgan, Dr. Walter Benjamin, Dr. Fred Yseth and Louis Steinberg of Pipestone, hunting at Dead Coon Lake in the Tyler-Russell area, also had their brush with death, as did literally hundreds of others that fateful day. People died throughout the mid-west and livestock, turkeys, chickens, and pheasants perished by the thousands. Yet nowhere on that day sixty years ago was anything more serious and life so threatened as in the duck marshes, lakes and rivers of the upper midwest. May its lessons be a warning to all of us who hunt this fall and the seasons to come.
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Nobles’ Road Part four and final installment of the narrative “Nobles’ Road,� written by Randy Kottke of rural Tracy.
The actions of Inkpadutah in the spring of 1857 and the resulting unrest throughout the Minnesota frontier were an embarrassment to the government. Settlers had been murdered, panic ensued, thousands ed their homes. And by midsummer, the superintendent of the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road had felt artillery was needed to protect his expedition from marauding Indians. As a result, the Interior department assigned Kintzing Pritchette in the capacity of Special Agent, to report upon the diďŹƒculties. Sixteen years Nobles’ senior, Pritchette was a career political appointee who had served as Michigan’s Secretary of State from 1835 to 1838, and Oregon Territorial Secretary in 1849 and 1850. A “lawyer and an educated man,â€? he was described, “a gentleman, neat and exact in dress, above medium height, straight, cleanshaven, and a pair of spectacles added to the dignity of his port.â€? No image of the “man of considerable ability and mental attainmentsâ€? is known. The agent intercepted Nobles in St. Paul on July 28th when the superintendent was there under the pretense of obtaining gun caps. Before meeting Nobles that evening, Pritchette questioned one of Nobles’ escorts and learned of the retreat to Big Woods. The informant portrayed a group now preoccupied with Indian
hunting, the agent writing to Secretary Thompson, “the passion for wiping out the Indians had infused itself into Mr. Nobles’ party.â€? When told by the escort that “they would go out of their way to attack the band of Inkpadutahâ€? rather than leave him in their rear, Pritchette, “took the liberty of personally suggesting to him that it would be better to make the road and leave the government to protect his rear.â€? The discussion took a dierent course when Pritchette interviewed the superintendent; included in his speech to Pritchette about the unjust disallowance of his vouchers by Washington was the news that he did not expect to build beyond the Missouri that year. The agent disliked Nobles, having been told of the superintendent’s behavior in St. Paul before the expedition had departed that spring, foremost, Nobles’ frequent and public denouncement of his superiors and their judgement. The investigator wrote, “I am credibly informed that during his delay here his habits as well as those about him were disgracefully intemperate.â€? Thompson replied to Pritchette immediately, instructing him to investigate Nobles’ ďŹ eld operations, “as soon as practicableâ€? as the agent’s business at the simmering Yellow Medicine agency permitted. Two days later, the Secretary received Nobles’
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version of events. Seeming unsure whether to blame the Indian or the Interior Department for the interruption of his roadwork, Nobles did both, reasoning that his lack of progress was due in part to, “the bad feeling at Yellow Medicine caused by the delay of the annual payments.â€? By October 10th, Pritchette had completed a twenty-page report for Thompson. The agent had inspected the ďŹ fty-ďŹ ve miles of road between Big Woods and the Big Sioux, determined the Indian threat to the expedition unfounded, studied the Dakota Land Company, and compiled a list of their towns “on or near the route of Nobles’ Road.â€? Pritchette was critical of the work done and the amount of time spent doing it; at Cottonwood City he described “a good log bridge over the Big Cottonwood, which stream at the point of crossing, was not at that time more than eight feet in width.â€? There, Pritchette encountered a Dakota Land Company employee formerly with Nobles group. The man, John Brown, told a dierent tale than Nobles of the Indian opposition to the road project, his statement taken by the agent at “Cottonwood City September 9, 1857.â€? Contradicting the superintendent’s narrative was Brown’s story that the expedition’s westward progress was not interrupted by Indians as they had no contact with them until the retreat from the Big Sioux, when a peaceful hunting party of twenty-two was encountered south of Lake Shetek. The train was estimated twenty-ďŹ ve miles o course and southwest of Big Woods when the Indians “appeared in a friendly attitudeâ€? and asked for something to eat. With the guide acting as interpreter, a “parley took place and ďŹ nally a council was held with them.â€? The Indians oered no threat, and after eating, “departed on the most friendly terms with the party.â€? Nobles, on the other hand, described an encounter with “at least 125 to 150 warriors, all mounted & approaching in regular order,â€? their advance stopped only by Nobles’ threat to ďŹ re upon them. A council occupied the entire next day, the superintendent “placed extra guard on & warned the men to be vigilant, for Indians are never safe, let appearances be ever so attering.â€? Brown’s less dramatic version of events was summarized by Pritchette, “the opposition to the survey and location of the road amounted to nothing.â€? Pritchette’s report to Thompson also explained how Nobles, J. R. Brown, engineer Medary, and fur trader and future Minnesota state senator James W. Lynd were involved with the Dakota Land Company. Lynd had been the interpreter for Nobles’ “friendly Indianâ€? council at Hole in the Mountain in July and his trading post on the Redwood River became the Dakota Land Company town of Lynd. “Mr. Kemp, a young gentleman from Baltimore of more than ordinary intelligenceâ€? was staying at Lynd’s post and corroborated John Brown’s information when interviewed by Pritchette. Rounding out the agent’s report, the hocus-pocus of the ferry monopoly granted to Nobles and Brown was revealed with a copy of the legislative act granting it.
Secretary Thompson had been seeking a replacement for Nobles’ even before Pritchette’s ďŹ ndings and had interviewed William McAboy, who had successfully completed roads in Minnesota for the Interior Department. McAboy was appointed as Nobles’ successor on October 20th, 1857, and the former superintendent was instructed to assemble the government’s property at the camp he had prepared, “disband his men,â€? and turn the property over to McAboy. But McAboy’s new position was short-lived. Lost in the mail, his notice of appointment from Washington did not reach him until the end of January. Acknowledging the receipt, he conveyed to superintendent Campbell that Nobles had gone to Washington and the sixtyplus animals at Winter Quarters were not all of the government stock, many more were “scattered over the country hired out for their keeping.â€? He declared it “therefore impossibleâ€? to take charge of the property until “properly turned over.â€? McAboy found it easy to discredit his predecessor; men who had been with the expedition were in St. Paul still waiting to be paid and had much to say. McAboy quickly formed an opinion based on their advice, two weeks earlier telling secretary Thompson that the number of animals were “double the amount of teams necessary for the construction of the road,â€? and informing Campbell, “the whole last season’s operation is spoken of generally here as being almost an entire loss of all the money expended.â€? Still without having left St. Paul, Nobles’ replacement determined, “I think it will be found by examination that the present location of the road strikes the Missouri too far south by 40 or 50 miles.â€? Admitting his “imperfect knowledge,â€? McAboy felt “it would be impossible to make anything like a correct estimateâ€? of the money needed to complete the project. The amount was important; in completing less than a third of the project, Nobles had exhausted the entire ďŹ fty thousand-dollar appropriation. The extreme delay in McAboy’s appointment worked to Nobles’ advantage. The former superintendent had indeed gone to Washington, submitted his eleven-page Report, the Engineer’s Report, and the Itinerary to secretary Thompson. By then, McAboy’s criticisms had become insulting to the Department, his excuses eerily familiar, and on February 3rd, 1858, he was freed of the “impossibleâ€? tasks he described. The lesser of two evils, Nobles resumed the duties of superintendent the following day. At the end of April, Nobles was back in St. Paul and though he had not visited the Winter Quarters camp, communicated to Campbell that four men remained there caring for the stock. He understood that the animals were generally in good health but two or three had died, probably from eating frozen rushes. Nobles suggested employing one or two mechanics to repair wagons and harness and purchase replacement animals for the ones “used partially upâ€? the previous season. But until another appropriation was received from Congress, construction was at a
NOBLES’ ROAD:
continued on page 11
SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020 – 11
Nobles’ Road Continued from page 10
standstill. In June, secretary Thompson sent Cullen and Mix of the Interior Department’s Office of Indian Affairs to recover the government’s property at the camp, Cullen to receive it for Indian use and the same Superintendent Cullen that dismissed Nobles’ at Yellow Medicine enlisted the aid of Nobles’ least-favorite special agent, Kintzing Pritchette. When the three met Nobles at the camp in August, he refused to honor their instructions, then, the men still employed there threatened to destroy the property if they were not paid before its release. The officials left empty-handed and eight days later, on August 17th, 1858, Nobles resigned. One of Nobles’ men, James Gorman, found employment with Forbes & Kittson of St. Paul at their Yellow Medicine post. He was interviewed there by agent Pritchette in September about the disposition of the expedition’s property and reported the last few men had left Winter Quarters in August, bound for St. Paul. There, Nobles sold twenty-two head of cattle to a butcher for forty-five dollars each and eight mules were loaned to different people for their keep. The two mules injured by the messengers sent to Yellow Medicine were still at that agency. Five wagons, four tents, and twenty Sharps were left at Nobles’ house in St. Paul. James Nugent, the commissary, received a team of oxen, two mules, and two wagons as payment for his wages; Matthew Ryan took two mares, a yoke of oxen, and two wagons for partial payment of his wages. Left in camp for Cullen and Mix to collect were five horses, six wagons, four tents and the remaining thirty carbines. Gorman claimed he received nothing. Nobles would later testify that three-fourths of the expedition’s property had been consumed in the project and the 35th Congress adjourned on March 4th, 1859 without further appropriation for the road. As Congress sealed the fate of Nobles’ road, the former superintendent planned his next adventure. In April, 1859, the St. Paul Common Council requested Nobles, ever the promoter, to organize and lead a party as far as British Columbia that season for “the exploration of the immense and fertile districts Northwest of Minnesota.” Leaving St. Paul on June 10th, by mid-August the expedition of twenty St. Paul tenderfeet dissolved in what is now western Manitoba, only eight members continuing west. Nobles and the others returned to the capitol due to the lateness of the season. For the property he failed to return from the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road project, the United States obtained judgements against the former superintendent in 1860 to the tune of $3766.03. After Jacob Thompson’s departure for the confederacy, the new Secretary of the Interior, Caleb B. Smith, was directed by Congress to investigate Nobles’ accounts and determined that after subtracting the amount Nobles was being sued for, the government actually owed the former superintendent $8109.99. In the House, the report was received by Speaker of the House Galusha A. Grow, the very man who had delivered the fourth of July oration to Nobles’ roadbuilders at Hole in the Mountain. On March 8th, 1862, the Senate and House approved “A Resolution for the Relief of William H. Nobles,” authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to pay Nobles the amount due him, plus ninety dollars. In that same year, Nobles entered the army via an appointment as lieutenant colonel in the seventy-ninth New York Volunteers. A “personal collision” with another officer caused Nobles to resign his position, “he was afterward cotton collector for the government, United States revenue officer, and master of transportation at Mobile.” William H. Nobles passed away in 1876 in St. Paul at age sixty, a man “with a strong inventive genius, by which he himself failed to profit.” The Indian unrest so worrisome to the roadbuilders increased in step with the manipulation of the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, postponing Nobles’ 1856 vision of “preparations for heavy settlements east of the Sioux River.” By 1859, the Dakota Land Company reported a balance of $25.10 in their Treasury and Cottonwood City and Soda Springs had united to become Saratoga. Most of Aaron Myers’ Wisconsin companions in the flight from Medary had attempted claims near him, but within a year only one other family and the land company agent remained. Quickly discouraged by the frontier, the newcomers moved nearer to the perceived safety of New Ulm. Of the Indians, Myers wrote, “we had plenty of them around us and in the timber, and sometimes one or two would sleep on the floor in the house.” Ingalls’, the other remaining family, “moved down near the agency” and John Rennicker, the land agent still at Saratoga, was murdered while returning from New Ulm with supplies. He was living with the Myers family at the time and had used their wagon and oxen for the trip; his body was found near the road’s lower crossing of the Cottonwood, the wagon plundered and animals missing and Indians were blamed. He was returned to Saratoga and buried north of Myers’ house, “on the ridge running to the river.” The mail carrier Charles Homes quit the route and finally seeking the safety of neighbors, Myers left Saratoga and moved near the settlers on the east side of Lake Shetek. The town at the bridge had lasted two and a half years. Despite Kintzing Pritchette’s warning to Secretary Thompson in 1857, Joseph R. Brown was appointed Indian Agent to the upper and lower Sioux that year. Agent Pritchette had alerted the secretary to Brown’s involvement in the Dakota Land Company and that those recommending Brown had “interest in this speculation.” Sympathetic to the plight of the Indian, Pritchette said of Brown’s activities, “his interest therefore is hostile to the rights of the Indian.” The following year, Brown instigated the ceding of reservation land on the north side of the Minnesota River, about nine hundred-thousand acres, “by escorting the Indian authorities to Washington and dictating the general terms of the treaty of cession.” With Brown as agent, some of the Indians began “wearing the garb of white men, with their hair cut short, their barbaric adornments cast aside, and with hoes or spades or axes in their hands.” But for others, the farce of the treaties of 1851 and 1858 had become unbearable. After losing his position as agent in 1861, Brown constructed an elaborate three-anda-half story house of quarried granite and brick on the north side of the Minnesota River on the very land he had helped the Indians sell three years earlier. Brown was away when his grand new home was set ablaze on August 19th, 1862, during the Sioux Uprising; the piano, the sewing machine, the china, the colored plaster interior, all premature. The house was never rebuilt and a three-acre tract including the ruins became the “Joseph R. Brown Memorial Wayside” in 1937.
One day earlier, Nobles’ land company partner, interpreter, Indian trader, and by then former senator Lynd was the first of thirteen killed at the lower agency. He met his demise at the store of Nathan Myrick, the trader from whom Nobles bought Indian presents five years earlier at Traverse des Sioux. Lynd chaired the Indian Affairs committee during his public service which had ended seven months earlier. “I have no reason to believe that the Indians in that country will ever interfere with travelers over that road,” Nobles had predicted in the report Congress received in 1859. Rather, the conflict of 1862 resulted in an exodus of whites, travelers included, from the entire region through which the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road passed. With two hundred-plus refugees seeking safety there, Fort Ridgely was attacked by Indians on August 20th and 22nd, its five artillery pieces finally impenetrable. Two of the guns were mountain howitzers, the very weapon that Nobles sent the governor’s son to borrow five years earlier. Aaron Myers and his family were among the forty-five men, women, and children fleeing the settlement at Lake Shetek at the same time the fort was being attacked. The Myers’ were able to escape, but fifteen pioneers did not and the site of their common grave is marked by a granite obelisk near the entrance to Lake Shetek State Park. Even New Ulm, overflowing with refugees, was twice attacked by the Indians. An estimated two-thousand people finally left that town on August 25th, bound for Mankato. For a time, settlement paused. Government surveyors found an empty Saratoga in 1867, noting, “In the North East ¼ of the section stands the walls of a log house which does not appear to have been completed for occupation, and in the NW ¼ of the same section is a fenced field a part of which has been broken up.” Fort Ridgely officially closed when its last seventy-five infantrymen were withdrawn on May 22nd, 1867, the frontier and its Indians by then further west. The fort’s lone caretaker, Post Ordnance Sergeant William Howard, left five years later and the abandoned structures became a source of building materials for area settlers as the military reserve opened to homesteading. In 1896, the state of Minnesota bought five acres of land occupied by the ruins for a memorial to the fort’s Indian siege, but excepting a fragment of the commissary repurposed as a barn, only “low mounds and depressions” remained of the army’s buildings by 1936. Then, foundations were cleared of sod, cellars excavated, surviving stonemasonry stabilized, and the following year the commissary was painstakingly rebuilt on its foundation. For their work, the restorers quarried granite from the original source found several miles west, and a nearby church foundation yielded stone blocks salvaged from the fort which were brought back and included in the reconstruction. One of the fort’s log
NOBLES’ ROAD:
continued on page 12
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12 – SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020
Nobles’ Road Continued from page 11
powder magazines was found on a neighboring farm and returned to the site. Andreas’s 1874 Atlas shows Nobles’ road oddly meandering through the regularity of the Public Land Survey and the new Winona & St. Peter crossing the Cottonwood at Big Woods, not a railroad to the PaciďŹ c but a real railroad, a granger railroad on its way to Dakota Territory to make wheat. At last, impetus for settlement. Inkpadutah was never apprehended. He crossed the border to Canada in 1877 and died from Pneumonia in Saskatchewan two years later at age sixty-four. Aaron Myers visited his former home at Saratoga in 1886 and found no trace of the grave of his friend John Rennicker, the slain Dakota Land Company agent. By 1893, only the abutments remained of engineer Medary’s bridge over the Cottonwood. Myers house was still being used in 1920. Four Dakota Land Company towns still exist; Benton became Mountain Pass then Lake Benton, and Lynd remains, as does Flandreau, and Sioux Falls City is now Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Epilogue I was still explaining to the farmer why I was searching for Nobles’ road when he announced, “I ďŹ lled it in.â€? It was the shadow of a lane I’d asked him about earlier, seen on an old USDA aerial photo. He moved toward his tractor, “get on, we’ll go over there, used to be a place there,â€? a house moved to Amiret long ago when he was a boy, overland he was sure, not the way we approached on the abandoned driveway. He pointed, “you can see where the cellar was, it’s old.â€? And to a small tree a hundred feet away, “there’s something there too.â€? His land continued and I was left to explore. The slopes had been broken from prairie in the man’s life, farmed,
then retired to hay and he had worked around the remnants, shallow depressions outlined by carefully ďŹ tted ďŹ eldstone placed without mortar. Not far beyond, two great notches with evenly sloped sides aligned in a gradual descent to the Cottonwood River and between them was the “easy gradeâ€? engineer Medary described. I had found the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road. The road should remain in the blus on the other side of the river, too, I reasoned. A dierent owner there, another patient soul, said he’d seen no road or bridge and we agreed that one hundred-ďŹ fty years is a long time and he cautioned about the quicksand in the river bottom if I explored there. “Springs’s all over in there, they move around from year to year, too. You can get stuck pretty good, there’s a pair of rubber boots and at least one good regular boot in there.â€? When I told that the bridge had been decay-resistant oak, he corrected, “No, it rots. Use to be a bunch of old oak fenceposts out there and they were all shot. The wire was holding ‘em up. Go to grab one and the whole bottom was gone. That’s how we lost our boots. Fixing fence.â€? I did ďŹ nd the second road fragment that winter, its alignment and steep grade matching the engineer’s report as had the ďŹ rst. Between my discoveries had been the bridge, its abutments long since scoured away. The site of Aaron Myers’ house is now cropland and the house moved to Amiret had probably been the land company dwelling for Rennicker. I revisited the road only once, to stand at a distance and imagine the animals, the teamsters, the laborers, the hunters and mechanics and scouts and cooks and dignitaries and pioneers, building and dreaming there in that busy summer of 1857.
On frozen pond A CANADA GOOSE glides over a partially-frozen body of water south of Milroy recently. A cold snap left behind a thin layer of ice in October, but it wasn’t enough to deter many birds from enjoying the water. Photo / Per Peterson
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14 – SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020
Massive bull elk loses highway battle with SUV Car/deer crashes are unfortunately pretty common at pretty much any time of the year. But deer aren’t the only species that tangle with vehicles on Minnesota highways. Late Wednesday night, a mid-sized SUV hit and killed a large bull elk near the Camden State Park entrance on Minnesota Highway 23. The driver of the vehicle was not injured, but the vehicle sustained major damage. “All she saw was brown and antlers,” Local Conservation Officer Matthew Loftness said of the driver. “The number one thing is she was OK, there were no injuries.” Loftness said the head of the 6 x 7 (point) elk was removed for testing purposes for disease, specifically chronic wasting disease (CWD). Per DNR policy, the elk was checked by DNR Wildlife employees for signs of an ear tag or any tattooing that would signify if the elk had escaped from a Board of Animal Health elk farm. No such markings were found, and a wildlife possession tag was given to the driver of the vehicle. Loftness said it’s important the DNR follows policy to verify the elk had not escaped from an elk farm because escaped elk are more susceptible to CWD. “We didn’t find any evidence of an ear tag, or a tattoo anywhere on the head area between the mouth and the ears,” DNR Assistant Wildlife Manager Amber
BY PER PETERSON editor
LOCAL DNR CONSERVATION OFFICER MATTHEW LOFTNESS sits in the back of his pickup with a bull elk that was struck by an SUV last week. Submitted photo
Knutson said. “That’s usually where they’re marked at if they’re a farm-raised animal. In southwest Minnesota, this is not normal for us. We’ve seen pictures of them coming through the area and have had reports of them, but have never been this close to them. It was very exciting.” Knutson was part of the intensive testing process, which included the removal of three different sets of lymph nodes — the retropharangeal nodes from behind the esophagus, the submandible
ones under the lower jaw, and also those from the temple area, behind the eye and under the ear. “And because it was an elk from the area, we also took the Obex, where the spine joins the brain,” Knutson said. “That was a really cool process — I’ve never seen that done before. I thought it was going to be gorier, but it wasn’t. We also took a muscle tissue sample and hair, and a chunk of skin. I’m not sure what they’re doing with that, if that’s
just for a genetics test so they can maybe locate where it came from.” Loftness said the antlers were removed from the elk’s head and will be used for educational purposes. Loftness delivered a possession tag to the driver — the animal can be kept for meat as long as it’s cleared of any disease — she said her insurance company was likely to declare the vehicle totaled. “She said it split the radiator in half,” Loftness said. “I’ve been a warden for over 16-and-a-half years and I’ve never seen something like this. It’s really something that you don’t see every day.” Like Loftness, Knutson hasn’t seen this before. Loftness said the elk population appears to be high this year. He said this particular elk likely came from a herd from North Dakota or South Dakota. “There seems to be an uptick of elk sightings in southwest Minnesota,” he said. “At one point, we had for sure three of them that were called in and reported at close to about the same time — one was in Lac qui Parle County, one was in Nobles and the other was in Yellow Medicine County. And we had a report of one near Milroy. This one had been seen in Ruthton around the 22nd of October, then it was seen in the park a day or so before it got hit, so it had been hanging around Camden State Park.”
Now more than ever, we need to heed Billy’s words Christmas is the time to say “I love you” Share the joys of laughter and good cheer Christmas is the time to say “I love you” And a feeling that will last all through the year
There Ya Go Per Peterson
Times are hard but no one seems to care Christmas Eve and all the world is watching Santa guides his reindeer through the dark From rooftop to chimney, from Harlem to Bimini They will find a way into your heart
Editor That’s the opening verse of rock legend Billy Squier’s holiday classic “Christmas is the Time to Say ‘I Love You.’” For those of you who don’t know who Billy Squier is, “Times are hard but no one seems to care” That line surely doesn’t ring true today, does it. Peohe’s the dude who sang “The Stroke.” OK, you still don’t know, do you? Fine. That’s OK. ple do care about what’s happening in this country, in Just Google “Billy Squire Christmas” and enjoy. You’ll this world. That’s because the pandemic doesn’t just see a video of Billy seated in the front row of a large affect people from the south, or the west, or blacks or group of MTV employees (note, MTV used to play mu- whites. It has affected all of us. COVID-19, as we know all too well, does not discriminate. It hates the entire sic videos, not shows about pregnant 16-year-olds). It’s a simple song, really. human race, no matter where you live, no matter the The beautiful thing about this holiday song is two- color of your skin, no matter your political leaning. It fold. One, it was performed by — a rocker. Squier doesn’t care. proved through this ditty that no matter who we are, Just outside the window snow is falling we all share one thing in common at this time of year: But here beside the fire we share the glow the Christmas spirit. And two, it reminded us that we’re Of moonlight and brandy, sweet talk and candy all in this — whatever “this” is — together. Sentiments that everyone should know Memories of the year that lays behind us On the corner carolers are singing Wishes for the year that’s yet to come There’s a touch of magic in the air And it stands to reason that good friends in season From grownup to minor no one could be finer
(877) SWTRASH (507) 532-4500 110 N. 11th St. Marshall MN e-mail: swsan@iw.net
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Make you feel that life has just begun “Wishes for the year that’s yet to come” So true. We all have wishes for the year 2021, don’t we? We all want to put this train wreck of a year known as 2020 behind us. Great things were expected in 2020, but early on this year, we were slapped in the face by a global pandemic that shut down schools and businesses. Life, really. That’s why we have big wishes for 2021. Our first wish is the eradication of a relentless pandemic that has killed thousands upon thousands of Americans. Wouldn’t it be nice to live life again? Wouldn’t it be nice when you stop at a store to not have to back-track to your vehicle because you forgot your stupid mask? Wouldn’t it be nice to shake someone’s hand again? Yes, let us have positive wishes for the coming year. We need them now more than ever. You don’t have to tell people you love them, as Billy’s lyrics suggest, but it’s important to at least keep a positive attitude as we shove 2020 in the dumpster and look forward to a fresh set of days and months in 2021. Here’s to looking forward to a new year more than we ever have, and to having that year bring nothing but happiness. We deserve it now more than ever.
Christmas Tree Walk opens Nov. 21 The 8th Annual Indoor Christmas Tree Walk opens at the Lyon County Museum, 301 W. Lyon St, Marshall on Saturday, November 21. The tree walk ends on December 31. View decorated trees by individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and service organizations. To vote for your favorite(s), place money in a box located by each tree. The top 3 organizations/ businesses with the most money in their boxes will win the 2020 tree walk. They will receive Marshall Chamber dollars. All proceeds from the boxes will go to benefit the Lyon County Historical Society’s mission of preserving and presenting Lyon County history.
The trees are available to view during museum hours: Monday-Friday: 11:00-4:00 Saturday: 12:00-4:00 Sunday: Closed Special Dec. 7-Dec. 31 hours: Monday-Friday: 11:00-7:00 Saturday: 12:00-7:00 Sunday: Closed The museum is closed on November 26 & 27 and December 25 For more information, contact the museum at 507-537-6580 or director@ lyoncomuseum.org
SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020 – 15
A ‘TREE-MENDOUS’ VENTURE Iverson Tree Farm in Belview still going strong, thanks to hard work
BY TRINA THOMAS Special to the Sailor
ody Nelson has spent most of his life farming and working on building his consulting business, but on the weekends you’ll see him “sprucing things upâ€? on his tree-farm as the holiday season approaches. The Iverson Tree Farm has been a staple to the Belview community since the 1970s up until 2019 when the transition happened, which left Ron Iverson’s ownership of the tree-farm in the hands of Cody and Melanie Nelson. Owning a tree-farm was never a thought for the Nelson’s, but when Cody approached Iverson about renting some tillable land for farming, Iverson asked why Cody didn’t just purchase the entire tree-farm. “I said to him, ‘Well I don’t know anything about trees’ ... Two years ago I didn’t know the dierence between a pine tree and a spruce tree, and I think there’s a lot of people that are like that. I was one of those and now I own a tree-farm,â€? Cody said. It wasn’t easy for Iverson to sway the Nelson’s into securing the purchase, but once the realization was made that it was more than just selling Christmas Trees, the Nelson’s made up their mind to seal the deal. The tree farm spans across 70 acres and in the fall you can enjoy activities such as a hayride, corn truck, corn maze, and a petting zoo. In the winter, visitors can choose and cut down their own Christmas trees with a payment using the “honor system drop-boxâ€?, hop on a horse-wagon ride, and visit Santa Clause. Once spring hits, an annual Arbor Day Spring Festival takes place where visitors can pick out container stock or transplant trees to take home. There are ďŹ ve dierent types of spruce and maple trees and three dierent types of pines for transplant. Transplanting trees takes up the majority of the Iverson Tree Farm business, with a process that takes place for a month in the spring and then from August until freeze-up. Cody didn’t feel like he has faced many obstacles since taking over the tree farm, and even the pandemic couldn’t stop the visitor traďŹƒc, thanks to the amount of space that is available for people to social distance and get out of the house. “People have questioned if we would make it, but we’re still here,â€? Cody said. As they approach the second winter season after taking over the business, the Nelsons will continue to carry on the “tree-mendousâ€? legacy that Ron Iverson left behind.
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CODY NELSON is proud to have continued the Iverson Tree Farm legacy in Belview. BELOW: The Iverson Tree Farm is a 70-acre lot with the option to choose from ďŹ ve different spruce tree varieties for your Christmas tree. Photos / Trina Thomas
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16 – SOUTHWEST SAILOR, DECEMBER 2020
Wishing you a holiday season rich in joy, friendship, peace and prosperity. Thanks for banking with us! “You Know Us...We Know You”
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS
May all your hopes and dreams come true this holiday season. For your faith in us, we are forever grateful.
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