The Norwegian coat of arms features an upright, yellow lion, wearing a crown and wielding an axe. Recognizing the Norwegian heritage of Spring Grove, that lion would be a fitting source of the school nickname, the Spring Grove Lions. But “au contraire,” which in French means “to the contrary.” There is a 50-50 chance that the original namesake bronze lion came from France. … [Read more...]

Second of a series It was long a familiar landmark for automobile traffic between Hokah and La Crescent on Highway 16 before it was torn down in 1954. The building originally housed one of the most successful breweries in Minnesota. The Root River Brewery was founded in Hokah Township by Joseph Pfeffer, Jr. in 1858, the same year he and his son immigrated from … [Read more...]

First of a series It surely will never receive another human footstep, but it endures two levels below street level in downtown Caledonia – a century-and-half-old brewery cellar. As far back as the first decades of white settlement in the 1850s-1860s, there were breweries in Southeast Minnesota, often started by European immigrants, particularly but not exclusively German … [Read more...]

Part five of a series Mysterious and frightening noises at night, a back-and-forth chase with a savage animal and an oversized vegetable were among strange experiences for T. R. Stewart, who as an 11-year-old boy, came with his family to Minnesota Territory in 1853. A half-century later, he wrote about those first few months as one of the first white families to settle in … [Read more...]

Part four of a series Hearing the call of prairie chickens was a new and alarming experience. It was 1853 when 11-year-old T. R. Stewart and his family came west from Massachusetts to be among the very first pioneer settlers in southeast Minnesota Territory, near present-day Caledonia. Their first week was spent at a hotel in Brownsville and the second week at the home of … [Read more...]