The 2023 high school volleyball season saw Mabel-Canton (14-0, 36-3) win its second straight Section 1A title and make state for a second straight year. Caledonia (9-1, 28-7) won the Section 1AA title and also made state. Each took fourth on the big stage. Fillmore Central (8-2, 23-8) was 1A runner-up, Chatfield (10-0, 26-3) made the 1AA final four, and Spring Grove (12-2, … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Market – Day and Meeting the 8 O’clock Evening Train
Moist air was good for wool is what wool buyer John Redding told teenager Cliff Orr, who had asked why there were so many pails of water in the shed near the railroad stockyards. It was May or June, about 1909, and “market day” in Houston, Minn. About 15 years old, Cliff had the job of driving the “two-seater” horse-drawn buggy that transported five women, including his sister, … [Read more...]
Girls Flag Football Debuts in Two Area High Schools
They arrived at the field with no previous workouts, practiced 45 minutes and then won their first-ever game against a team with previous game experience. Those were the girls from Houston in the Minnesota pilot summer league for girls flag football, which will be an Olympic sport in the next 2028 games. The National Football League (NFL) is promoting it, specifically in this … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Working Many Jobs Was Better Than No Job
Delivering milk all over Spring Grove before school was his first job, earning $2 a week. In 1930, that had the purchasing power that $38 has in 2024. During the Great Depression, many jobs were lost. Any job was better than no job, especially for a schoolboy like Mervin Dvergsten. Although on stage in all the high school plays and musicals, Dvergsten worked many jobs during … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – No One Else Ate Any of It
Blackcap sauce over cooked rice was an original family recipe and “comfort food” on a Houston County farm on South Ridge in the 1940s. Most food, including berries, came from the family garden, but blackcaps (small black raspberries resembling caps) were a rare wild treat. Annually, around the Fourth of July, the Beckman family would unpack long-sleeved shirts, because … [Read more...]
Ingvalson, Strinmoen are Spring Grove Athletes of the Year
Senior Jaxon Strinmoen, one of the most-often honored athletes in Spring Grove High School history, was selected as 2023-24 Spring Grove Male Athlete of the Year while junior Emerson Ingvalson was the coaches’ choice for Female Athlete of the Year. Both were three-sport athletes with multiple conference credentials. Ingvalson was an All-Southeast Conference selection in … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Brownsville Summer Coldness Due to Driftless Deviation
By Lee Epps Third in a series It was at first a disappointment as well as an inconceivable surprise. Later, it provided welcome albeit unexplained enjoyment – cool relief during summer heat for area visitors and annual snowball fights during Fourth of July celebrations. It was a longtime source of amazement when it was “cool” to be in Brownsville, Minn. It took about 120 … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – Two “Cold” Mysteries on a Brownsville Hillside
Second in a series What Chris Gerhard got was ice, not what he wanted. But ice comes from water; was water what he sought when sinking a 40-foot shaft into a hillside near Brownsville, Minnesota in the early 1860s? Most thought it was a water well; some later oral history indicated otherwise. Two young teenage boys, James Gunderson and Don Rohrer, were photographed in 1947 … [Read more...]
Two Teams, 19 Individuals Compete at National Trap Championships
Mabel-Canton finished 28th and Spring Grove 42nd among 261 qualifying high school trap teams at the 2024 national tournament in Mason, Mich/, on July 12-14. That put the Cougars among the top 11% and the Lions among the top 16% of the top teams in the nation. Individually, Spring Grove’s Taylor Reinhardt ranked 12th among 257 girls, and Rushford-Peterson’s Samual Finley 113th … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past – St. Paul Newspaper Features Brownsville “Coldness,” Twice
A roving newspaper reporter from the Twin Cities, Earl Chapin, stopped one night in Caledonia during the summer of 1947. He borrowed from the local newspaper publisher the “History of Houston County,” by Rev. Edward D. Neill, published in 1882. While reading that night, he came upon this item: “About 1861, Mr. C. Gerhardt sunk a well and at the depth of 40 feet, water flowed … [Read more...]