small towns | Minnesota Prairie Roots

Poking around Jordan on a Saturday afternoon February 21, 2017

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: antique shops, historic buildings, Jordan, Minnesota, Minnesota River valley, shopping, small towns, specialty shops, thoughts, travel

A scene in downtown Jordan on Saturday afternoon, an exceptionally warm February day in Minnesota.

JORDAN, MINNESOTA is quintessential small town, the type of place where kids bike to the ballpark, propel skateboards down the middle of the street and walk the dog with friends.

Empire Wok, a Chinese restaurant is housed in one of Jordan’s many historic buildings.

It’s an historic town of aged buildings, a creekside restaurant dubbed The Feed Mill and a collection of gift, specialty and antique shops clustered within walking distance of each other.

Two guys rested on a bench Saturday afternoon in downtown Jordan.

Here curbside benches encourage sitting for a spell.

This sign drew me into a wonderful little shop.

Inside The Jordan Junker I found this creatively repurposed school desk with a U.S. map top-side. It would make for a unique end table. And, yes, the desk opens to storage inside.

Creative signage lures shoppers.

Customer favorites at Pekarna Meats are smoked pork sausage, ring bologna and baby back ribs.

Customer favorites at Pekarna Meats, family-owned since 1893, are smoked pork sausage, ring bologna and baby back ribs.

And the meat market sees a steady stream of customers.

Numerous shops are located downtown.

Saturday afternoon my husband and I popped into this 1854 Minnesota River Valley community to poke around a few downtown shops. I appreciate the slower pace of Jordan, the Mayberry feel of this place with railroad tracks slicing through the business district. Here shopkeepers chat it up with customers in a welcoming way that is neighbor-friendly.

Two historic log cabins are situated downtown where bikers and others stopped on Saturday afternoon.

The community has a good vibe. And although our stay was brief and we didn’t see everything Jordan offers, I got a good sense of this small town. Only months earlier I visited Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store located along U.S. Highway 169 on the outskirts of Jordan. That place buzzes with busyness and the rush of traffic on the four-lane, so different from the quiet of downtown.

I delight in exploring small Minnesota towns like Jordan. This merchandise was displayed outside The Vinery Floral Home & Garden.

I’ll return to Jordan, next time better prepared with an itinerary. Seven years have passed since my last stop in the heart of the community. I won’t let that much time lapse before my next visit.

Another eye-catching sign outside a local garage.

TELL ME: Do you have a favorite small town? I’d like to hear.

FYI: Check back tomorrow for a close-up of a Jordan antique shop.

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Part III from Pleasant Grove: Saddle up for church February 3, 2017

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: churches, Cowboy Church, cowboys, faith, Minnesota, Pleasant Grove, Pleasant Grove Church of Christ, small towns, worship

PUT ON YOUR TEN GALLON HAT, pull on your cowboy boots, and sattle (sic) up your horse or just come as you are in your horseless carriage.

That’s the invitation extended on the Pleasant Grove Church of Christ website for Cowboy Church. Cowboy Church? What exactly is that?

I wondered the same when I happened upon a banner outside the church in the unincorporated village of Pleasant Grove, yet another interesting place discovered on an autumn day trip to southeastern Minnesota. Pleasant Grove. What a lovely sounding name.

But back to that sign. Cowboy Church, according to the website, is a casual bluegrass worship service held at 6 p.m. on the fourth Sunday of the month. It apparently features cowboy musicians and western music, which seems logical given the name. And a meditation.

Past events at Cowboy Church have included an ice cream social; serving of a cowboy’s favorite dessert, pie; and a beef stew supper. Sounds like a good time to me.

TELL ME: Have you ever heard of, or attended, Cowboy Church? Or share a unique church experience outside traditional worship.

This concludes my three-part series from Pleasant Grove, located east of Stewartville or southeast of Rochester. Click here to read Part I and click here to read Part II.

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Part II from Pleasant Grove: Minnesota’s oldest Masonic Lodge January 30, 2017

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:17 AM
Tags: first Masonic Lodge in Minnesota, freemasonry, Green Mountain House, historic building, Masonic Lodge, Masonic Lodge 22, Masons, Minnesota, Pleasant Grove, small towns

pleasant-115-grove-side-front-of-masonic-lodge

Masonic Lodge 22, Pleasant Grove, Minnesota

ON AN OCTOBER STOP in Pleasant Grove, Minnesota, I walked the gravel road from the town hall to the old Masonic lodge. Yes, you read that right. Gravel. Not a single paved street in this unincorporated village that is home to Minnesota’s oldest Masonic lodge chartered in 1858.

pleasant-108-grove-backs-of-pick-up-trucks

Parked next to the Masonic Lodge.

In this settlement, you will see too many vehicles with hoods up, wood stashed in the backs of abandoned pick-up trucks, sizable wood piles and at least one grand brick and limestone house atop a hill.

A garage next to the town hall.

Most motorists likely wouldn’t even bother to turn off Olmsted County Road 1 into this berg. It’s that unassuming. But then I am not anyone. I delight in discovering these mostly unnoticed places that others pass by.

An extraordinarily lovely historic home in Pleasant Grove.

While Pleasant Grove, which lies some 15 miles south of Rochester, may not be all neat and city-ish proper, it is still home to some. Knowing small towns as I do, I expect I was being watched while poking around.

As I climbed the wooden steps to Masonic Lodge 22, I was hoping to get inside. But that was wishful thinking. Nothing’s unlocked anymore. Instead, I settled for peeking inside a front window to view a spacious room with what appears to be a kitchen in the rear.

This structure, built in 1868 and rededicated in 2003, has been home to local Masons for more than 150 years. They meet here twice a month, except in the summer when it’s once/month.

According to a sign out front, Lodge 22 meetings were initially held in the Green Mountain House. Google as I might, I could find no online info about that house.

This historic structure also served as a store and meat market when it was built.

So what, exactly, is a Mason? According to the Grand Lodge of Minnesota, freemasonry is the oldest and largest fraternal order in the world—a universal brotherhood of men dedicated to service, God, family, fellowman and country.

No mention of men laying stone.

FYI: Please check for one more story in this three-part series from Pleasant Grove. Click here to read my first story.

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My appreciation for small town hardware stores January 13, 2017

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: "Our World", Arrow Ace Hardware, business, Hardware Hank, hardware stores, Hill's Hardware Hank, memories, Minnesota, Minnesota Children's Museum, museum, Owatonna, Pine Island, rural Minnesota, small towns, St. Paul, Vesta, Wabasha

Hardware Hank, photographed in Pine Island in October.

IF YOU GREW UP in rural Minnesota like I did, you likely hold fond memories of the local hardware store.

Two hardware stores once served my hometown of Vesta, a farming community on the southwestern Minnesota prairie. While I remember Joe Engel’s Hardware store as the place to buy rolls of perforated caps for my cap gun, my father shopped there, or a few doors down at Marquardt’s Hardware, for all his hardware needs. Like bulk nails and screws stashed in cubbies, the merchandise weighed and parceled into brown paper bags.

I remember, too, the worn wood floors, the narrow aisles, the old fashioned screen doors that banged shut.

To this day, I find myself drawn to the hardware stores that still exist in many small towns. They represent a connection to my past, to simpler days, to outstanding customer service, to a Main Street necessity. So I photograph them, usually the exteriors.

Nothing says "small town" like a hardware store, including this Hardware Hank in downtown Wabasha.

Nothing says “small town” like a hardware store, including Hill’s Hardware Hank in downtown Wabasha. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

One of my hardware store images—that of Hill’s Hardware Hank in Wabasha—will soon become part of a renovated “Our World” gallery at the Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul. The photo will grace signage for a mini town that includes a hardware store. Hill’s inspired the facade of the replica hardware store in which children can play. The updated exhibit opens this spring.

I am honored to have my photo displayed at the Minnesota Children’s Museum. I hope it inspires others to appreciate the value of hardware stores in rural Minnesota. They are as important today as they were when I was growing up in the 1960s. In Owatonna, Arrow Ace Hardware plans to relocate into a new and much larger space by next Christmas, more than doubling its size to some 11,000 square feet. That’s encouraging. There’s still great value in local hardware stores.

TELL ME: Do you shop in hardware stores? If yes, why? Are they still of value in today’s marketplace? Or what are your hardware store memories? Let’s talk hardware stores.

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In Hayfield, Part III: Free squash at The Legion November 17, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: food, free, Hayfield, Minnesota, photography, Rothie American Legion Post 330, small towns, squash

ONE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHIC passions involves small towns. I love to day-trip to Minnesota communities with my husband and then explore. By explore, I mean park our vehicle along Main Street and then walk around downtown before also perusing city streets. I always find something quirky, something interesting, something truly small townish.

A snippet of downtown Hayfield looking from The Flying Monkey Saloon toward the post office and grain elevator.

A snippet of downtown Hayfield looking from Flying Monkey Saloon toward the post office and grain elevator.

Take a recent Saturday morning stop in Hayfield. Here’s how this community promotes itself online:

Welcome to Hayfield, MN, a sprawling community of 1,300 residents nestled on the corner of Highway 30 and 56 and is almost equal distances from Austin and Rochester in south-east Minnesota.

Hayfield is “close enough to Rochester, but just far enough away” and prides itself with a booming local economy with over 40 local businesses.

Well-crafted words can make any place sound inviting. Only a visit can distinguish between polished PR and reality. I’m happy to report that Hayfield truly is small town neighborly as evidenced at Rothie American Legion Post 330. There, on the back patio, I spotted a sign, Squash Free For the takeing (sic).

As I photographed the sign, a Legion member pulled up in his van; he’d just finished erecting a flagpole. He invited me to help myself to the hybrid squash grown by Charlie Williams of Brownsdale.

And so I grabbed one of the smallest orbs—not just squash, but a symbol of rural Minnesota and the generosity of those who live there.

This concludes my series of stories, and earlier posts (click here and then click here and, finally, click here), from Hayfield.

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In Hayfield, Part II: The Flying Monkey November 15, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: bars, Flying Monkey Saloon, Hayfield, Minnesota, small towns

IF FLYING MONKEYS terrify you, then stop reading this post. Unless you drink.

I recently happened upon Flying Monkey Saloon in Hayfield. I didn’t set foot inside the small town bar. Not because I’m afraid of flying monkeys. But because the time had not yet reached noon. I wish I’d broken my self-imposed rule and at least poked my head inside a bar with a catchy name and equally appealing graphics.

My sole source of info about this Main Street Hayfield bar comes from the internet. Hannah and Craig met and drank beer here. And now they’re engaged to be married in February 2017.

The burger baskets are endorsed as “awesome,” an overused word that I particularly dislike. But I’ll trust that Flying Monkey burgers really are delicious.

Flying Monkey apparently chooses a Customer of the Week. I have no idea the process or what the honor entails. But it sounds good to me. Maybe you get a free beer. Or burger.

Bikers and cruisers are drawn here. So Facebook shows me. That’s as good an endorsement as any for a small town bar.

If I ever return to Hayfield, I promise to check out the Flying Monkey Saloon. Even if I’m there before noon.

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In Hayfield, Part I: Snapshots of a Minnesota farming community November 14, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: Dodge County, Hayfield, memories, Minnesota, rural Minnesota, small towns, thoughts

I pulled this logo from The City of Hayfield, Minnesota, website.

HAYFIELD. EVEN THE NAME sounds rural. Hay. Field.

This Dodge County farming community of around 1,300 reminds me of my hometown, Vesta, a much smaller town of around 330 on the southwestern Minnesota prairie.

Both are rooted in agriculture, most visually evident in the local grain elevators.

But it was the discovery of seemingly abandoned vintage grain wagons in Hayfield that drew my primary personal interest. I remember such wagons brimming with corn and soybeans. I remember hiding inside these empty cavities as my siblings and I played out the 1960s TV westerns we watched. Such memories.

Today I am drawn to explore small towns because they connect me to my past, to the place and the people that shaped me.

There’s something about a rural community that weaves people together through the commonality of living in the same intimate space. Lives crisscross in school hallways, in post offices, inside churches, at the bank, outside the grain elevator…in grocery stores (if a small town still has one, and Hayfield does).

Most often, but not always, community pride runs strong. I see that in volunteer fire departments; in local Legions that, despite dwindling membership, remain open; in annual community festivals; and Friday night steak fries. Bingo, too.

And, especially, in the schools, if a small town is still fortunate enough to have its own school. And Hayfield does.

TELL ME: How do you define a small town and do you have a favorite?

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Halloween in Hayfield October 27, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: Brianna Kuster, Halloween, Halloween decorations, Halloween display, Hayfield, Minnesota, small towns

A doll’s head lies next to a tombstone in a Hayfield, Minnesota, yard decorated for Halloween.

YOU WON’T FIND A SINGLE Halloween decoration in my yard. It’s not that I’m anti-Halloween. It’s just that, without kids at home anymore, I don’t feel the need to decorate. And the trick-or-treaters who stop at my house typically number less than a dozen.

Looking from the Gargoyle suspended from the Kuster home toward Hayfield’s Main Street.

But then there’s Brianna Kuster who lives in Hayfield, a Dodge County community of about 1,300. She loves Halloween. So much, in fact, that she and Ryan were married on October 31. Their first of two children, a son, was born on a Friday the 13th.

Until last Saturday, I’d only been to Hayfield once previously and I’d never met Brianna. But as I was photographing her Halloween adorned home in the former The Herald newspaper office, Brianna opened her front door to let out the dog. I nearly toppled over in fright, not expecting a canine to bound out of a building.

Along Main Street in Hayfield, Brianna and Ryan Kuster have decorated their property for Halloween.

Thus my introduction to this young mother who creatively staged her House of Kuster, est. October 31, 2009, property for Halloween. The décor is tastefully done with nothing particularly ghoulish.

There’s a humorous bent and an obvious attention to details. This is kid-friendly.

That said, Brianna shared how she recently scared a group of students walking by while on a field trip. She simply peered through the curtains. That was enough to get a rise.

As we talked, Brianna carried totes of Halloween items to a vehicle for transport to the fire hall a few blocks away. The Hayfield Fire Department is sponsoring a Spook House & Carnival and this Halloween lover was on it.

Before leaving, Brianna invited me into the former newspaper office. There’s no evidence this Main Street building once housed a community newspaper. The Kusters live upstairs and hope to some day finish the lower level, which holds great promise with worn wooden floors. As we stepped inside, a black cat (imagine that) walked through an open doorway. And then I noticed the mini green skulls lining the stairway.

On the Kusters’ front door…

Yup, this is the home of a family (or at least a wife/mother) who loves Halloween. And I expect come October 31, the House of Kuster will draw lots of trick-or-treaters to the Main Street of this small southern Minnesota farming community.

When the Kusters purchased the former The Herald building, they also bought the property next door. They tore down the house there. The vacant lot is now the setting for the bulk of the Kusters’ outdoor Halloween decorations.

TELL ME: Do you decorate for Halloween or have a neighbor/friend/family member who loves Halloween as much as Brianna Kuster?

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Observing the Minnesota harvest October 25, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: agriculture, farming, grain elevators, harvest, photo essay, rural Minnesota, small towns, southeastern Minnesota, thoughts

A farm site between Kenyon and Faribault.

ALONG GRAVEL ROADS and across fields, farm machinery kicked up dust, shrouding rural southeastern Minnesota in pockets of hazy grey.

Somewhere southeast of Rochester.

Dust sometimes trailed plumes behind tractors.

All American Co-op in Stewartville Saturday afternoon.

Grain bins in Hayfield.

In small towns, tractors pulling grain wagons and trucks loaded with corn or soybeans waited at local elevators.

Bees wings accumulating along Main Street in Hayfield.

Bees wings (chaff from corn cobs) accumulate along Main Street in Hayfield.

And bees wings drifted, tinting Main Street and sidewalks red.

Near Root River County Park in Olmsted County.

Near Wanamingo…

In township after township after township, I observed farmers gathering in the crops and working the land on Saturday. A good drying day. Sunshine and crisp temps. Perfect to finish the harvest.

A cluster of bins by Hayfield.

A day trip drive this time of year requires patience as combines, trucks and tractors clog roadways, slowing traffic. But that’s OK. Sometimes we need to creep along, to simply appreciate this land and the farmers who plant, tend and gather in the crops.

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The place to be on a fall Friday evening in Waterville September 28, 2016

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
Tags: Buccaneers, football, football field, Minnesota, small towns, sports, Waterville, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown School District, WEM

VISIT THE HOMEPAGE of the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown School District and you’ll see team sports photos front and center.

Sports are big in these southern Minnesota communities, as they are in most small towns.

WEM is the home of the Buccaneers, a fitting mascot for Waterville situated on two lakes. Resorts, campgrounds and cabins ring the lakes, drawing locals and vacationers to Sakatah and Tetonka lakes and the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail.

But on Friday evenings in the fall, it’s football that brings folks into town to cheer on the champion Buccaneers. Nine seems to be the team’s good luck number with state championships claimed in 1989, 1999 and 2009.

I’ve never attended a football game here, but my husband did years ago when his alma mater, Healy High School, played here. He remembers an uneven playing surface and muck.

Last week, when heavy rain fell and flooded this area of southern Minnesota, the Buccaneers moved their game against Le Sueur-Henderson to neighboring New Prague. But that didn’t deter them. Pirates are, after all, transient, extremely resourceful and not easily intimidated away from their home turf. They defeated the Giants 38-14.

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Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Poking around Jordan on a Saturday afternoon February 21, 2017

Part III from Pleasant Grove: Saddle up for church February 3, 2017

Part II from Pleasant Grove: Minnesota’s oldest Masonic Lodge January 30, 2017

My appreciation for small town hardware stores January 13, 2017

In Hayfield, Part III: Free squash at The Legion November 17, 2016

In Hayfield, Part II: The Flying Monkey November 15, 2016

In Hayfield, Part I: Snapshots of a Minnesota farming community November 14, 2016

Halloween in Hayfield October 27, 2016

Observing the Minnesota harvest October 25, 2016

The place to be on a fall Friday evening in Waterville September 28, 2016

Follow Minnesota Prairie Roots via Email

An essay of barn photos & memories; In praise of preserving country churches; & Testing the track during a Soap Box Derby trial run in Faribault

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