Column - 1910: Ice is safe, skating begins on Lake Winona

Talk about it

The following is a collection of stories and other items that were included in Alexandria newspapers over the years.

100 YEARS AGO

November 1910

Sixteen members of the Minneapolis Motor Club on a durability run spent the night at the Letson House. They arrived via St. Cloud and Freeport. The return jaunt will be through Willmar and Litchfield… St. Luke’s Hospital reopened last April. Since then its patients have been 90 percent – none lost. Two of the patients were there because they had no place else to go… Skating began last Saturday on Lake Winona, considered safe after being frozen over for more than a week… Superintendent Erickson reported the following: 36 high school teachers; 31 students in normal training; 46 rural schools planted 122 trees on Arbor Day; maintenance fees for the entire district was $112,474.00; the tax rate is 5.4 mills.

50 YEARS AGO

November 1960

Ground was broken for the 137 by 58 foot addition to Knute Nelson Memorial Home… One-hundred-fifty singers appeared for the first rehearsal of the massed choir that will sing three songs of the Messiah for the annual Jingle Bells program… Ennis LeRoy was given tribute for being the organizer of the Alexandria Chapter of the Girl Scouts of America. She was presented a solid gold Thanks Badge, the highest award given in Scouting… Ole Holden turned 100 on Monday and on Tuesday he turned into the voting booth to cast his votes… The Harvest theme for the Calvary Lutheran Church Smorgasbord attracted more than 1,500 guests… Selective Service was placed in effect in 1940 and 1,380,000 Minnesotans registered. From that number 242,000 were inducted and 271,000 enlisted in the various branches of service.

25 YEARS AGO

November 1985

Ground was broken east of Douglas County Hospital for The Young People’s Place, a child care facility to be managed by Stella Bowland… Washington Federal Savings and Loan has adapted their caricature of Washington, named “Smilin’ George,” into a 14-inch doll called “Little George.” The doll received an Award of Excellence in advertising competition and is produced in Edina… Hushke’s Recycling has signed a contract with Douglas-Pope County Waste Management to set up drop-off collection points for a newspaper-recycling program… A formal request was made to Knute Nelson board of directors to allow the Douglas County Historical Society to take over the care and maintenance of the Knute Nelson house… Both the Cardinal boys and Cardinal girls cross country teams won their Section AA championships.

10 YEARS AGO

November 2000

June Young is a painter featured in Lifestyles, whose works tell the stories of places she has seen and people she has met. Included among her art awards are the Golden Brush Award, a bronze medal from the Red River Water Color Society and third place honors from the Hiltonhead Art League… Douglas Machines, Inc. and its subsidiaries in Maple Grove and Deerwood has become an employee-owned company. The company manufactures secondary packaging equipment with more than 6,000 machines installed in more than 30 countries… Alexandria racer Rick Thoennes heads for Atlanta for the qualifying event in the ARCA racing series. He will drive a Monte Carlo development car with new ideas in chassis configuration that will make its test run in the ARCA series.

Marge Van Gorp of Alexandria is a regular contributing columnist to the Echo Press Opinion page.

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