Tag: southeast Minnesota

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Renovation – preserving the past for the future

Renovation is usually one of my favorite topics. It involves retrofitting old structures to make them new again. Those assignments involve me talking about and photographing old structures, something the urban explorer in me really enjoys.

renovation
The Harmony, Minnesota, Historical Society is kicking off a fund drive to renovate the old McGlaughlin Elevator, first built in 1879. They’ll host open house events July 3 and 4 from 11-2 each day. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The past and future stand guard at the entrance to Main Street in Harmony, Minnesota. The McMichael Grain Elevator was built in 1879 and stands on the west side of Main Street, where it meets the curve of State Highway 52. On the east side of the street is the much newer and more modern Harmony Agri-Services. A group of Harmony citizens is working to make sure the past and future of grain handling in the area watch over Main Street for many years to come.

Harmony sits smack dab in the middle of Minnesota farm country, so they needed elevators near railroads to process and store harvested grain, as well as move it into large freight cars for transportation. The A. & T. McMichael Grain Company of McGregor, Iowa, built the original elevator structure, one of several facilities they owned and operated in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota. It included the elevators in Preston, Mabel, and Canton, Minnesota.

Farmers drove in here and dumped their grain for storage down through the floor grate in the old Harmony Elevator. The town’s Historical Society is kicking off a fund drive to raise money for renovations and turning it into a historical landmark. (Photo by Chad Smith)

Joel Wolsted bought the facility in 1914, and his family would hang on to it for a long time. He passed on the operation to his son, Ron Wolsted, who ran it as “Harmony Feed and Fuel.” As the new Harmony Agri-Services facility went up on the other side of the road, the old structure was gifted to the City of Harmony and the Harmony Area Historical Society by Jeff and Barb (Wolsted) Soma of Harmony Agri-Services in 2019.

Understandably, the then 140-year-old facility was in rough shape when the historical society first opened the doors. Ralph Beastrom is one of the historical society’s elevator committee chairs. With a laugh, he said the place was “full of stuff” when they looked inside it.

“We had a crew come in and clean the bins,” he recalled. “They went down inside the bins (which are long gone) and shoveled them all out. We also had a soda blaster come in and clean everything up inside the building. There were cobwebs, bird droppings, and dirt everywhere you looked in here.”

renovation
One of the leftover shovels that Harmony Elevator employees had to use to unload train cars by hand in the late 1800s when the elevator was built. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The local Falk Foundation gave the project a grant to help pay for the soda blasting. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like sandblasting, but workers use what’s essentially baking soda.

He said there are a few pieces of equipment left behind, including what are called “fanning mills” that sort the grain. Once the mills and other left-behind equipment get cleaned up, they will become part of the historical site.

Machinery left behind at the old elevator in Harmony, Minnesota. The local Historical Society is raising funds to renovate it and make it a historical landmark the town can be proud of. (Photo by Chad Smith)

“Our overall renovation plan is to work on the outside first,” Beastrom said. “We’ll do the siding and fix up the doors, so they work smoothly again. At some point, the inside will get renovated with some new lighting and some interpretive information. Whether we’ll do anything electronically, I’m not sure yet.

“We also need to get the windows taken care of, which will probably be our next high-dollar item,” he said. “Then, it’ll be time to work on the doors and close any openings that the swallows are using to get in and build their nests.”

The Harmony Historical Society is working with a preservationist in Spring Grove to do the work necessary to get the site into the Historical Registry. “We’ve already determined it’s eligible for the Registry, we just need to get the paperwork finished up,” he added. “That should be completed this year. It should open some doors for extra funding to get the renovation work done.

“Preservation architects have already told us the building is solid,” Beastrom added.

Beastrom, who also serves as Treasurer for the Harmony Historical Society, says the goal isn’t necessarily to restore it to the original condition. The goal is to preserve the building and make it look good because it “sits right at the entrance to our Main Street, and we want it to look good in that spot.”

renovation
Ralph Beastrom gave me a tour on a very windy and rainy day in Harmony. He’s helping to lead the effort to restore the old McGlaughlin Elevator and make it a historical landmark. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The Harmony Historical Society will host a couple of Open House Events over July third and Fourth from 11 am-2 pm each day. They’ll have the interior on display for the public, including some of the old machines and signage as well. The Open Houses will be a kickoff to a major fundraising push for the renovation project.

“We lost an entire year to COVID-19,” he added. “Nobody could come to meetings or get any work done. We hope that the Fourth of July will really get this project going in the right direction again.”

The total cost of the renvoatioon is estimated at $200,000, so the Historical Society needs help from the public. For more information, you can contact them at hahs@harmonytel.net. Feel free to reach out to the elevator renovation chairs, including Ralph Beastrom, Richard Kiehne, or Vicky Tribon.

To make donations online, go to www.givemn.org/organization/Harmony-Area-Historical-Society, or donors can also mail a check to HAHS at P.O. Box 291, Harmony, MN, 55939.

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Japanese Hops Invading Southeast Minnesota

Japanese Hops
Japanese hops are an invasive weed that’s making its way into southeast Minnesota in the Root River valley. Minnesota Department of Ag officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and controlling new infestations. (Photo from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture)

Japanese hops is and invasive weed that’s overtaking the banks of the Root River in southeastern Minnesota and growing onto adjacent property. Weed experts at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) are asking for the public’s help in controlling the weed and reporting new finds.

Infestations are popping up along the Root River from Preston to the confluence of the Mississippi River. Small infestations of Japanese hops have also popped up in Winona; however, these have been controlled.

Japanese hops are annual vines native to eastern Asia that can grow up to 35 feet in a single growing season. With this explosive growth, the vines smother native vegetation and even grow into trees. Leaves are approximately 2-6 inches long and have at least 5 lobes that are shaped like a hand with the fingers extended. There are separate male and female plants that are beginning to flower this time of year. Seed production then follows.

Japanese Hops
Here’s the difference between the invasive Japanese hops that are moving in on southeast
Minnesota and American hops. (Photo from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture)

Minnesota is also home to American hops. It is a native perennial vine that looks similar but often has 1-5 lobes and does not have more than 5 lobes on the leaves.

“We don’t know how they got to the Root River; but now that it’s here, we need to work together with the public to control this invasive weed,” said Christina Basch, Noxious Weed Specialist at the MDA. “Since Japanese hops is a prohibited noxious weed on the state’s eradicate list, it’s important that we find infestations and work to get rid of it.”

For successful Japanese hops control, the dispersal of mature seed must be stopped. This can be done by pulling or cutting the vines at the base or with herbicide treatment. Herbicide treatment is the only practical approach for large infestations that can’t be mowed. Experimental torching of seedlings appears to be effective for control of small infestations.

If you find Japanese hops on your land and the infestation is beyond what you can manage, report it to the MDA’s Arrest the Pest line at arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us or 1-888-545-6684. It is helpful to include photos with the report. It is also important to report infestations other than those on the Root River.

Work is already underway to control Japanese hops in the Root River area. Through a grant from the MDA, the Fillmore Soil Water Conservation District and Houston County Planning and Zoning are conducting hops treatments on the Root River banks. Fillmore and Houston County officials, with grants from the Board of Water and Soil Resources Clean Water Fund, are also using Conservation Corps Minnesota (CCM) to control hops along the Root River Trail. The MDA is working with landowners and CCM to control hops on private lands. The MDA’s work to control Japanese hops and oversee the coordinated efforts is supported by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources.