Minnesota | Field 2 Field

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020

Minnesota FFA Convention will look a little different

Minnesota FFA will be recognizing 91 years of success in school-based agricultural education as the organization will hold its annual Minnesota FFA convention virtually May 19-21. Organization leaders will use a virtual format to conduct a portion of the activities which normally take place during the State FFA Convention held in late April at the University of Minnesota.

“We are proud to provide an experience that can be accessed in real time, along with an opportunity for all students to take part in interactive workshops and panels, while recognizing student involvement and leadership,” said Juleah Tolosky, Minnesota FFA executive director.

The FFA Career and Leadership Development events which are an important part of a typical Minnesota FFA State Convention will not be held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the virtual format will include award ceremonies honoring individual success in Supervised Agricultural Experiences (i.e. Work-based Learning) within Agriscience projects, as well as Proficiency Awards, State FFA Degrees and State FFA Stars.

The FFA will also celebrate excellence in community service, agricultural literacy efforts and overall FFA chapter program excellence. Significant contributions of supporters will be honored through the Minnesota FFA Alumni Hall of Fame and Minnesota FFA Foundation recognition programs.

The convention, with Illuminate as its theme, will feature keynote speeches from FFA state and national officers, as well as the announcement of the 2020-2021 Minnesota FFA officer team. Convention content will be available on the Minnesota FFA YouTube Channel and will be shared on the organization’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
“Changing the format of the event allows us to recognize students before the end of the school year and to eliminate financial or regulatory barriers that may have prevented students or entire programs from being able to participate,” said Tolosky.

Here’s a little throwback to last year’s opening session of the State FFA Convention.

“The current pandemic and its associated challenges also provided an opportunity for the current student officers on FFA chapter, region and state levels to take part in executive-level decision-making and practice servant leadership,” said Tolosky.

The FFA State Convention begins at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19. The Minnesota FFA Convention app, which supplies links to convention events, will be available beginning Friday, May 15 and can be downloaded at https://crowd.cc/mnffa2020 or https://crowd.cc/s/3M8i0. Additional details and the convention schedule can also be found at mnffa.org.

About Minnesota FFAFFA is a national organization developing students’ potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education with more than 700,000 members in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Minnesota FFA Association represents nearly 11,000 members and nearly 200 high school chapters across the state. Agricultural education engages students through hands-on learning in the classroom, work-based learning opportunities known as Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects and FFA activities. You can learn more about the experiences of FFA members and supporters by visitingwww.mnffa.org and www.ffa.org.

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020

Hobbies broadening my horizons in middle-age

Hobbies. I’ve never really had much time for them through the course of my life and I’m honestly not sure why as I sit here and write. Too busy trying to make ends meet? Too lazy? The truth, as it is with most everything in life, is probably somewhere in the middle.

I’ve never really been the adventurous type. Always seemed to want to play it safe and never do anything other people might find unexpected. Then, I moved to the Twin Cities and discovered urban exploring. It’s been a rather eye-opening experience since adding it to my still-growing list of hobbies.

I saw people going to places very few others went to. That spoke to me and I honestly wasn’t sure why at first. Then, as I got a little further into the hobby, it started to dawn on me through the feedback I got mostly through Facebook. “I really enjoy following your explorations,” is something I heard on a regular basis.

This old girl was far and away my favorite old vehicle that I discovered during a Saturday
afternoon exploration. (Photo by Chad Smith)

Plus, I got feedback from people I didn’t expect. The City Administrator at Rushford, Minnesota, Tony Chladek, is a busy fella (and does a great job) but he mentioned during a phone call how much he enjoys my urban exploring photography. He said the same thing I get in a lot of feedback; “I really enjoy following you into places not a lot of people go.”

The current Secretary of Agriculture in Minnesota, Thom Peterson, is a long-time Facebook friend who also mentioned he likes following my explorations. It was funny how he mentioned it after we’d finished an interview for a newspaper article I was writing.

While going through abandoned places, I find it a lot of fun to try and picture what life must have been like back in the day, all those years ago. How different things must have been three decades ago? And, how similar some things might have been as well.

That’s what hooked me into it. Going places that other people don’t typically get to go. But it’s even more than that. It’s the history behind some of these places that also fascinates me too. Spent an afternoon a while back exploring the Pokegama Sanatorium near Pine City, Minnesota. One of the most interesting things I found there was documentation and medical papers that went back as far as 30 years.

Got a tip from a Facebook friend and fellow urbex (slang for urban exploring) enthusiast about a bunch of abandoned vehicles tucked away in a shelter-belt near the Mazomani Trail that I had recent explored. I sure found a number of vehicles that had been stashed away a long time ago.

Far and away the BIGGEST piece of machinery I found abandoned in the tree line. Thought
for a crazy moment I’d found the remains of Optimus Prime. (Photo by Chad Smith)

Man, did walking through a shelter-belt bring back memories of life on the Gerhold Farm. My brother, Travis, and I spent all kinds of time exploring the tree lines around the entire farm. If I remember right, Grandpa John had his own vehicles stashed away among the trees as well.

Talk about some serious nostalgia that made this soon-to-be 50-year-old smile like he was all of fourteen again. Of course, my wife will occasionally say that me and my grown sons can collectively be 14 years old as well. Not sure that’s a compliment?

Hobbies. We all need one or two. If you don’t have one, get one, okay? Hobbies make life more interesting.

Nature always wins in the end, doesn’t she? (Photo by Chad Smith)

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

Frost in the Friday night forecast in farm country

Here is the audio podcast with Ryan Martin that you can download to your computer. You can also play it on your mobile device. Just his the play arrow on the left.

Frost in the forecast is rarely a good thing in farm country during any season outside of winter. In an ideal world, the only exception is a killing frost after corn states hit black layer. Of course, we don’t always live in an ideal world, do we? Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, is a long-time agricultural meteorologist who says the threat of some frost damage will begin this weekend.

“The days most in question are Friday night, May 8, into Saturday morning,” he said. “The axis of the coldest air will come across eastern Minnesota, Wisconsin, east-to-northeast Iowa, northern Illinois, most of Indiana, as well as all of Michigan and Ohio. This is the zone where we’ll see temperatures at 30 degrees or colder.”

He said the coldest air looks to hit Michigan and Ohio this weekend, where we could see some big impact on soft red winter wheat, especially in Ohio. The frost timing is not good as wheat has woken up out of winter dormancy and is moving forward through its growth stages.

“The wheat is at the jointing stage and anytime the crop gets further into its growth, that means the wheat is a little more susceptible to cold temperatures,” Martin said, “depending on how much the temps fall and how long they’re under a certain threshold.

“If wheat is just breaking dormancy and you get a cold snap, you have to be under 28 degrees anywhere between three and five hours,” he added. “When we get into the jointing stage and further along, wheat can barely handle 30 degrees for an hour or two. That’s where the issue lies on wheat this weekend.”

Frost — Ryan Martin, Hoosier Ag Today meteorologist, says the fast pace of planting in 2020 is
going to slow down for a few days due to cooler than normal temps in farm country. (Photo
YouTube.com)

Corn and soybeans will hopefully be a different story. Based on the crop planting progress and emergence reports, Martin, Chief Meteorologist for the Hoosier Ag Today Radio Network, is much more optimistic about those crops being able to survive the freezing temps.

“Illinois leads the way with nine percent of its corn crop emerged,” he said. “In most areas, the growing point of the crop is still going to be below ground, so I don’t think it will mean anything for corn and soybeans on mortality. What it does do is slow down that incredibly fast-paced planting season we’ve seen in many states.”

A couple of other examples include Iowa, which was on a record planting pace during the last planting update, while Minnesota just to the north is no slouch either on planting progress. The Purdue University meteorology graduate says all of the “good stuff” that comes with early-planted corn gets slowed down and “stunted” because of the frost/freeze over the weekend and the extended run of below-normal temps that won’t end till the middle of next week.

“Cold air moved out of Canada and focused on the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, and the northeastern United States,” Martin said. “However, there’s an interesting twist ahead in the forecast for the next seven-to-ten days. We’ll start to see temperatures in the below-normal areas start to moderate on May 13 through 15.

“Things will take a drastic switch after that,” he added. “We’ll see above-normal temps in the Eastern Corn Belt, while the Plains may drop down below normal through the last part of May. There’s a lot of air currents, different movements here, different patterns trying to emerge, and it all has to do with where polar air is shifting to this time of year.”

It’s been a bit of an unusual spring so far for many reasons, but I’m just talking about the weather. What we’ve seen so far in terms of temps and precipitation has been very different from recent years. There’s no question, a lot of states have seen temperatures consistently lower than what they normally expect.

“Big swings in spring temps aren’t unusual,” says Martin. “We’ve certainly seen them before. I think the reason it’s coming home to roost a little bit more and has people scratching their heads is the degree of change from the last several years.

“We’ve had pretty dog-gone decent springs over the past handful of years,” he recalled. “We’ve come out of winter early and been able to hit the ground running based on the temps. Last year, precipitation was a big problem, but the temperatures were still decent. This year is the first out of the past five or so that’s really showed us the kind of variability we can see in the spring.”

Ryan will do custom forecasts for your radio and TV stations. Check out his work at www.weatherstud.com.

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

Victory at the Jabs Farm – Finally Found It

Victory at last. After an unsuccessful first expedition , I came in from the south and found the Jabs Farm Site located between Jordan and Carver, Minnesota. It’s a long hike through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, but it was totally worth it to see the building remnants that date all the way back to the late 1880s.

Here’s a short video I put together of the site.

One thing about the internet, they’ll sure tell you if you’re wrong. Came in from the north on the first trip and ran into a whole lot of water (flooding). Didn’t know there was another way in. But if you ask for assistance, the internet will also offer that too. And by the internet, I’m talking about the people on social media. Thanks to Brendon Maness, my newest Facebook exploring buddy. Took the time to put together directions so detailed, even I couldn’t get lost.

It took a while but I made it to the Jabs Farm on what I’m calling
the “Chad Smith victory hike.” (Photo by Chad Smith)

If you know anything about me personally, you know I have the direction sense of a wounded bumblebee. Ever seen a bumblebee fly? Nuff said.

You won’t get to park anywhere close to the site itself. I hiked two miles from where I parked to the site. Since my gym shut down over a month ago, it was a much harder hike than it would have been normally. I’m not a man that was naturally gifted with patience when I wanna get somewhere. The walk to victory was much more brisk than the hike back to the car.

The longest structure at the Jabs Farm. I’m just completely guessing but it’s either a storage area for equipment or animals. Again, just a guess. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The Riedel family originally put the farmstead together sometime between 1860 and 1880. Among the ruins of their old barn, one limestone chunk was engraved with “1880.” They worked the land till the Jabs family assumed control in 1905. They would control the land up to 1979, when the land was turned into the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Just think for a minute about the Riedel family putting that operation together through the late 1800s. They didn’t have the state-of-the-art tools that we have today. That had to be some serious back-breaking labor in order to get those buildings up and going.

There was some restoration work done by Minnesota Fish and Wildlife. If you’re like me, your first though was “what?” However, the agency does maintain and protect a lot of abandoned buildings on their lands throughout the state.

The land the Jabs Farm sits on is now part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. (photo by Chad Smith)

It’s a great place to go if you want to be “socially distant” from other folks. I didn’t see much more than a half-dozen folks going in and coming out. Like I said, it’s a trek. Mostly flat with some occasional ups and downs. Victory for this old guy felt pretty good!

Absolutely love the limestone they used to build the farmstead. (Photo by Chad Smith)

Here’s the link to my complete photo album on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chad.smith.75685/media_set?set=a.3079533055440443&type=3&uploaded=50

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020

Exploring Coldwater Spring Park – Part Deux

Exploring Coldwater Spring Park in the Twin Cities is more than a one-day affair. In fact, turns out it’s going to be at least a three-day opportunity for me as it covers a lot of ground, and that’s okay. The park itself was officially added to the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area back in January of 2010.

The goal of adding it to the recreation area was to get it restored to an oak/savannah prairie complex. They removed 12 old buildings that were on the property, something this urban explorer wasn’t happy about. They did leave several foundations of those old buildings lying around the property, which was interesting to look at.

During the renovation process, which ran from 2011 to 2012 (officially – the work still continues today), officials seeded 12 acres of prairie and one acre of wetlands. More than 1,000 trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers were planted on the property.

This area served as an important crossroads for Native Americans and traders, who used both the Mississippi River and Minnesota Rivers for commerce and travel. During the construction of Fort Snelling, soldiers camped out at Coldwater Spring, making it the first American settlement in Minnesota. The fort was completed in 1825 and the soldiers took up residence there. The area around the spring continued to be busy, attracting traders, Native Americans, and a small village sprang up there to service trade at the site.

I loved walking down by the river at Coldwater Spring. The one thing that jumped out at me is it really looks like last summer’s flooding is finally receding. You could see a lot more of the riverbanks than we could last summer. Thank the Lord! (Photo by Chad Smith)

The spring provided water for the soldiers at the fort up until `920, when the Army turned to the City of St. Paul to supply water to the Fort.

The property was last home to the Bureau of Mines: Twin Cities Research Center. If that doesn’t ring a bell, there’s a reason for that. The buildings for the old center were constructed during the 1950s and 60s. The place developed significant mining safety equipment, mining technologies, and mineral extraction processes that were used around the world. The labs also analyzed the composition of some of the moon rocks brought to Earth by the Apollo Moonshot Missions.

Federal funding for the Bureau of Mines was shut down in 1996. By the next year, those buildings were vacant and falling into disrepair. You know those buildings, the kind that urban explorers like to get into? I was so bummed. The buildings were demolished back in 2011, so no exploring.

There’s a lot to things to see when exploring Coldwater Spring Park. As I mentioned, there are a LOT of trails for scenic hiking there. You’ll see a lot of birds, with the occasional deer or wild turkeys thrown in for good measure. You might even see the occasional coyote darting across the path but don’t worry; they’re more afraid of you than you might be of them.

No idea what this was but thought it looked cool standing over the spring that ran down the hill behind where I was standing when I took the pic. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The other interesting thing is how they’ve incorporated some technology into the outdoors. You’ll have a chance to hear about the extensive history of the park while you’re seeing it, thanks to Ranger on Call, a mobile tour that’s available on your cell phone. You’ll find signs down there with instructions on how to get hooked up to it.

Here’s the link to the Facebook picture album. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/chad.smith.75685/media_set?set=a.3055664214493994&type=3&uploaded=19

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020

Hiking the Winchell trail in Minneapolis

Hiking has to be one of my favorite forms of exercise. The Twin Cities has more than its share of great places to hike. This time I was off to the Winchell Trail.

Winchell. You hear the name and the first thing that comes to mind is the old Winchell’s Donut franchise we used to partake in out on the coast. I went out to hike the Winchell Trail earlier this week and found some interesting old relics from years gone by.

Hiking the Winchell Trail in Minneapolis was a great way to blow off some steam. (Photo by Chad Smith)

It’s an five mile out-and-back trail, so don’t plan on going in a big circle. It’s pretty much a straight shot, no matter which direction you head in. The trail itself runs from 44th Street up to Franklin Avenue, right along the west bank of the Mississippi River. The first thing I noticed was that the flooding along the Mississippi River appears to be lowering. I could see a lot more of the riverbank than I had since early last summer.

There’s a bike path up by the road, with the walking trails further down in the trees. The bluffs are absolutely scenic. If you walk the entire trail, you’ll see sandy beaches, an oak savannah restoration project, and what’s called a floodplain forest.

However, the one thing that did NOT make me happy was all the road construction. It’s a freaking TWO-LANE roadway, with one of the lanes blocked off by those little orange things that seem to sprout up every spring. Makes parking down there even more of an adventure (pain in the ass) than it already is. But, I digress.

The Winchell Trail is described as a moderate trail designed for all hiking skill level. The out-and-back trail has a total elevation gain of 500 feet.

Looks like a staircase from a Lord of the Rings movie, doesn’t it? (Photo by Chad Smith)

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020

Farm debt mediation period extended in Minnesota

Farm debt levels are piling up and it’s getting scarier. Here’s a friendly reminder that the period available for working through some debt challenges has been extended.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is reminding Minnesota farmers and agricultural lending institutions that the state legislature extended the length of mediation available for farmers in the Farmer-Lender Mediation Program from 90 to 150 days. Minnesota farmers that are in debt can renegotiate, restructure, or resolve farm debt through mandatory Farmer-Lender Mediation. Mandatory mediation means that creditors cannot start a proceeding to collect a farm debt against agricultural property until an offer of mediation has been extended and, if the farmer so chooses, completed.

“I want to make sure that farmers and their ag lending institutions know that the mediation period was extended by 60 days to 150 days,” said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “This is a critical program for farmers – especially now when COVID-19 has caused the closing of agricultural markets. Having sixty more days to renegotiate or restructure debt will be a huge help in many cases.”

For more information and assistance, farmers can contact the MDA’s Farm Advocate Program at www.mda.state.mn.us/farmadvocates or the University of Minnesota Extension https://extension.umn.edu/get-help/farmer-lender-mediation.

April 20, 2020April 20, 2020

Train Depot Refurbishing in Northfield, Minnesota

Train Depot exploring is something I seriously enjoy. While I do love exploring abandoned structures, it’s a lot of fun to see some of those old buildings redone for use in the present day. I went looking for an old train depot I had heard about in Northfield, Minnesota. I found it, but the “old” depot wasn’t in the shape I expected it to be in.

The building originally dates back to 1888. The depot had an addition built on to it in 1944. The depot’s south wall and roof was removed when the addition was constructed. The building was scheduled for demolition before it was moved but residents didn’t want to lose some of the community’s history. They couldn’t move the new addition because of the cement floor and cement blocks that made up the wall.

You won’t believe just how fast an older white building that was next to the depot came down. Never seen backhoes move quite so fast in my life! 🙂

Some of the bricks that made up the wall in the new addition were salvaged and are already being used to make a sidewalk path on the new site.

train depot — According to the information available at the site, I believe the pathway in the foreground was made out of some of the bricks saved from the new addition that couldn’t be moved to the new site. (Photo by Chad Smith)

A group of residents started the Save the Northfield Depot project and moved the structure last January. The old depot was literally moved from the railroad property to a site across the street. The original site has since been graded and cleaned up since then. The new site was chosen because it’s much easier to see. The previous location hid the train depot behind a much larger building.

The depot won’t just sit there and look good, either. Plans are in the works to use it as an information center for visitors. As a side note, I took a drive through the downtown area and it’s picturesque in many spots. Highly recommend a trip through there sometime. But I digress.

They’ve put in a lot of work to refurbish the old train depot in Northfield. It looks to this guy here that the work is going extremely well. Very picturesque old building that looks great! (Photo by Chad Smith)

There will also be a pavilion that residents can use to host events at, as well as an addition for a transit hub, which is a project the city of Northfield will undertake sometime in the near future. A study is in the works on a proposed passenger rail that would connect south to points beyond Minnesota. Northfield would be one of the northernmost stops on the line. The state has even kicked in some money to help fund the study.

Some of their literature I picked up at the site says they’re trying to raise $65,000 for the interior renovation. . The cost could actually be reduced with in-kind materials and labor. They’re also looking for carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other skilled workers who wouldn’t mind volunteering a little time on the project.

The elderly couple that were outside doing some work on the grounds
when I stopped by said this was designed and built by someone in his
mid-teens? If I understood them right (hard to hear through their masks, at times), I’d say that was one uber-talented teenager! (Photo by Chad Smith)

Their website is www.northfielddepot.org. They also have a facebook page at facebook.com/northfielddepot. You’ll also find information on twitter at www.twitter.com/northfielddepot.

April 17, 2020April 18, 2020

Spring weather forecast showing less flooding

Spring weather is never a dull topic of conversation in the Midwest, is it? We went from a fantastic week of mild weather leading up to Easter to a run of below-normal temps and snowfall on Easter Sunday. While it was only a couple inches here in Maple Grove, there were much higher amounts elsewhere. I talked weather with Bryce Anderson of DTN, who says it’s not unusual at all to get snow during April.

“That has certainly happened many times before,” he said. “The heavy snow was certainly unwelcome because it set back farmer fieldwork for a while, probably a week later than they wanted.

This is what spring weather looked like in a good deal of the Central Plains and Midwest when flooding hit farmers hard. The good news in the spring weather forecast this year is the threat of flooding has moderated, depending on where you live. (Photo from curbed.com)

Farmers are certainly chomping at the bit to get spring fieldwork done to get ready for planting. Remember April 15^th of 2019 and the big snowstorm that moved through the Midwest? Here on the west side of the Twin Cities, we picked up 17 inches of snow last year. Happy Tax Day, right? However, despite that recent round of spring weather, Anderson doesn’t expect the monumental planting delays we saw last year during one of the roughest springs in recent memory.

Here’s a quick recap of a rough spring in 2019, courtesy of PBS:

“It won’t be a repeat of last year by any means,” he said emphatically. “Despite storm activity that moved through the southwestern and central United States, things were starting to moderate as we headed into the weekend. That colder arctic air we saw come into the Midwest over Easter was very slow in leaving the region, so that’ll also set fieldwork back a bit.”

One area of good news in the spring weather forecast is he’s not as worried about widespread flooding in farm country as he was a month ago. However, the caveat is that it depends on where you live. Still, things have slowed down some on that front.

“It’s not just me saying that either,” Anderson said. “Hydrologists with the Corps of Engineers have said the movement of the higher water throughout the nation’s river systems has been better than they hoped it would be. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble spots.

“The James River Valley that runs through South Dakota and the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota are still at flood stage,” he said. “In the Delta, there are streams in some portions of the lower Mississippi River Valley where flooding is still ongoing.”

Unfortunately for farmers and folks in those areas, flooding will likely continue in those areas for some time yet. Anderson did say that there likely aren’t going to be any new flood threats that develop in the spring weather forecast for farm country unless there’s a drastic change in the weather pattern. Before the recent run of cold and snow, farmers have gotten some planting done this spring in the eastern Corn Belt.

“There has been some soybean planting in Illinois and Indiana,” he said. “Growers in the western Corn Belt likely haven’t gotten very busy yet. In other areas of the Delta, corn planting is way behind in states like Mississippi and Arkansas. They likely won’t get a lot done after the recent run of storms and rainfall that recently hit southern areas.

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020

Mill ruins explore in Hastings, Minnesota

Mill ruins are so much fun to explore. Minnesota seems to have its share of these old buildings scattered around the state. Time to Explore Minnesota. We’ve all seen or heard the commercials from time to time, haven’t we?

Well, as I’ve unfortunately had a little more free time lately (thanks COVID-19), I’ve taken that commercial a little more to heart than I have in the past. And yes, I’m keeping socially distant. Instead of feet, my distance between me and other carbon-based lifeforms stretches for miles, okay?

After exploring an abandoned farm that didn’t have much left to it, I was off to Hastings next to see their Old Mill Park. That kind of thing is even more interesting to me after spending a couple days poking around Mill Ruins Park in the Twin Cities. While this one wasn’t as big as Mill Ruins Park, the history was just as interesting.

It turns out this is all that’s left of the old Ramsey Mill in Hastings, built back in the mid-1800s. My first thought as I was walking down the path to the old structures was “man they’re tall!” And I was more right than I first knew. The old mill was no less than four stories tall. Alexander Ramsey and Dr. Thomas Foster built it right next to the Vermillion River.

The big structure was called a “grist” mill. What that means is it ground cereal grains into flour and what were called “middlings.” Those are the parts that aren’t flour. Middlings are a good source of protein, fiber, phosphorus, and other nutrients. People use them to produce foods like pasta, breakfast cereals, puddings, and couscous for humans, as well as fodder for livestock and pets. How about that? You and I learned something today. I didn’t know what middlings were either.

It’s interesting that Ramsey actually sold his interest in the business in 1877 but the place still retained his name. The mill would operate for another two decades before a fire broke out in late 1894. A Wiki article says it unfortunately may have been arson. It was really too bad because the mill had just cranked up its production to 125 barrels a day, higher than it had ever done before.

The Ramsey Mill was hit by a fire in 1894. While there isn’t much of the physical structure left, there’s still a lot of history there. (Photo by Chad Smith)

I don’t actually know when it shut down officially. The oldest photo I could find online was in 1902, when folks in Hastings were already calling it the “Ramsey Mill Ruins.”

As I was leaving the Old Mill Park, I glanced off to the right and saw the most remarkable little tree that seems to be growing right out of the end of the overhang. Those trees can grow in the strangest places, can’t they?