Dear Editor:

My generation is going away, so while God still gives me time and a few people still remember, I would like to share some thoughts with you. I do hope someone will have the courage to print this.

My parents had just gone through the Great Depression, and WWII was still happening when they married. They rented two farms around Odessa and Ortonville until 1947 when a dream of theirs came true. They were able to buy a farm of their own. That farm is where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife have their headquarters. The parking lot right north of the Minnesota River is where the driveway started, and went at least a quarter mile west to the building site.

All of the things I want to share with you are still very vivid pictures in my mind. There was a beautiful two story brick house, cow barn built into the hillside, pig barn, granary, chicken house, machine shed, and other smaller buildings. The beautiful Minnesota River was the south boundary of the farm. A river that I read about in American History with its trees. The north boundary was the little road south of the railroad tracks that led from the road by Odessa to the Delano Quarry along with other private landowners. Stoney Run came through that road onto our property and formed a boundary between part of the pasture and tillable land. It ran west until entering land that was once owned by Geier brothers, part of the farm where Vern and Scott and now my son Erick and Kerry and family live. Stoney Run then turned south again and crossed back onto our pasture until it joined the Minnesota River. I can see every curve and part of Stoney Run until it joined the river.

The Minnesota River, as I said, was the south boundary of our farm, and again I can see and tell you about every curve in the river. Our home and buildings were less than a hundred yards from the river, and some buildings were much closer. I know the exact spot Stoney Run entered the Minnesota River. In the winter, friends and cousins would spend many hours skating and playing hockey on the river. As a kid, I spent countless hours exploring and just enjoying walking around and enjoying the beauty of the pasture God created with the river and creek. I also was blessed by God to be able to explore the land of other people between our land and the railroad tracks to the north. There was still farm machinery in areas. If people couldn’t farm the land, they used it to get hay for their cattle in the winter.

I can still remember the peace, quietness, and solitude of walking down the little hill to the west from the barn to the lush green pastures bordered on the south and west by the river and creek. It reminds me of part of the 23rd Psalm: “He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restores my soul.” What is extremely sad is that no one will ever be able to see or know that again. It is now a swamp, and not what God made.

There was a road I will call the river road. When you get across the Minnesota River right west of Odessa, there was a road going west all the way to a road that was once from Longhenry’s south to Lac qui Parle county road 7 by Ninneman’s. That river road was a real experience to go on. It pretty much followed the south side of the river. It was a very narrow road in spots, and at times, you would drive through a tunnel of trees. There was an abandoned granite quarry along there, and young people would at times use it for a swimming hole. I can count at least 29 farms or people living in what is now the Refuge, that lost their homes, and for many, their way of living. All of that for ducks and grass. I am just grateful that my father and mother were not alive to see the equipment demolish that beautiful home and farm site that they worked so hard for. Theirs and other legacies have been destroyed for a swamp. I was threatened with eminent domain by our government if I didn’t take their offer for something like that. Pretty sad!

The beauty of that river and area are forever etched in my mind, and no one can ever take that from me. An area where people walked along the river past our home and canoed down the river when it was a river. I do not know if any of you can understand what U.S. Fish and Wildlife did to me and others when they destroyed that pristine area that God created. Take a look around how Fish and Wildlife and the state are taking our land once owned by people making a living and paying taxes. Some of you will probably agree with what they did.

To end this, I will share what a Fish and Wildlife manager told me. They want most of Minnesota and Iowa turned back into a prairie and to get our food from developing countries. Whan an utterly dumb statement, to put your food supply in the hands of another country. If anyone is interested, I can still name the people that were forced out and where their farms were.

Marlowe Klepel

Odessa

Dear Editor:

Unhinged-A Pivotal Moment-A Door To Our Nations History

I'm going to begin with an analogy.

A doors hinge can become offset, bent just enough that it no longer works as it was designed to.

To make it function again, we don't replace the door- we fix the hinge.

Our Nations door feels unhinged at this moment- and we need maintenance to come in-  from both sides of the political spectrum- to decide together- what must be done to make it work again.

It is our house. It is our door.

We cannot continue down this road of blaming one another for its brokenness.

The path forward needs clarity.

It requires responsibility- shared responsibility.

It requires humility to admit that we all carry some fault.

Is it broken because we are knocking too hard?

Are we forcing it shut with too much anger?

Then fix it.

And be gentle with it.

Oil the hinges when they begin to strain.

Right now- it feels cold outside- as if no one is listening.

And inside-our furnace is running hot.

This is Our House! This is Our Door!

And we must do better.

by LeAnn Ruby

Nassau

Dear Editor:

You should have been there! I’m talking about the facility tour for the Big Stone County offices and garage.  It was impressive by way of equipment that has been “loved” and cared for by our county employees to the point that nearly everything looks new. The somewhat-worse-for-the-wear oldest piece of equipment we saw was a dump truck that was 30 years old. Yet, even that was mostly scarred just at the rear where rocks and gravel have scraped the bumper.

We were told that county employees are so pleased with the equipment that they get to use that they take extremely good care of all of it. When a piece has gone in for repair, a shop has commented that it’s hard to believe that it isn’t new because none of the bolts are rusted in place. So, the county gladly approves the cost of cleaners and waxes in order to keep the equipment in the best condition possible. Over time, a few hundred dollars spent on maintenance of a $300,000 or $400,000 vehicle is money well spent.

And, at the beginning of the life of a county vehicle, we learned the cohorts, partnerships, grants, and the like that have been explored in order to be able to buy some of the equipment at the best possible price. One of the newest pieces of equipment is a new electric pickup for which the bottom-line purchase price was $14,000! On the tour we heard more stories about ingenious financing plans and careful trading.  (Another good reason for keeping equipment in such fine shape.)

We were surprised to learn that the facility is not all that new. It was completed in 2021, I believe. And all along they kept meaning to have an open house, but they were BUSY! That’s another good thing. They finally did realize though that the public needed, and deserved, to be able to see where their hard-earned tax dollars go. Everything smacked of being brand new…. offices, storage areas, garages, etc. These employees are using that money very carefully and wisely, maintaining the space each of them use in the best condition possible. 

There was so much more that we learned, we who had time to take the escorted tour. I wish you could have been there, too. Thank you, County employees and County Commissioners.

Judy Beckman

Ortonville