Pine County Promotional Booklet – Part 22

The following advertisement about Askov's American Publishing Company comes from the 1926 promotional booklet entitled Pine County: Where Folks are Homeowners.

Pine County Promotional Booklet – Part 21

The following text about Willow River comes from the 1926 promotional booklet entitled Pine County: Where Folks are Homeowners. 

Willow River 

Willow River, located on the Northern Pacific railway and Highway No. 1, just forty miles from Pine City, the county seat, is a town with a future. 

Its growth depends upon the farm lands surrounding it, and these are rapidly being developed. Dairy herds, promising cream, cash, and contentment, are a part of this community. 

The Willow River grade and high school is a beautifully constructed building not surpassed by any in surrounding towns. It gives the youth of its community the advantage of a high school education at home which means much to the parent and child. 

Religious education also need not be neglected for there are three churches, namely, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Lutheran. 

Due to the demand and market for good eggs and poultry the territory around this town can boast of many a profitable poultry flock, some making handsome profits from this source. 

A number of lakes, one as near as three-fourths of a mile from town, furnish fishing and bathing beaches and coax many a tourist from his dusty trail. 

Surely no new farming community can have more advantages and beauty-spots than are at Willow River and in surrounding community.

Pine County Promotional Booklet – Part 20

The following text about Sturgeon Lake comes from the 1926 promotional booklet entitled Pine County: Where Folks are Homeowners. 

Sturgeon Lake 

Sturgeon Lake, a village of about 200 population, is located in the extreme northern end of Pine county, on the new concrete International Highway No. 1 and county Trunk Road No. 5, and on the Northern Pacific railroad, fifty miles from Duluth, and one hundred twelve miles from St. Paul. 

It is chiefly a trading center, having several stores, garages, a bank and confectionery that suffice to the needs of the farmers surrounding it and to the traveling public. It is the main village inlet to the lake country comprising more than twenty-five beautiful lakes; lakes that are abounding with fish, ideal for cottage sites, and fast becoming a mecca for tourists traveling from coast to coast. 

It has two rural mail routes extending out of it. Mail route No. 1 makes a contour west for twelve miles, running through a prosperous farming country. Mail route No. 2 circles around the lakes east for a similar distance, and between the two routes they distribute mail to an area of more than twenty-five miles square. This area is well settled with prosperous farmers who engage in diversified farming to their success. Almost every farm site possesses a fine home, a large roomy barn, well organized out buildings, and some have silos to provide ensilage for the cattle during the winter months. 

Cream is the principal product, but small grains, corn and potatoes are also raised in substantial quantities. Sturgeon Lake is the market place for most farm products. Many farmers have been successful with chicken raising and they have concentrated on that to the exclusion of other lines. 

That a prosperous state of affairs exists throughout this environment is apparent by the fact that most of the farmers own their homes and possess modern conveniences, labor-saving devices, radios for entertainment and instruction, and a general tranquility exists everywhere. 

Sturgeon Lake is fast gaining a place as a popular tourist center, it being in a strategic position to the many lakes surrounding it. The shores of Sturgeon Lake, the largest of the lakes, are fast getting lined with cabins and tourist camps and those who commercialize this natural advantage are making extensive efforts to provide accommodations for the many visitors that come here to spend their vacations fishing, boating, and bathing. 

The roads leading through this country are constantly being improved. The state has practically completed a concrete thoroughfare between the Twin Ports and the Twin Cities, making access to country towns on that highway an easy matter. The county is also active with its road improvement. County Trunk Highway No. 5, running from Aikin county line to Wisconsin, through Sturgeon Lake, is being graded, clayed and graveled. The townships continually improve smaller roads leading into various farm communities and between farms. With this extensive road improvement it is possible to travel any place in the country with any kind of vehicle throughout the entire year. 

Every community around Sturgeon Lake has its school, and every farm is withing walking distance to one. The neighboring towns have high schools, so that the facilities for securing an education are good. 

There are churches of a dozen different denominations within a radius of ten miles from Sturgeon Lake. 

A significant come-back of no small merit can be noted west of Sturgeon Lake where the holocaust of 1918 swept through and destroyed scores of farm homes. Today the traces of that fire are few. The farm buildings have been replaced with finer structures, and where the forests stood fine fields and pastures have been made. It required perseverance and tenacity to start over again, but the majority of the fire sufferers were equal to it, and now have fine homes again. 

The settling and upbuilding of Sturgeon Lake can not be credited to one single person. It can, however, be credited to homogeneous groups who have accomplished deeds co-operatively with the thoughts that benefits for the community are benefits for the individual as their central idea.

Pine County Promotional Booklet – Part 19

The following advertisements about Sandstone comes from the 1926 promotional booklet entitled Pine County: Where Folks are Homeowners.

Pine County Promotional Booklet – Part 18

The following text and advertisements about Sandstone comes from the 1926 promotional booklet entitled Pine County: Where Folks are Homeowners. 

Sandstone 

Midway between the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports is Sandstone, a village of 1,200 population, located on the Great Northern Railway and the paved Highway No. 1, in the land of clover, cows and contentment. 

Sandstone's atmosphere, like its climate, is very agreeable. It is one of friendliness and cheer. Its people are cordial. Its living conditions are equal to those of any modern, progressive community. 

Sandstone has pleasant surroundings with facilities to care for mind and body. 

It contains United-Congregational, Norwegian Lutheran, Swedish Mission, Catholic, and Dutch Reform churches. Services are held by Trinity Lutheran and Episcopal denominations as well. 

Sandstone has a modern consolidated grade and high school with normal training and agricultural departments. It has an efficient corps of teachers. Its school building is commodious and built of sandstone. 

It has a hospital operated by two physicians and surgeons. It has also a dentist. 

A library containing 1,800 volumes is housed in the village hall to serve the community. 

The Masons have a $25,000 temple, the I.O.O.F. have a fine lodge building and the Modern Woodmen of America have an organization here. Several other clubs are also active. 

The village owns and operates its water system, has municipal sewer system, and is supplied with electricity by the Minnesota Power & Light Company, which has a power dam on the Kettle river just below the village. 

Sandstone has a substantial high class motion picture theater, a weekly newspaper, two up-to-date hotels, two popular restaurants, besides many other business establishments. 

Sandstone is the home of Pine county's oldest bank, and its first national bank. The combined resources of these two as of June 30, 1926 totals over half a million dollars. 

The Kettle river borders the east side of the village and affords some extraordinarily picturesque scenery along its banks ranging from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in height. (The kind people “travel hundreds of miles to see”.) Several lakes nearby afford excellent fishing and are fine recreation centers. Over 100,000 fish were planted in the lakes and streams surrounding Sandstone this year. 

Community spirit is high in Sandstone, is responsible for a strong community club, an annual fair, a village band, and a base ball team. 

The farming territory is but partially developed and many acres still await the hand of the plowman. As Dan Wallace, editor of “The Farmer”, said at a recent farmers' club meeting in this locality: “The surface has just been scratched”. The last few years have shown remarkable growth but in the near future much greater strides are sure to be made. 

Dairying is the chief concern of Sandstone farmers because of the wonderful clover, alfalfa and other legumes grown in this vicinity. Timothy is easily grown, and wild hay abounds on practically every farm. Corn is grown for fodder and silage. Guernsey and Holstein cattle predominate, and many fine grade herds are being built up. 

A fine spirit of co-operation exists among the farmers, and the fruit of this is shown by the fact that most of them belong to the Sandstone Farmers' Co-operative Creamery Association, the Eastern Minnesota Egg and Poultry Producers Association, and are now joining the recently formed Co-operative Feed Shipping Association. 

The Sandstone Farmers' Co-operative Creamery Association has 250 patrons and owns a $7,000 creamery. At the last annual meeting it was voted to build a new creamery, and provisions made to raise money, since the business has greatly outgrown the present plant. Last year this association did a business of nearly $150,000 and paid the farmers $140,788.64. In 1922, it made 128,000 pounds butter; in 1925, 345,000, a remarkable growth. 

Small grain, fruit and vegetable crops play an important part in the farmers' diversified crop system. Rye, oats and barley are the most important grain crops, and these with the forage crops are used locally to a great extent. 

Potatoes, rutabagas, and cucumbers are in the front rank in quality and quantity produced. Approximately $10,000 a year is paid the farmers for pickling cucumbers by companies in Sandstone. 

The growing of small fruits is still in its infancy and very excellent strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples and plums are produced. The climate is well adapted to the cultivation of fruits, and proximity to the “Twins” will accelerate its growth. 

The poultry industry and the production of honey are two other profitable lines which are being developed. The raising of poultry goes hand in hand with dairying and is advancing rapidly. One Sandstone farm which specializes in poultry raising now has nearly 2,000 chickens, and a 12,000 incubator. This is an example of what may be done with poultry around Sandstone. Honey production is natural where clover abounds and farmers find it profitable here. 

Sandstone got its name from the rock deposit which is located in the village. 

The Kettle river sandstone is used for mill blocks, sawed stone, building stone, curbing, paving blocks, and crushed rock for paving and highway building. 

The William Penn Stone Company has a $100,000 plant for cutting and working stone here. This is one of the largest of its kind in the United States and is equipped with the latest stone working machinery. Much of the work has to be done by hand and about 40 men are employed the year round. The yearly pay roll amounts to about $75,000. 

Among the more important buildings in which Kettle river sandstone is used are the Great Northern Station and the million dollar Baker building, Minneapolis, the library of the University of Illinois and the Spokane Club of Spokane, Washington. 

Sandstone is a division point on the Great Northern railway. All trains stop here, including the six passenger trains running between Duluth and St. Paul. The passenger train running to St. Paul via Princeton starts each morning from Sandstone, excepting Sundays. 

Sandstone is an important Great Northern town. 

A visit to the beautiful Kettle river at Sandstone or the Sandstone quarries and stone cutting plant is extremely interesting and well worth while. Make us a visit, and you will want to live in Sandstone. 

If you are looking forward to independence and want a good farm home, buy here for good value and low price.