Good Morning from The Depot!

Hello members, local residents and friends, 

My brother, mother and I traveled to Kansas recently to attend the funeral of my uncle, John Palmer. We stayed in Beloit, Kansas, and traveled through Cawker City to reach Osborne, where the funeral was held. Cawker City has an odd claim to fame - being the home of the "world's biggest ball of twine." Interestingly enough, Jonathan pointed out to me that Darwin, Minn., also claims to have the largest ball of twine, but a distinction has been made between the "sisal twine" and "baler twine." Lake Nebagamon, Wis., is home to the "heaviest ball of twine" and Branson, Mo., has the largest ball of "nylon twine."

We were literally driving right by the gazebo where the twine is housed in Cawker City, so I had to take the chance to stop and see this oddity in person. It's always fun to visit another small town and honor its claim to fame. As I stared at the large ball, I was once again grateful that we have so much more to promote in our beautiful and charming and "adorable" small town of Lanesboro.

But, having an odd claim to fame, such as a ball of twine, seems to be working for Cawker City. I mean, we stopped and took our photo with the twine and here I am, promoting this tourism destination in my greeting this week. We spent fewer than five minutes here, but it was a fun little addition to our trip. And, always serving as an ambassador for our community, I left a few visitor guides in the gazebo and a couple of sticky notes encouraging others to check out our website for more information.

Our trip to Kansas was a quick one, but it was fun to see a change in scenery and gather with my family. The humorous stop at the ball of twine was just one more enjoyable part of the memories we created on this trip. What's the oddest claim to fame you've visited during your travels?

As always, I hope you have a wonderful day,

Melissa

Spotlight Member

Oakenwald Terrace in Chatfield sets

Christmas Open House Dec. 9-10

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, and people traveling to visit family all across the country, others are reconnecting with old friends. I, for one, can’t think of a better place for a large family or ‘Friendsgiving’ Thanksgiving than the Oakenwald Terrace. The 1897 Victorian, named to the National Register of Historic Places, is the perfect place to STAY. It’s a cozy and comfortable home and owners RuthAnn and Bob Lund provide such great service there will be very little reason to leave. Oakenwald Terrace is your destination.

And that’s the point. Oakenwald Terrace is a place to STAY. It's the perfect place to kick your feet up and relax and refresh. To slow down and do nothing much. Or to explore the feast for the eyes that is the beautiful decor, ambience and furniture. With enough rooms to accommodate most large groups, and common areas, including a parlor, a library, a screened-in porch and three decks, you will not feel cramped in this family reunion. Lanesboro is just 20 minutes away if you want to spend a day out and about, but with this much space it’s not likely folks will be getting antsy.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Oakenwald Terrace’s annual Christmas Open House will be held on Dec. 9 and 10, from 1 to 6 pm. The whole place is transformed into a magical Christmas Wonderland, the whole house gets decorated so be sure to give yourself time to explore every floor. And for those of you that don’t want to miss anything on the gridiron, they’ll have games on in the kitchen. The event is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association in honor of owner Bob Lund’s father, Shelby, and the suggested donation is $5, but kids are free.  

If you can’t make it for the holiday open house, but this sounds interesting, well the decorations are up through the end of January, so just grab a bunch of friends and STAY at Oakenwald Terrace. You won’t regret it.

For more information on Oakenwald Terrace, a Spotlight Member of our Lanesboro Area Chamber of Commerce, please Click Here!

Important Announcements

This winter, the city is offering some sporting activities at the community center. Basketball for 18+ will be on Monday nights from 7 to 9 pm. Pickleball the national sensation, will be offered on Thursday and Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 pm and during the mornings on Wednesday and Thursday from 9 to 11 am. And of course there is also Volleyball at the Lanesboro schools on Wednesday nights from 7 to 9 pm. Get your indoor sports on, here in Lanesboro, all winter long!

The Chill-Inn Committee has completed its work and is excited to share findings and data with the community! Please save the date for the Capstone Presentation & Brainstorm Session on Wednesday, Dec. 20, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am, at the City Council Chambers (social media post attached below - please spread the word).

The brainstorm session is to help enhance the winter trip itineraries.We understand not everyone may be able to attend, but we will have this presentation available via Zoom and plan to record the session.  

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84213387523?pwd=UHgrSDMwMFNUZS9LdWlWUVJHNFdzZz09

Meeting ID: 842 1338 7523

Please make sure information in visitor guide represents your business accurately

Update your information for the guide and map! We’re still working on the final steps of putting the guide together, and it’s important that you log into your member account (reach out to Jonathan if you have questions about doing that) and check the language you have that will go in the guide.

Log into your account and on the side bar, click “Company Information” and then “Website Information” and scroll down to the “Search Results Description” that’s what we use for the blurbs in the guide.  

Make sure you are advertising your business the way you want to advertise.

Elmwood Hiking Trail

The undeveloped portion of Elmwood Street, between the junction with Auburn and the Welcome to Lanesboro sign off Highway 16, has been cleared and is now open as a hiking trail. 

The area has been cleared of invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle and is being restored as an oak savanna prairie under the supervision of the City of Lanesboro, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and area prairie enthusiasts. The area will be burnt in the spring as a training activity for the Lanesboro Fire Department. This project was approved at the January 2023 city council meeting. More information about this project can be found on the City’s website or by scanning the QR code on the sign off Highway 16.

Our thanks to local volunteers who worked to complete this project and to the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation of Rochester, which provided funding to purchase short grass, pollinator prairie seeds and prairie starter seedlings.

It normally takes three to five years for prairies to re-establish themselves. The Elmwood hiking trail is a great place to walk a dog, do some birding and watch a prairie re-establish itself!

Note: Elmwood Street was once the main access to Lanesboro coming in from the east!

Read more by Clicking Here!

Lanesboro in the News!

Guess what? Minnesota's Most Adorable Small Town is . . . (do we need a drum roll here?) . . . Lanesboro! That's right, Lanesboro, the small town nestled in the bluffs of the Root River Valley, a little over two hours southeast of the Twin Cities, gets the nod as the most adorable small town in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. 

Here's what LoveExploring.com had to say about Lanesboro in their survey: "The small town of Lanesboro in Minnesota sits along the scenic Root River State Trail – covering around 60 miles, the route can be enjoyed on foot, by bike, or even with kayaks or tubes right on the water. Back in town, Lanesboro's quaint center is full of individual shops and bars, with a refreshing lack of chain stores and fast-food outlets."

Read the whole story by Clicking Here.

Holiday Events You Don't Want to Miss

Free Community Thanksgiving Dinner: Join members of your community for a festive, fun and free Thanksgiving Dinner (although donations are welcome and the proceeds go to support the Fillmore County Food Bank). Join members of the Lanesboro community at the Sons of Norway Lodge from 11 am to 1 pm, tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 23, for a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings.

Experience the Magic: Lanesboro's annual holiday kick-off and national Small Business Saturday is this Saturday! What better way is there to celebrate small business than to come to a town with only small businesses. Enjoy a day of sipping, shopping and family-friendly holiday festivities. Come on down to Lanesboro for wagon rides, pony rides, goats, art projects and activities! Plus there will be deals and specials at all our participating businesses. Meet Olaf and Santa at the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, and starting at noon there will be special ornaments secreted away across town. Find them and bring them to the business named on the ornament for a prize. NEW this year is a Holiday Craft Bazaar at the Community Center with what is sure to be a great offering of gift options.

Be sure to sign up for the Scandinavian Inn’s Mystery Tours during this weekend's festivities, held in a B&B specially designed to host them!  The mysteries are unique because they involve the entire house — throughout your time, characters move about the house, with notes left in bedrooms telling them what to do next as the evening progresses. Think Agatha Christie, but without the murder. Think 1940s with your character actively participating in an evening of deception and intrigue. Get wrapped up in mystery, find clues and solve the mystery. There are three-hour slots throughout the day and you don’t want to miss this opportunity for a fun morning, afternoon or evening activity. Contact Vickie and Peter Torkelson at the Scandinavian Inn to reserve your spot today: (507) 467-4500.

Holiday Dinner Dance: For 40 years, on the first Saturday of December, Lanesboro's Dinner Dance rocks, waltzes and even twp-steps into the holiday season with a wonderful evening of food, friends and fun. Volunteers transform the community center into a festive, themed atmosphere. Anything goes when it comes to attire - dress up or don't - however, a little glitz makes the evening even better.

Guests can expect a welcome cocktail, appetizers, brisket and chicken dinner, dessert, as well as complimentary wine and beer. Set-ups for mixed drinks are provided as well, and guests are encouraged to bring their own choice beverages.

After dinner, DJ Dewey will provide the dance music, gladly playing your personal favorite. Don't dance? Feel free to judge those fools on the dance floor..or show them how it's done. 

Tickets are 45 per person and available online through the City of Lanesboro website or in person during business hours. Deadline for tickets is November 28.

We hope to see you there!

Ear to the Ground

Experience the Magic of Lanesboro this Saturday. The Downtown Business Promotion group really goes all out to make this a festive day for families! You’ve got to do yourself, your family, and your extended relatives and old family friends a bit of a respite from the confines of your childhood home and come to Lanesboro for the afternoon! Goats, ponies and horse-drawn wagons will be there, you should be there too! This Saturday, Nov. 25, starting at noon all over Lanesboro. And don’t sleep on Lori’s Lefse! Be sure to hit up Granny’s Liquor for Lefse making right there in the store!

"She Loves Me" is open at the Commonweal! This effervescent musical comedy was eventually adapted into the movie “You’ve Got Mail,” and is the perfect winter escape. Two combative clerks in an elegant parfumerie are constantly butting heads at work. As each begins developing a written romance thanks to answering a “lonely hearts” newspaper ad, what happens when they find out who has been writing these love letters? Quippy one-liners, holiday themes, extravagant dance numbers, and a beautiful score make this show the perfect holiday event for the whole family!

Lanesboro Arts will be hosting the fourth online Fall Fine Art Auction, which will run from Friday, Dec. 1, through Saturday, Dec. 9. The auction will feature one-of-a-kind art pieces from talented regional artists, unique experiences from local businesses, and more! This collection has something for everyone, whether you are looking for the perfect gift or looking to add to your personal art collection.  And the proceeds go to support the year-round arts programming (some of which is listed below). Check out their website for details on how to participate by Clicking Here!

Join Lanesboro Arts at Sylvan Brewing on Saturday, Dec. 9, from 5 to 7 pm for a fundraising happy hour! This get-together celebrates the Online Auction and launches the annual Reach for the Arts fundraising campaign. There will be local music, light hors d’oeuvres, live painting from gallery artist Alan Wiltgen, exclusive auction items and reflection on the work at Lanesboro Arts and where we are going in the future.

Also, during the week the Auction is open, on Saturdays, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, Lanesboro Arts welcomes you to find unique, handmade gifts for everyone on your list. Our team will offer complimentary gift wrapping. While you shop, chat with local artists about their work, and enjoy artist demonstrations from fiber artist Karen Schmidt (Dec. 2) and oil painter Joan Finnegan (Dec. 9), enjoy cocoa and cookies to satisfy your sweet tooth.

And be sure to get your tickets to the 17th annual Old-Fashioned Holiday Sing Along. Dan Chouinard returns to the St. Mane Theatre in downtown Lanesboro, produced by Lanesboro Arts. The 2023 Holiday show will feature a collection of songs, poems, and stories from familiar faces, as well as the musical talents of Dan and his special guest, Connie Evingson! Tickets are on sale now for this heart-and-hearth warming evening for $28 ($25 Lanesboro Arts Members). This show is likely to sell out, so don’t wait!

Jokes on Tap continues its year-round mission of bringing laughs to Lanesboro. Join hosts Ryan Stock and Andy Holt at an evening of hilarity, a regional comics showcase their talent, try out new material. Watching comedians work in real time is a real treat and this show always delivers. If you want to try your hand at stand-up, arrive a little early to check in with the host to sign up! Otherwise just show up early to get a seat, grab a pint, and get ready for some laughs! No cover charge. The next Jokes on Tap is this Friday, Nov. 24.  

Sylvan Brewing’s Workshop series is back. Every Sunday local artists teach workshops on various things they like to make! There is still room for this Sunday’s (Nov 26 @ 1:30 PM) Needle Felted Gnomes. Just in time for the holidays, Stena Lieb returns to lead the very popular hands-on workshop to teach you how to make needle-felted gnomes! Even though the following week's candle making class is full, the next workshop on Sunday, Dec. 10, is Bottle Cap Art. Choose a flower or a holiday theme, and let loose creating Bottle Cap Art.  And Thursday, Nov. 30, is open fly tying at Sylvan Brewing, come make some fly ties, while enjoying some das-eis…that rhymes a stretch.  Sorry Everyone. But try the Daisy, it’s a very tasty hazy.  

The Lanesboro American Legion has a new line-up!: Monday is Soup du Jour, starting at 3 pm until it’s gone, and bucket beers, five beers for $12. Taco Tuesdays is two tacos with fixings for $6 from 3 to 7 pm. Ladies' night is Wednesdays and men’s nights on Thursdays see $1 off drinks, respectively. Meat Raffles are on Fridays from 6:30 to 8:30. Family Fun Day is Saturday with $1 kiddy cocktails, $1 off a large pizza and a variety of games.

The Tunage continues at the High Court Pub through the end of the year! (and after that as well–the tunage just don’t stop at the High Court pub)! This weekend Joel Ward brings his bluesy roots/rock to the HCP on Friday, Nov. 24. Come out and hear his smooth, bluesy vocals and amazing guitar prowess. On Saturday, Nov. 25, Kid Dakota is BACK!  The critically-acclaimed and award-winning musician Darren Jackson (Kid Dakota) is gracing the balcony of the High Court. My guy played with freakin Soul Asylum, it’s going to be a great night.  And the music continues in December with Spatz Electric and Lou Sheilds on Dec. 1 and 2, respectively; Martin Devany and Tim Fast on Dec 8 and 9, respectively; Avery Grouws Duo on Dec 16,  Joel Ward and Jason Helder on Dec 22 and 23, respectively; and round out 2023 with Tom and Barb Schramm on Dec 29.

Of course Tuesday Trivia continues uninterrupted at the High Court Pub. It will continue through December, but we don’t have topics just yet. There are (normally) three rounds of (usually) 10 questions that truly fit that Goldilocks rule - fitting just right in the middle where it’s accessible to everyone, but still feels good when you get it right. Be sure to like and follow the High Court Pub on Facebook for weekly freebie questions of the week! Like and comment on those posts for a chance to win a free drink token. The winning team gets $25 in drink tokens and there are trophies and other prizes as well. Truly, a fun time will be had by all. The next Trivia Topic is -That’s so Random on the 28.

Remember to swing by Granny’s Liquor every Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. for a Complimentary Tasting.