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Rick Peterson summed up many people’s appreciation of Luverne’s weekend hospitality when he told Friday night’s banquet crowd, “We hit it out of the park.”
Peterson chaired the local committee that spent the past year preparing for the 2018 Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener in Luverne.
He said visitors raved about the 30-foot-long wooden Highway 75 pheasants (created by local artists), banners in storefront windows and the fact that community members were sporting their orange “Love the Hunt” T-shirts.
“The hospitality was great,” Peterson said. “I heard that a lot.”
Luverne’s Take 16 Brewing Company even crafted a special edition beer that they debuted at Friday and Saturday’s “Pheasant Pheasta” that featured a Johnny Cash tribute band, “Church of Cash.”
Hunters in the field ranged in age from 14 to 91, and they brought in 26 pheasants Saturday morning.
They were guests of honor in weekend festivities that included a banquet, a dog parade, a trick-shooting show, tours of local attractions and the dedication of the Rooster Ridge Wildlife Management Area near Beaver Creek.
A record 456 people attended the Friday night banquet at Grand Prairie Events where the city of Austin was announced as next year’s Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener host.
Explore Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources assist local partners in planning the event that Gov. Mark Dayton started in 2011 to celebrate the state’s natural resources.
Other host communities have been cities more than twice the size of Luverne, and those planners remarked at Friday’s banquet how impressed they were at the quality of Luverne’s event, especially considering the size of the town.
For example, last year’s host community was Marshall (population 13,600), which also hosted in 2012.
Worthington, population 13,000, hosted in 2014, and Mankato, population 39,500, hosted in 2015.
Other small communities to host the opener have been Montevideo (population 5,200) in 2011 and 2016, and Madelia (pop. 2,200) in 2013.
Austin, next year’s host community, has a population of 24,933 and is the county seat of Mower County. It is located along Interstate 90 on U.S. Highway 218.