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Remember When Feb. 13, 2020

10 years ago (2010)
•The 2001 Blue Mounds State Park murder will be featured on an upcoming segment of the Discovery Channel television show, “Solved.”
Camera crews from California were in Luverne this week interviewing local law enforcement and others involved in the case.
Park worker Carrie Nelson, 20, was murdered in the Blue Mounds State Park office on May 20, 2021.
Her killer wasn’t brought to justice until August 2008 when a jury found Randy Swaney guilty of first-degree murder.
The case caught the attention of “Solved” producers because of the seven-year forensic investigation surrounding the case.
 
25 years ago (1995)
•Early last week packers were drawing on contract cattle and only bidding $72 to $73. The feedlots are current and were willing to hold for their asking price of $74 to $75. After a three-day standoff, the packer finally paid $74 in an unusual late-week buying spree.
This strong cash market led the futures higher with the February contract pushing to new highs on Friday and again on Monday. Good retail demand and the very current feedlot position are supportive, but the threat of a winter storm last weekend may have tipped the scales in favor of higher prices.
 
50 years ago (1970)
•With the census about to be taken, Rock countians are beginning to wonder what effect a steadily declining birth rate will have on the 1970 population total when it is compiled.
Births nosedived every year during the decade 1960-1969 — in fact, fewer babies were born during the last three years of the decade than during the first two years, according to figures provided by Eleanor Boysen, Clerk of Court, who maintains birth, death and marriage records in her office.
During the 10-year period there were 2,075 births as compared to 993 deaths, or a net gain of births over deaths of 1,082.
The decade started out with 274 births during 1960. In 1961, it tumbled to 244, then to 241 in 1962 and down to 215 in 1963. Then, it moved up three to 218 the next year, only to fall down to 185 in 1965. There was a gain of five the following year, the 1966 total hitting 190. In 1967, the figure dropped to 181, then down to 178 in 1968, and finally down to 149 in 1969, or 125 below the 1960 total.
 
75 years ago (1945)
•Rock county’s highest ranking officer, Commander Dale Frakes, U.S. Navy, was “taking it easy” last week, just enjoying his mother’s cooking, and home town friendliness.
Commander Frakes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Frakes, of Magnolia, would rather talk about someone else, or something else, than himself and what he has done. The fact that he had been in command of a destroyer on duty in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic since the war began did not alter the situation; he still preferred to “talk about something else.”
Modest, almost to the point of being shy, he was no different from most servicemen home on leave. He was getting a kick out of just loafing around the house and renewing acquaintances with old friends in Magnolia. To look at him, one would never believe that this young appearing gentleman was the “old man” aboard ship.
 
100 years ago (1920)
•That Rock county is the greatest swine growing county in Minnesota is shown by the annual report of the Minnesota Bureau of Crop Estimates issued last week.
•According to this authority there was a total of 112,450 hogs in this county on January 1, 1920, as compared with 107,439 for Faribault county, Rock county’s nearest competitor.
The same authority gives 39,496 as the total number of hogs in Pipestone county at the time stated: Nobles county, 92,358; Murray county, 78,069; and Lincoln county, 32,363.
This report also shows that on January 1, 1919, there were 107,096 hogs in Rock county, as compared with 103,323 for Faribault county, which was then its closest rival for first place.

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