10 years ago (2010)
•Bison is one of Rock County’s prairie attractions, and for one family the tourist draw is part of their farm operation.
John and Jeanne Bowron are Rock County’s Farm Family of the year. They own Prairie Heights Bison, located north of Luverne on Highway 75. Their website can be found at www.buybison.com.
Farm Family honorees are named by the University of Minnesota and awarded at the annual Farmfest near Redwood Falls.
25 years ago (1995)
•Opportunities to travel overseas are rare for most Rock County residents, but several local high school and college musicians got the chance and recently returned home from a 16-day, seven-country tour of Europe.
Stephanie Kroon, Adrian, Alyia Kuehl, Beaver Creek, and Kevin Kessler and Heather Van Wyhe, both of Steen, joined students from Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota for the Midwest Ambassadors of Music program.
The program is organized through Voyageurs International, a group which has led musical tours through Europe for 25 years. The students visited England, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy and Germany.
50 years ago (1970)
•When the Luverne high school band returned from their Canadian trip shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday it was the termination of another successful season for the group.
A total of 95 young people left Luverne last Saturday morning accompanied by only two adults, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Haugen, plus the bus drivers. As the band’s director, Haugen has enough to demand his attention, consequently, Mrs. Haugen received a good share of the responsibilities in coordinating the musicians.
This is Lola Haugen’s fifth year in accompanying the Luverne bands. If it’s true that there’s a woman behind every band, she certainly would be the one in Luverne.
75 years ago (1945)
•Roy Gonnerman, park caretaker, reported this week that he found four boys and two girls of high school age swimming in the nude in the local swimming pool at 1 a.m. Monday.
Hearing a noise at the pool, he walked from his home in the park to the pool, where he surprised the youngsters.
For a moment there was a mad scramble, as they climbed the high fence and into a car. One of the boys however, decided as long as he had been caught anyway he might as well take the time to put on his clothes, which he did.
One of the girls left her shoes, and these, Gonnerman said, may be had, if she will call at his home for them.
He warned youngsters that swimming after hours is not only strictly prohibited, but dangerous, and the pool is treated from time to time, and swimming in the water when it is thus treated may cause a person to become blind.
100 years ago (1920)
•By a vote of 66 to 52 the voters of consolidated school district No. 5, at Magnolia, declared in favor of permitting dances to be held in the auditorium of the school building, at the annual school meeting held Saturday evening.
At this meeting three school officers were also elected, O.A. Bowen and James Ellsworth for terms of three years, and Al. Gertz for a term of one year to fill a vacancy. Friends also placed W.C. Frakes, Bert Ferguson and R.C. Allen in nomination for those positions, and when the ballots were counted, the votes were as follows: Three years term: O.A. Bowen – 60, James Ellsworth –89, W.C. Frakes – 56, Bert Ferguson – 52. One year term: A.L. Gertz – 76, R. C. Allen – 56.
O.A. Bowen acted as moderator of the meeting and John B. Niesan clerk, and prior to the election the officers of the school district submitted their reports for the past year, which were accepted as presented and placed on file.
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