Home Care In Marine On St Croix, MN

Marine Mill was constructed by David Hone and Lewis Judd, two lumbermen from Marine, Illinois, who came to the St. Croix Valley in 1838 to find a suitable lumbering site. They chose to settle in the area for its proximity to fast-growing white pine trees in the northern St. Croix watershed. Hone and Judd built a small sawmill with a flutter wheel and founded the Marine Lumber Company on August 24, 1839. Over the next three decades, the mill’s lumber production grew enormously. During the winter of 1839–1840, it produced roughly 5,000 board feet of lumber. By 1877, it was producing two million board feet of lumber, 500,000 shingles, and 200,000 laths annually. A large steamboat levee spanned the length of the site. About fourteen men worked at the mill on a daily basis, and a 40-by-28-foot log boarding house on the site housed them.

The company demolished the original wood frame sawmill in 1852 and replaced it with a new one that had a forty-foot overshot wheel with a muley saw. It succumbed to fire in 1863. That year, tanner, Vermont native, and early Marine Lumber Company partner Orange Walker became the sole proprietor of the company. In 1868, with Lewis Judd and newcomer William Veazie, Walker formed a new company known as Walker, Judd & Veazie, and a new mill was constructed that year.

In the 1870s, the company expanded and was in its heyday, with income reaching $400,000 by 1875. The steamboat landing pier and log boom were also expanded to accommodate increased production. In order to keep up with competitors, the mill was rebuilt yet again in 1873. The company eventually constructed a telephone line to Stillwater for ease of business. By the winter of 1880–1881, Marine Mill produced the highest lumber yield of its existence. At its production peak, the site comprised a 102-by-56-foot board-and-batten sawmill, a wood frame planing mill, a stream drying house, and storage sheds. Additionally, there were areas for stockpiling the large amounts of lumber, laths, shingles, and other products Walker, Judd & Veazie produced.

Major setbacks devastated the mill over the years, including increased competition, a national economic depression, tornado damage, log jams, and occasional low water levels that made lumber transport difficult. After Walker, Judd & Veazie went bankrupt in 1885, creditors operated the mill for a while, and the company was sold to Anderson and O’Brien Sawmill Company of Stillwater in 1888. Town residents attempted to keep the mill in operation, but it ceased operations in 1895 after years of inactivity. Another company purchased the mill that year and sold the machinery to other lumbering firms. The various frame buildings were demolished thereafter.

After the mill closed, the town’s name was changed from Marine Mills to Marine on St. Croix to reflect the absence of the milling industry. In over a half-century of operation, Marine Mill produced 197,000,000 board feet of lumber. The mill produced lumber used for construction in many towns and cities throughout the state in the late nineteenth century.

The Marine Mill site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The Minnesota Historical Society acquired it in 1972. Soon afterward, the site became a park managed by the City of Marine on St Croix with three distinct areas: an upper bluff, rocky cliffs, and a river-level floodplain. The site featured the mill’s ruins, including remnants of the sandstone sawmill and its overshot wheel, along with the planing mill and drying shed foundations. It also contained a stream, walking trails, interpretive signs, a beach, a canoe landing, and an observation deck.

After a break during the pandemic, Christ Lutheran Church in Marine on St. Croix brought back its traditional Swedish dinner featuring the polarizing dish.

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MARINE ON ST CROIX, Minn. — When the doors opened Thursday morning at Christ Lutheran Church in Marine on St. Croix, the smell of lutefisk lingered in the air.

"Follow your nose," said the door greeter, as guests entered the church.

Christ Lutheran Church hosted its annual traditional Swedish Dinner for the first time since the pandemic. They estimated 600 people would come through the church basement for Swedish brown beans, meatballs, potatoes, rice pudding, beets, coleslaw and the main attraction — lutefisk.

"You watch. It's the answer to world peace because nobody comes through here without smiling," said Lester Rydeen, a volunteer who got the prime position serving lutefisk.

Guests had their choice of butter or cream sauce on their lutefisk. Rydeen said he usually has three helpings.

"I don't like to play favorites so one with butter, one with cream sauce, and one with both," he said.

Lutefisk, a traditional Scandinavian dish, is made from dried white fish soaked in lye and water.

Credit: Heidi Wigdahl

"Norwegians in Norway, they don't eat lutefisk. The reason why is... why would we want fish that's been soaked in lye water when we can eat fresh fish?" Herbert Nelson said.

Nelson led his table in a Norwegian table prayer before eating the meal.

"The pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran church in Minneapolis whose a friend of mine... he won't eat lutefisk," Nelson said. "I told him I was going to have lutefisk today and he said he would pray for me."

Christ Lutheran Church started serving their Swedish dinner in the mid-1930s. They took two years off because of the pandemic. At first, they weren't sure the dinner would return.

"Like many congregations, even pre-pandemic, we were having people not certain they had time to volunteer or just everyone's busy with their life," said Cheryl Reinitz, chairperson for the Swedish dinner committee. "Then the pandemic hit and we obviously didn't have the dinner for 2021 and 2022 so we didn't know if people would want to participate. So we asked our congregation first, 'Would you volunteer?' and we had a resounding yes. Then the calls started coming like six months ago... are you having the dinner, what time is it, what day is it?"

"It takes a village," said Kevin Nyenhuis, mayor of Marine on St. Croix.

During the day, Nyenhuis was outside the church baking bread in a mobile brick oven he built over the summer. The bread then went to the church's bake sale.

Credit: Heidi Wigdahl

Nyenhuis said he's not sure how many churches still host lutefisk dinners but the numbers have been dwindling.

"Some churches have abandoned it because it's just such a big effort," he said.

"We're like the only ones in this local area who are having the dinner so it's pretty special to us," Reinitz said.

Christ Lutheran's pastors Hannah Bartos and Joel Martin said proceeds from the dinner will go towards organizations and ministries they support throughout the year. Their bake sale will help raise funds for youth programs.

"It brings the church together to pull it off but it also expands our understanding of community as it brings in people from throughout the Twin Cities and even other parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota," Pastor Martin said.

Credit: Heidi Wigdahl

Martin said they planned on going through 550 pounds of lutefisk and more than 200 pounds of meatballs.

"There are no grumpy people at a lutefisk dinner," said Bob Horn from Woodbury. Horn has been coming to this dinner for about 20 years and travels around the area to different lutefisk dinners. This is his seventh or eighth one this season.

Horn said he goes for the fellowship, adding, "The fish isn't all that redeeming."

Friend Jim Luadtke added, "I tried to have fellowship with those lutefisk and it just did not occur."

But a polarizing dish has brought people together.

Volunteer Mark Rossi said, "This silly little fish can either tear us apart or bring us together."

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Partnership with county and nonprofit permanently preserves 118 acres.

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Minnesota Land Trust

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December 23, 2022

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3 minute read

The Minnesota Land Trust, Washington County, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and two landowners, including polar explorer Ann Bancroft, have successfully closed on a land conservation partnership project that permanently protects approximately 118 acres over two properties in the Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District in May Township. Bancroft, now the properties’ sole titleholder, will steward the land to maintain its ecological health and natural beauty.

Every year in Minnesota, thousands of acres of natural habitat are developed and subdivided. This reduces habitat available for many of Minnesota’s forest, wetland, and grassland wildlife species and can lead to increased runoff into rivers, lakes, and streams. Such fragmentation of deciduous hardwood forests is a significant threat to Minnesota’s forest wildlife. To ensure these ecosystems’ long-term existence, the integrity of large tracts of contiguous lands must be preserved. This project, which protects two undeveloped land parcels that neighbor other natural areas, helps to keep habitats intact.

“One of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made was to put this land in a conservation easement to conserve it forever so that future generations can benefit. It would be a tragedy if this land were developed. I hope this inspires other Minnesotans to do this with their property. I couldn’t have done this alone. It was wonderful to work with the Minnesota Land Trust and Washington County,” Bancroft said.

Natural Features

The newly protected properties are adjacent to the new County Conservation Area and the Big Marine Regional Park Reserve. They are approximately one mile northwest of the Manitou Fund property and Wilder Forest.

The protected land is a Regionally Significant Ecological Area as identified by the DNR, ranking at the highest level. The DNR has noted endangered, threatened, and special concern species on or within one mile of the properties. The properties’ open and natural character provides scenic views to be enjoyed by the public from May Avenue North.

“County residents care a lot about protecting the county’s surface waters, aquifers, natural features and wildlife. Once again, we see a landowner lead the way in assuring identified high-quality areas and corridors connecting them are permanently protected for current and future generations. The county applauds their effort and the legacy this is leaving,” said Washington County Commissioner Fran Miron, District 1.

How It Happened

In the project’s first stage, the Minnesota Land Trust placed a conservation easement over 39 acres owned by Bancroft in May Township, applying funding from the Minnesota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund as recommended by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

In the second stage, Washington County placed a 79-acre conservation easement on property held by another landowner. The Washington County Board of Commissioners approved a Land and Water Legacy Program (LWLP) contribution to complete this stage of the project. The DNR’s Scenic and Natural Areas program also contributed grant funds.

Immediately thereafter, Bancroft purchased the underlying fee title to those 79 acres. Bancroft will provide ongoing stewardship of both properties, totaling 118 acres.

“Ann has been an amazing leader in so many realms throughout her life, so it’s particularly meaningful to see her take a conservation leadership role by protecting her property and stewarding it in a way that will benefit wildlife populations, climate change, and future generations of Minnesotans,” said Kris Larson, Minnesota Land Trust CEO.

Background

The Minnesota Land Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and restore Minnesota’s most vital natural lands to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences, and scenic beauty for generations to come. The organization has completed nearly 700 conservation projects statewide, permanently protecting more than 74,500 acres of natural and scenic land and more than 450 miles of fragile shoreline.

A conservation easement is a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or other qualified agency that permanently limits certain uses of land to protect its conservation values. Landowners continue to own and enjoy the land. Once created, the conservation easement is binding on all future owners of the property. More information on Minnesota Land Trust can be found at www.mnland.org.

This conservation easement was made possible by the members of the Minnesota Land Trust and with funding from Minnesota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund, as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature and recommended by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council (LSOHC) and the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resource Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources and facilitated by the DNR Scenic and Natural Areas grant program. Funding was also provided by the Washington County Land and Water Legacy Program, a voter-approved bond referendum for the preservation of water quality, woodlands, and other natural areas.

The Marine General Store has only changed hands half a dozen times since the Civil War. So it means a lot to the people in town when it goes up for sale. They grow anxious that something might change, because they have it pretty good.

"The General Store is the absolute anchor and epicenter of life in Marine on St. Croix," said Robyn Dochterman, who runs a store down the street. "The owners understand what the townspeople a) need and b) want. If you need Marcona Almonds, it's there. I mentioned goat milk one time and — seriously — an employee brought me some a week later. To my door! And I thought: 'Wow! OK!' "

Owners Karen and Andy Kramer are conscious of being both inheritors of squeaky-floor country charm and provisioners to one of the wealthier parts of the state — a horse-owning realm of country estates.

The store, which the Kramers put up for sale earlier this month, may look old-school from the street. But its stock of rentable flicks runs heavily to documentaries and foreign films. And the owners have learned to be ready when a gourmet cook races in, looking for a missing ingredient.

"A man came in one day and announced, 'I just bet someone that you don't carry capers,' " Karen Kramer recalls. "I told him, 'We have two kinds.' The next week he came in again and I said, 'What's the bet this time?' He said, 'I'm not playing that anymore.' "

The Kramers bought the store 10 years ago, knowing full well that they were becoming the latest successors to an emporium immortalized by Garrison Keillor on his "Prairie Home Companion" show as "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery."

The General Store in Marine on St. Croix, Minn., on Friday, March 27, 2015. ] RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER • [email protected]

Ralph, a former owner, is a real guy. "He's in here almost every day," said store manager Gwen Roden, a lifelong Marine on St. Croix resident.

Now the Kramers are ready to bail.

To overhear them attempting to make a "sales pitch" to a much younger couple is to be reminded there really is such a thing as Lake Wobegon: a deep modesty that forbids them, even while trying to entice a buyer into a $900,000 purchase, from being anything but candid.

"We bought it out of the corporate world and were totally naive, to be honest," Andy Kramer confessed.

Some day, Karen Kramer said in an interview later on, the couple is going to compile a list of its Top 10 Bloopers, including its "worst ordering mistakes."

Like trying to order a pallet of windshield fluid, only to be gently informed by the salesman that that was, like, hundreds of bottles. Or a "bin of apples," which would be close to a thousand pounds. "We would have had no place for them," she said.

Still, the romance of the store has drawn lots of interest, if no solid offers. A mention in the media of an upcoming sale drew four potential buyers in a single day.

Marine on St. Croix watches with intense interest.

Judy Stern, an author who once owned a gallery in downtown Minneapolis, and who moved to Marine on St. Croix in 1990, stands alongside the town gazebo and observes:

"There are two buildings that this town pours its love into: the Village Hall and the General Store."

The rest of main street is beyond sleepy on a weekday afternoon: the coffee shop has closed for the day, the candy store is shut, a boutique is dark. A onetime ice cream shop became a pizza place whose signs still exist alongside banners advertising a whole new incarnation this spring.

Yet the Marine General Store seems constantly busy.

"This is my second visit of the day," said firewood vendor Mike Tibbetts. "I only spent seven bucks the first time, three bucks this time, but I'll probably be here two more times. We're 15 miles from Big Box," meaning major supermarket chains in Stillwater, "so I do 80 percent of my shopping here."

Dochterman, who co-owns the high-end St. Croix Chocolate Co., and will open a retail store/wine bar down the street in May, said she stops in "constantly, probably every day: if I need microplaned lemon peel I can walk half a block for lemons. If I want to stock up on toilet paper, I go to Cub."

"The big store's got ya on price," Karen Kramer admits. "But we carry things they don't, gourmet or organic, or things you need right now, in the middle of a recipe.

"This building used to be a saloon, with a cathouse upstairs. I used to say, 'If things don't work out, we're gonna restart the cathouse.' "

A man drove up to the Marine General Store on a lawn mower Friday. The store is beloved by many Marine on St. Croix residents.

She added, after a pause: "Someone asked, 'What did they do with the cats?' People can be so innocent."

The Kramers say they have made a go of it, financially, but Andy Kramer has reached retirement age and grandchildren are starting to arrive. With family in California and Australia, there are trips they'd like to take in a more leisurely, long-stay way than the store allows.

Brent Peterson, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society, said the county was lucky on many counts to have store owners as fond of the history and diligent about upkeep as the Kramers have been.

"Andy did a lot of historical research on the building," Peterson said. "Too bad they're getting out of the business, but hopefully there will be another proprietor who will take as good a care of the building as they did."

The couple plan to remain residents of Marine on St. Croix. But Karen Kramer worries a bit about the sudden downshift.

"We'll probably be bored stiff."

David Peterson • 651-925-5039

County approves easement to permanently protect 3,000 feet of river shoreline and much more.

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February 24, 2022

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4 minute read

A swath of private land along the St. Croix River south of Marine on St. Croix will soon be permanently protected, thanks to a conservation easement that will prevent any future development. The Washington County board of supervisors voted this week to contribute half the cost, $1.1 million, from the county’s voter-approved Land and Water Legacy Fund, to purchasing an easement on lands owned by the Science Museum of Minnesota.

The other half of the easement is being paid for by the Minnesota Land Trust. The county and the land trust will then jointly hold a permanent conservation easement on the 129 acres, which is also home to the Science Museum’s St. Croix Watershed Research Station.

“A large, steadfast, and committed crew has been working on this project,” county planner June Mathiowetz, who was a leader in the effort to protect the land, told the board. Now, it’s nearly done.

The lands include hardwood forest, restored prairie, wetlands, a pond, and a spring-fed creek. A small part of it contains research facilities where scientists study a variety of water-related subjects. There are about 9,100 feet of shoreline, including 1,500 feet of frontage on the St. Croix River, and 3,000 feet on Spring Creek. There are also numerous springs, and habitat for many threatened species.

The property is located about a mile south of downtown Marine on St. Croix, near William O’Brien State Park, Square Lake Regional Park, other public lands across the river in Wisconsin, and the federally-owned St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

“It’s beautiful property with a lot of ecological value that we have an opportunity to preserve,” commissioner Fran Miron, whose district includes the site, said.

The conservation easement means the Science Museum will still own and manage the property, but forever prohibits development and other uses that would interfere with its natural state. The restrictions will remain even if the land changes hands in the future.

“We’re only protecting the land, it’s being managed by another source,” said commissioner Stan Karwoski. “It’s far less cost than just buying the land, so we’re really leveraging those dollars.”

Flora and fauna at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station

The Science Museum and its staff at the Research Station manages the lands, with recent efforts including removal of buckthorn and other non-native species from large tracts of forest, and burning prairies to promote healthy grasslands.

“It has a long history as a research site and beneficiary of ongoing quality stewardship and care by the St. Croix Watershed Research Station staff,” the county said.

County staff pointed out that the protected site is in an area seeing more development and fragmenting of natural lands.

“Preservation of the property provides a unique opportunity to protect one of the largestand most ecologically significant properties remaining in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area,” staff wrote.

Water, wetlands, and prairie at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station

Commissioner Lisa Weik repeated those words during her remarks, pointing to it as a major accomplishment, and commending county planner Mathiowetz.

“This is an incredible legacy for the five county board members here today, for local officials, for yourself and other staff,” Weik said.

The county’s Land and Water Legacy Program, which is funding its portion of the easement, was approved by voters in 2006. It is providing $20 million in bonds over 20 years to protect sensitive lands and waters in the county.

Before voting, board chair Wayne Johnson said his leadership position gives him the chance to speak last, but the other commissioners had covered his thoughts. The resolution to release the funding passed unanimously.

The preservation project includes some of the same partners as the proposed acquisition of nearby Wilder Forest. That effort has been stymied by a moratorium put in place last summer by the May Township board, but the new easement was allowed to go forward. The transaction is expected to close in mid-March.

Note: I have a longstanding professional and personal relationship with the St. Croix Watershed Research Station and Science Museum of Minnesota.