rice county historical society

Blacksmith Lou Groth, who performs blacksmithing demonstrations near Harvest and Heritage Halls during the Rice County Fair, shows us how he creates a spoon from a nail. Groth has been a blacksmith for about 14 years and said he got into it because he wanted to “try doing something the hard way...

Did you know that the Rice County Historical Society Museum is open to take a tour through during the Rice County Fair? There are all kinds of things available to check out on the grounds around the museum, including the Rice County Steam and Gas Engine display with running engines, a blacksmith that you can purchase handmade items from, wood carving, quilters and other interactive displays you ca

Check out the ceilings in the log cabin on the Rice County Historical Society grounds. The logs have been squared by hand with tools such as a broad ax and an adze. You can see the grooves left in the beams, and also some of the logs in the cabin’s corner, behind the bed...

Sue Garwood reminds us to look up for this display of Minnesota license plates. Donated by the Schreyer family, the earliest plate is from 1908 and is made of leather. The collection features plates from every year through 1965. New episodes featuring Rice and Steele county history are posted to the Power96 YouTube channel and power96radio...

If you walk through the Rice County Historical Society’s Harvest and Heritage Halls, you may notice a display on household items, including six washing machines. They range from a scrub board and tub to hand-powered washing machines to an early electric machine to a gasoline-powered machine to a more “modern” 1930s-era machine...

Loren Dahle of Morristown explains the different uses and unique features of the walking plows in the Rice County Historical Society’s collection. Some are breaking plows, used for breaking up the sod and others are more general purpose. They all would have been pulled by oxen or horses...

Sue Garwood shares a rare Plains Indian art ledger that is part of the Rice County Historical Society’s collection. Because of its fragile nature, this piece is not displayed and few people have seen it before. New episodes featuring Rice and Steele county history are posted to the Power96 YouTube channel and power96radio...

This bottle of sand art was created by Andrew Clemens of Dubuque, Iowa, for Faribault’s Lyman Tuttle, who owned Tuttle Meat Market. Clemens created these masterpieces one grain of sand at a time. New episodes featuring Rice and Steele county history are posted to the Power96 YouTube channel and power96radio...

Jerry Ganfield shares some of the history behind this 1919 Dodge now on display at the Steele County Historical Society Museum as part of the Automobiles & Roads exhibit. It went from touring car, to farm truck, back to restored touring car, and is now on display. ...

Brian Schmidt discusses the inspiration behind one of the newest pieces of the Rice County Historical Society’s Fleck’s beer collection – a new Fleck’s Beer sign modeled after one that stood in front of the brewery years ago. New episodes featuring Rice and Steele county history are posted to the Power96 YouTube channel and power96radio...