Summer to be special for PR

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, May 3, 2008

This year Pelican Rapids, well known for its Turkeys Days, International Friendship Festival, Art in the Park and other summer celebrations, also will commemorate its 125th anniversary. This milestone will be part of the Turkey Festival scheduled July 11-12.

Pelican Rapids, like other towns in Otter Tail County and across the state, also will commemorate Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebration.

“Yes, this will be a very special summer,” Pelican Rapids Mayor Wayne Runningen said. “Later, in the fall, we’ll rededicate our township monument on the north side of town.”

The Otter Tail County Historical Society is helping Pelican Rapids in restoring the township monument near the junction of Highways 59 and 9. The monument is dedicated to the eight area townships that include Scambler, Dunn, Norwegian Grove, Pelican, Lida, Trondhjem, Erhards Grove and Maplewood.

Most communities such as Pelican Rapids have local celebrations. Bob Block of Fergus Falls, who serves as a Sesquicentennial ambassador for the western half of the county, is pleased that area communities are recognizing both local and state contributions.

“We’re happy to work with Bob and also Roxanne Daggett of Frazee who is coordinating the state’s Sesquicentennial events in the eastern section of the county,” Runningen said.

Block praises Runningen, other area mayors, school superintendents and many areas residents who are helping to make this a special year for both local communities and the state as it celebrates its Sesquicentennial.

On May 11 Minnesota will officially reach its 150th anniversary. On that date, in 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state to become part of the United States of America. This event took place just three years before the start of the Civil War.

Pelican Rapids was incorporated as a city in 1883.

The first settlers arrived in the Pelican Rapids area 15 years earlier, in 1868, to locate and establish trading posts for the British Northwest Company. Trading took place with Chippewa Indians living in the area.

Word soon spread about the beautiful countryside — with its lakes, rivers and farmland — and the area was quickly homesteaded.

The railroad arrived in Pelican Rapids in 1882, a branch line from Fergus Falls, which was to continue northward. This never took place, however. The rail line remained a dead end until its removal 100 years later, in 1982.

As noted on the city Web site, Pelican Rapids relied on agriculture in its early years, with numerous small farms dotting the countryside. Over the years the area economy also became dependent on turkey processing, tourism, manufacturing, electronics, wood products and precision machining, to name a few.

The opening of Maplewood State Park in 1963, six miles east of Pelican Rapids, provided additional growth in tourism. Visitors to town have enjoyed seeing the world’s largest pelican — Pelican Pete — a statue along the river and one block east of downtown. Another tourist attraction is the suspension bridge that links E.L. Peterson Memorial Park and Sherin Memorial Park.

Truman Strand, Pelican Rapids, took the lead in making the Pelican Pete statue a reality in 1957. Strand worked with Luther Grotte of Fergus Falls who designed and oversaw construction of the suspension bridge in 1975.