Agriculture is the largest business segment in the area referred to as the GreenSeam, the southern Minnesota and northern Iowa agricultural region. The region has an economic link between production, processing, professional services, education, technology, research, manufacturing, transportation and more.
The week this publication hits your desk, marks the week seven years ago that I moved back to Mankato. Back after a 16-year adventure that took me to California, then to Washington D.C., then all the way back across the country again to Hawaii. But seven years ago, I came home.
Agriculture plays a vital role in our lives every day. And I’m not just talking about the food we eat. The economy in this region is very ag-centric. Agriculture is the base for which other businesses are able to start, grow and thrive here.
A family gathering at a cabin up north led to the creation of one of Mankato’s newest tourist attractions, Old Town Escape.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Jim Bauer and his wife Mary, have opened a lawn and garden small engine sales and service operation.
Jen Wanderscheid has always been one to live in the moment and just enjoy things as they happen. Now she has a business that helps others do just that, and capture a few memories while they are at it.
Nearly everyone can remember the excitement of going to eat at McDonald’s as a kid: the bright yellow-and-red interior, the colorful indoor playground, the Happy Meal (and, most importantly, the toy that came with it). It was a special treat, a place to celebrate a birthday or a good report card.
The tank crashes through the underbrush, crushing anything in its path. It lumbers past trees, a 25-foot-long, 62-ton metal behemoth on the hunt. It plows through a shallow pond, barely slowing its 30 mph pace as it sprays mud and splashes water.
There’s a famous scene in the classic 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” where naïve Senator Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) starts his filibuster of a corrupt bill that is being pushed through the legislature in order to benefit the political machine pulling strings behind the scenes.
