Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Fifty years ago this day I was starting my second week of employment at the Pope County Tribune working for then owner Jim Kinney. I was thinking back about how Glenwood has changed over those years and the changes have been substantial.

The population hasn’t changed much moving up to 2,674 from just below 2,500. But the number of housing units has changed quite a bit. Multiple apartment buildings have added around 300 rental units. Eide Circle was just a few homes in 1973 and 7th Avenue SE and 5th, 6th and 7th Avenues NE and 7th Street SE were not yet fully developed.

What is now Glacial Ridge Health System of those days was on 4th and Franklin as it is now, but additions and expansions have totally covered the old structure. The hospital, which had a small staff of one to three doctors, is now staffed with close to 20 providers.

We had two nursing homes then. Glenwood Retirement Home and Lakeview Care Center. Glenwood Retirement added the Rainbow unit, plaza units and Parkview Court. Lakeview was closed and the property taken over by Glacial Ridge Health System and is now covered by the southern expansion of the hospital and parking lot.

Three local school districts, Villard, Glenwood and Starbuck merged into Minnewaska Area Schools and a new high school was built and opened the fall of 1991. Hard to believe that building has been here for over 30 years!

Clyde Machines has undergone a major expansion while FAST, which didn’t exist 50 years ago, is probably the largest city manufacturer.

Glenwood updated its sewage system in the early 1980s and started pumping its effluent to 90 acres of processing and clearing ponds east of the city. Prior to moving effluent up the hill sewage was processed in a plant just off 6th Ave. NW and discharged into Lake Minnewaska.

The city lost one motel (Hilltop) and the Sam Parker House and Rogers Hotels but gained three motels; the Grand Stay downtown, the Baymont up near the rail yards and the Super 8 near the CENEX station at the top of the hill.

Back then the building that houses AJ’s didn’t exist and the A&W across the street was just a seasonal place to eat.

Back in 1973 downtown looked a lot different. There were two grocery stores but neither building is used as a grocery store anymore. Tom’s Market was built as a new store from the ground up while the other building now houses Pope County Public Health. Back then public health consisted of a nurse and an assistant in a single office in the courthouse.

There were two drug stores, two shoe stores, three hardware stores, two banks, several restaurants, bakery, men’s clothing store, a beer-pool hall, a women’s clothing store, two furniture stores, a movie theatre, several restaurants, Ben Franklin variety store and more.

Barsness Park was much smaller 50 years ago, it was pretty much what you can see driving by on Highway 104. There was a ski hill, ball diamonds, horseshoe pit, campground and a few other things. The wooded area east of the ballfields was added in the late 1970s and early 1980s expanding the park to 250 acres. Park Road was a dirt, two-track pathway back then.

Lakeside Ballroom was nearly the same structure that had been erected in 1909. It burned in 2003 and was replaced by a more modern structure.

We had two new cars dealers in 1973, Finke Ford and Gloege Chevrolet Oldsmobile. The Ford dealership is now Brownie’s Tire Service (which had been downtown on the corner of 1st Street South and Franklin Street). The Chevy dealership was housed in what is now Marthaler Chevrolet’s body shop on Franklin Street.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few things. American Solutions for Business didn’t exist back then. The county highway garage was on west Minnesota Avenue along with three nearby gas stations that no longer exist. A lot of things have changed!