Center Valley, Minnesota--1920's and yesterday!

I finally MET Sue yesterday--she's as nice as a Hesch gets ☺. She drove up from the cities and we went to see Buckman/Pierz/cemeteries/farms/houses/buildings/Aunt Jeanette. All that and MORE!

Keep an eye on this gas pump in the following pictures. Someone had captioned it "The lonely gas pump", so it must have been installed first, before the buildings.

If you recall, Sue's descended from Grandpa Anton's brother John.
This is part of his obituary from 1926..."the Centre Valley store"...

Sue remembered going to see what was left of it when she was a kid, so we went to find it again, yesterday. It was SO MUCH FUN!! We felt like archaeologists, because her mom had pics which Aunt Jeanette positively identified as the Centre (Center) Valley store.

See the false front on top? It's in the next picture, too....

See where the gas pump is in this pic? It's still shiny and new, and they're building the store.

The picture doesn't really show how much of a valley it is, but the road dips substantially there. The store used to be just beyond the triangle sign ahead to Sue's right...

I expected a bit of grown-over rubble along the road, but no! We found the foundations of at least four buildings there, in someones' pasture...look:

(I know the composite is bad, but this is sorta what it looks like. 'Course there's more, but I couldn't get it all in).

Oh, man...THIS had to be the front of the creamery's foundation! Looked like there were footings behind it, too, but not solid concrete like this part.

That four strand wire fence might have been electric, so we didn't try going closer.

This had to be the stores' foundation. Aunt Jeanette grew up within a few miles of Center Valley, so she remembered it well. Coming down the hill from the south, you crossed the Soo Line tracks, and in a bit there was the creamery, an ice house, and the store, before the creek at the bottom. Without walking back there, we couldn't tell what the other buildings might have been, but a shed or garage makes sense, too.

( See the gas pump on the left? The store had to be just beyond it).

That sturdy foundation would have been the loading dock--you'd drive alongside it and muscle milk cans inside thru that lower opening in the middle, and get empties back thru it too.
This little diagram is speculation, but probably close to what was there:
So, what happened? How come it's no longer there, even as empty relics of buildings? Our amazing MASTER REASEARCHER LARRY found this report from the Winona newspaper in May, 1955.

Was the store operating then? Center Valley was still a long way (7 miles) from Pierz in '55, but without a creamery out there, you'd have to take the milk into town now. Maybe the store was damaged by the fire...or maybe it wasn't open any longer anyway...we don't know. But with Larry on the case, we STILL might find out more!

YAY SUE and YAY LARRY!!