51 New Homes Are Coming to Lakeville Across From Antlers Park

The planning commission signed off unanimously, and there's more to this development than just new houses, including a fix for a long-running problem that's been frustrating one neighborhood for years. City Council votes May 4.

7 Brew Just Dropped Its Building in Apple Valley

Literally dropped it, the whole structure gets craned onto the foundation in a single day. Apple Valley is one of the first four Twin Cities locations for the Arkansas-based drive-thru chain, and they're targeting late June to start pouring drinks.

A Lakeville Trucking Company Is Getting a Major Upgrade on County Road 70

Globus Transport is trading its current spot for an 81,100 square foot warehouse with more than double the dock doors. It's a local company growing fast, and it's not filling the whole building alone.

THE DAY THE SKY TURNED

NOVEMBER 11, 1940. Armistice Day. A Monday. Schools closed. The morning was so warm—mid-50s, light breeze—that duck hunters headed to the Mississippi in shirtsleeves. The forecast said colder with a few flurries.

By nightfall, the temperature had dropped 50 degrees. Winds hit 80 miles per hour. Snow drifted 20 feet high. And scattered across the frozen islands of the Mississippi River, men were dying.

THE STORM

Four days earlier, the same weather system had destroyed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington. It crossed the Rockies, tapped moisture from the Gulf and cold air from Canada, and became what meteorologists now call a bomb cyclone. Nobody predicted it.

The ducks knew first. They came south ahead of the storm by the hundreds of thousands, flying so low hunters could almost grab their feet. It looked like a waterfowler's dream. It was a warning.

Rain started mid-morning. Sleet by noon. Heavy snow by early afternoon with zero visibility. The temperature fell 30 degrees in two hours. Winds gusted past 60. On the river, waves reached five feet.

The hunters were trapped on islands in the Mississippi's backwaters—the maze of channels and sandbars between the Twin Cities and Iowa. Boats capsized. Motors died. Men who reached shore couldn't find shelter in the whiteout. The wind was so fierce it took the air from their lungs.

THE DEAD

When rescuers reached the islands the next day, they found bodies frozen where they'd fallen. One man sat against a tree. Another had burrowed into a haystack but hadn't gone deep enough. In Winona—the epicenter—the city bus barn became a temporary morgue.

Final count: 49 dead in Minnesota. About half were duck hunters. Another 66 sailors died when three freighters sank on Lake Michigan. Total across the Midwest: somewhere between 154 and 200.

Also dead: 1.5 million turkeys. Farmers sold them for 25 cents—"fresh frozen."

THE HERO

Max Conrad, a Winona flight instructor, took off in a Piper Cub the next morning and flew into 50-mile-per-hour headwinds. For 15 hours over two days, he searched the backwaters, dropping canisters of sandwiches, whiskey, and matches to survivors, then circling to guide rescue boats. The Winona airport is now named for him.

Bud Grant—future Vikings coach—was 13, hunting near Superior. He survived the night in a stranded car, crowded with strangers, sharing body heat.

THE AFTERMATH

The Weather Bureau took the blame. All Midwest forecasts came from Chicago, and the office wasn't staffed around the clock. The outcry forced changes: Minneapolis got its own forecast office, stations went 24/7, regional coverage expanded. The modern National Weather Service traces directly to the failures of November 11, 1940.

The storm still ranks #2 among Minnesota's weather events of the 20th century. Every duck hunter of that generation remembered exactly where they were. The ducks knew. The hunters didn't. The weather service learned.

WHERE TO GO

Max Conrad Field (Winona Municipal Airport) — Named for the pilot who saved lives flying through the storm.

Mississippi River backwaters (Red Wing to La Crosse) — The maze of islands where the worst of the tragedy unfolded.

It started as the warmest Armistice Day anyone could remember. By morning, men were frozen where they fell.

25900 Highview Ave, Farmington

➡️ 4 bed, 3.5+ bath, 11.97 acres of gently rolling land
➡️ Gourmet kitchen with granite, double oven, walk-in pantry & screened deck
➡️ 3-car heated & insulated garage (944 sq ft)
➡️ Gas fireplace, hardwood floors & French doors

Price: $1,200,000

MLS #7056345

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