We live in the small Mississippi River town of Winona. It sits about two hours south of the Twin Cities. Jack went to Winona State University and after years living in Minneapolis, Nashville, Tulsa, Burlington (and all points in between), it’s been fun coming back to this small college town.
In the coming months we’ll be sharing a lot more travel videos that we filmed here in Winona. There are some great hidden gems in this town and it’s definitely worth a weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Last week we were digging around an antique store here in Winona. It’s an old brewery with caves dug into the side of Sugar Loaf bluff. We picked up a neat calendar published by the Winona County Historial Society. It’s a freebie that you can grab at newsstands with other local tourism pamphlets and brochures. There are some really neat pictures – all of which you can find at their museum. We thought it’d be fun to share them with you because they are really cool pictures from Winona back in the day.
If you’re a local reading this, you might get a kick outta these pix…and if you’re considering a visit, know this: most of the town looks exactly the same as when these pix were taken…nearly 100 years ago!!
Maybe whenever the snow melts we’ll wander the town and take some side-by-side pix so you can see exactly what we’re talking about. But first it needs to get warmer! Hehe.
If you find yourself in town and have a few hours to kill we really recommend a visit to the Winona County Historical Society. We’ll be sharing a vlog on our YouTube channel soon!
Speaking of Winona, be sure to not miss our series “Cornstars”. Many future chapters of this ongoing blog series will take place in and around Winona and feature numerous area musicians. This is about travel…time travel! We’ll be going back in time to the cornfields of Iowa and Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s, to explore the lives of two men who created a new form of jazz music. “Cornball Jazz” is what they called it…and, for a few short years, it was the best-selling music in America. They made and lost millions and left behind some amazing films and records. We’ll explore the places and people that created this nearly forgotten genre of music. Visit us every Friday for a new chapter in the saga that is “Cornstars”. Read the first chapter here: https://jackandkitty.com/2023/03/cornstars-the-birth-of-jazz-in-garnavillo-iowa
Unless otherwise noted, images in this blog post are from the “Favorites from the Photograph Collection Project”, a free calendar published by the Winona County Historical Society. Pick up a physical copy at WCHS or at pretty much any news stand or small business here in town. In 2022, the Society completed a 16-month project to preserve and protect their amazing photograph collection. Over 12,000 images were scanned, plus they reorganized and properly stored thousands more.