During a recent visit with Bidney Bergie to obtain some information for the three-part Lifestyles series in the city’s electrical, gas and central heating systems, still another topic came up.

Friday, March 02, 2001

During a recent visit with Bidney Bergie to obtain some information for the three-part Lifestyles series in the city’s electrical, gas and central heating systems, still another topic came up. Bidney, a local history expert and retired district manager of Interstate Power Co., mentioned how people were once given the really unusual opportunity to take a free ride to the top of a 300-foot-tall smokestack. This particular landmark was once located at the power plant near the railroad tracks and between Newton and Broadway Avenues.

I also found a 1922 Tribune article (exact date unknown) at the museum which explained just how some folks were given a real &uot;Kodak moment.&uot; Going to the top of this tall smokestack about 79 years ago must have been like being in an airplane looking down on the Albert Lea area.

Two of the people who took this unusual ride were Joe Reynolds, editor of the Mankato Free Press, and John H. Skinner, editor of the Austin Herald.

Here’s part of what Editor Reynolds later wrote:

&uot; … hundreds of people had the unique pleasure of ascending the giant smoke stack … at Albert Lea which was formally dedicated yesterday afternoon. Some idea of the grandeur of the scenery coming within the scope of the vision of those who had the nerve to ‘shoot up’ the tall chimney may be had when it is stated that the country around and about Albert Lea is dotted with some of the most beautiful lakes in southern Minnesota. Way down below the eye was the enterprising city of Albert Lea and a short distance away the rippling waters of Lake Albert Lea. Glancing to the north one sees glimmering In the sunlight the surface of Lake Geneva. Like two large silver stars, Twin Lakes could be plainly seen to the south, and in the distance toward the east, Rice Lake with Turtle Creek winding its silvery course toward Austin could be dimly seen. The rest of the beautiful panorama was made up of the green of the rich farm lands, and the gold of the ripening grain, and dotted over all were the comfortable farm buildings.&uot;

And here’s part of Editor Skinner’s comments:

&uot;We went to the top of the new smokestack of the Southern Minnesota Gas & Electric Co. plant at Albert Lea yesterday afternoon. It took six seconds to go up but we were given a special thrill by being dropped down in four seconds.

This stack Is the tallest and largest in the state. … A half-inch steel cable was run on the outside of the stack from a drum on an 18-horsepower engine to a pulley (on a wooden tripod) at the top of the stack. This cable came down inside and at the bottom of it was attached a bucket filled with hardened cement. You stood upon the bucket and a strap bound you to the cable. Two people were taken up at once, so it left but little room for one’s feet. … A signal was given to the engineer man and in six seconds we were at the top.

&uot;A marvelous view unfolded Itself. Like a mighty panorama the beauty of the land of southern Minnesota lay around and below. The varied crops of the farming communities looked like a grand mosaic. Looking down upon the city everything was dwarfed. The beautiful court house looked like a wren’s house, the big new (First) Lutheran Church dwindled away to the size of a doll house. The whole view confirmed our preconceived idea of the size of the city. … We looked down upon New Denmark and that portion lying south of the Rock Island Railroad and wondered which one of these places would absorb Albert Lea. …

&uot;For a distance of five miles this stack looms up as a shaft of light. To Albert Lea it is to be a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of light by night, leading to greater industrial growth.

&uot;The smoke from this stack will mingle with the smoke from the stacks of Austin, marking where the Twin Cities of southern Minnesota in pleasant and vigorous rivalry wave a challenge to the rest of the state.&uot;

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.