Big Shoes to Fill in Red Wing!

Let's play a little game of association: I say "Red Wing", you say.... "puffed rice". No? Would you have said ... Art? No? I guess most of us would answer "shoes", or possibly "pottery". And Red Wing does have shoes, really big shoes (see example at left), and some wonderful pottery. But, as you'll learn, Red Wing is full of surprises, not the least of which is your first stop, the Anderson Center, originally the home and research laboratory for Alexander Pierce Anderson, who revolutionized breakfast by developing the method by which rice and wheat grains are puffed. It now serves as an arts and residential study center, offering a peaceful and contemplative place for creative types to, well, create.

Red Wing is still a busy industrial city. I saw several trains go through town during my visit, and dozens of tractor trailers in line to drop off soybeans, flax, and corn to the mills still downtown. But the City of Red Wing has also blossomed into an arts and tourism center. Shop at Historic Pottery Place Mall, an adaptive use of an old pottery factory, now housing shops and the Red Wing Pottery Museum. See the Sheldon Theatre, a wonderful restoration, some great residential neighborhoods, and enjoy lunch in the Victorian Room at the St. James Hotel, a recently renovated historic hotel. And Red Wing also has some preservation questions for our audience of professionals, one of which involves the old lime kiln pictured here...

Wear comfortable walking shoes (or purchase some while you're here) for this tour of a charming historic river town with a deeply- ingrained preservation ethic, and progressive strategies that have been hugely successful. And help them with this old thing while you're at it.

~ Lori