local lore

Local Lore: Lake City City Hall

Jul 15, 2026

The story of City Hall begins the same way that the story of the Lake City Fire Hall does. To recap, a history of the fire department put together by Mrs. Alice Lamb in 1940 states the present site of our City Hall was purchased for $450 (roughly $13,624 today) for an engine hall. The City...

Local Lore: Lake City’s Fire Chiefs

Jul 8, 2026

It became clear when I began researching the Lake City Fire Department that no single source had an accurate list of all of Lake City’s fire chiefs. On top of that, all the sources I’ve found attempting to do so conflict on the names and years of those chiefs prior to 1952. I have thus made it my...

Local Lore: The Lake City Fire Department

Jul 1, 2026

The annual Fireman’s Dance is taking place this weekend. As such, I thought it would only be fitting to write this local lore article on Lake City’s Fire Department, which has faithfully served our community almost since Lake City, itself, was established. According to The Lake City Leader, “the...

Local lore: The first Water Ski Days

Jun 24, 2026

Lake City’s annual Water Ski Days are always some of the busiest in our community. But, if you think it gets crazy nowadays, wait until you hear about the events of 54 years ago! The first Water Ski Days took place in 1972 and celebrated not only the 50th anniversary of water skiing, but our town’...

Local Lore: The River Walk and some of its many walkers

Jun 17, 2026

The Lake City River Walk is just one of a few ways our community can stay connected to the many businesses downtown while simultaneously enjoying the spectacular lakefront. Families, friends, tourists, and groups like Walking Lake Pepin all make sure the path is utilized frequently, especially...

Local Lore: More Hollywood Theatre stories

Jun 10, 2026

Turns out the Hollywood Theatre has a few more stories to tell, which highlight some of the final highs and lows of the establishment before it became an office building and apartments. A Tragic Mystery In February of 1966, tragedy struck. A small front-page article in The Lake City Graphic...

Film composer McKenzie’s first taste of Hollywood was at family movie theater

Jun 3, 2026

While debating which of the many topics on my list to cover next for local lore this past week, I was sent an extraordinary email in response to my article on Lake City’s movie theatres. It’s a perfect example of why I love writing this column, and I knew it had to be shared. Without further ado,...

Local Lore: When Lake City had its own ‘Hollywood’

May 27, 2026

If you were a Lake City resident looking to see a movie during the years of 1905 to 1974, you probably would have gone to the downtown theatre. There have been three different movie theatres in Lake City’s history, and in the year 1914 only, you would have been able to enter all three. The very...

A bomber crashes on Lake Pepin

May 20, 2026

In honor of Memorial Day, this local lore topic will be deviating from Lake City businesses and instead focus on an incident that occurred here Dec. 15, 1944. Longtime Graphic photographer Bob Parrott referred to this date as “The Day World War II Came to Lake Pepin,” in an article he wrote in Big...

Letter: Notable doctor missing from doctor history article

May 13, 2026

While I was reading the article about the history of Lake City doctors in the May 7 Graphic, I couldn’t help but think of the “Where’s Waldo” book series. There was a major person missing in the story I couldn’t find. Here’s a hint: He is still the medical director of the ambulance service and...