Featured Stories

These are the Greater Mankato Area featured stories that appear at the top of the site’s homepage.

Photo by Carlienne Frisch - Walt Cheever "signs" each of his works.

Walt Cheever — Woodworking in His Blood

Minneapolis Daily Star - August 12, 1927 describing the hunt for James Barrett

Profile of a Bootlegger – Mankato’s Gangster Ties

Photo Courtesy Blue Earth County Historical Society — This photo from the January 6, 1928, Mankato Daily Free Press shows the building that Leon Salet purchased at the corner of North Front and Main streets.

ARTchitecture: Salet’s Department Store

Photo courtesy Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader - The Saulpaugh Hotel was located where the City Center Hotel sits today. This photograph shows the main entrance to the hotel as it faces South Front Street with Main Street in the foreground, circa 1925. Originally there was an entrance on the Union Depot and Minnesota River side of the hotel. At that time most patrons arrived by steamboat or railroad. The image was taken from approximately where the south entrance of the Blue Earth County Library sits today. The current City Center Hotel ramp sits where South Front Street met Main Street.

The Grand Old Saulpaugh Hotel

Minneapolis Daily Star - August 12, 1927 describing the hunt for James Barrett

Profile of a Bootlegger – Mankato’s Gangster Ties

Jack Kooser was a Mankato area bootlegger and gangster who often found himself at the center of trouble.