Back Roads

This week’s Back Roads is the work of The Land Managing Editor Paul Malchow. Resurrection

Like most river towns during Minnesota’s pioneer days, Ottawa had its heyday — but is now barely a blip on the map. Located at the intersection of Le Sueur County Roads 36 and 23, the village of 300 is most recently famous for the silica sand mine on the outskirts of town.

Also, like many pioneer towns, one of the first buildings constructed was a church … in Ottawa’s case, the 160-year-old Ottawa Methodist Episcopal Church, which stands at the corner of Liberty and Whittier Streets. But unlike many early churches which were made with wood, the Ottawa church was constructed of locally-quarried dolostone which some people say has a pink hue.

The stone church is one of the three oldest Methodist church buildings in Minnesota and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. The church was a gathering place for Methodist worshipers for nearly a century. In 1952, the congregation closed the church and relocated. In 1967, the Minnesota Annual Conference of the Methodist Church donated the Little Stone Church to the Le Sueur County Historical Society.

A combination of time and internal struggles in the Society had taken a toll on the condition of the church. It had become obvious that the steeple was seriously leaning. In 2018, the Society addressed the steeple’s condition as well as stabilized the church building itself.

Generous response to the historical society’s fund-raising efforts made it possible to provide the church with new cedar shakes and structural supports. (The church steeple had been removed several years earlier after it began to tilt, threatening the roof and structural stability of the building.) Workers completed a new roof and placed new steel trusses in the back of the church to support the new roof. The construction crew also set into place a steel frame to hold the bell tower.

The wooden steeple which crowned the roof line of the church for the past century was not original to the old stone church of pioneer days. Photos from the Society’s archives were used to make the restoration as historically authentic as possible. The original bell still resides in the tower.

On Oct. 20, 2020 the new bell tower was lowered into place. Because of the Covid pandemic, an official commemoration of the event was postponed until May 28 of this year. A short service led by a regional Methodist minister filled the church. The historic pump organ led the congregation which listened to readings from an 1884 edition of the Bible that sits on the lectern.

The Ottawa church is open Sunday afternoons until Labor Day. Other viewings are possible by appointment. The church is also available for weddings, funerals and other private gatherings. For details, contact Dick or Kathy Peterson at (507) 665-2833 or rlpottawa@gmail.com; or the Le Sueur County Historical Society at info@lesueurcountyhistory.org. A community worship service is scheduled at the church the Sunday following Labor Day, Sept. 11. v

Ottawa, Minn.