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OAK-LAND: Stillwater 6th graders could be moving soon PAGE 2
Uncovering a lost era SUBMITTED
JACKIE BUSSJAEGER STAFF WRITER
ARCOLA MILLS — Imagine a serene, sprawling community near the river and a smattering of small cabins where novelists, painters and philosophers eat and drink, sit in the peace of nature or in the elegance of an ornate mansion dining room and quietly contemplate their next great masterpiece. This was the world of Katherine and Dr. Henry Van Meier. Or rather, it might have been. Yvette Oldendorf serves as vice president on the Arcola Mills Board of Directors. She said there is reason to believe that the nine small structures that stand on the grounds of
Arcola Mills, located on the St. Croix river north of Stillwater, may have once housed a thriving community of artists, guests of the Van Meiers during the 1920s and ’30s. A recent Minnesota Historical Heritage Grant of $5,000 from the Minnesota Historical Society will go toward researching this possible colony, about which very little information currently exists. The Van Meiers were connected with several notable figures at the time, including the husband of Katherine’s sister Eleanor, Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was an author and publisher best known for being one of the first to publish the works of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway, as well as contributing to the formation of the
American short story genre. “We know Gertrude Stein visited town,” said Oldendorf. “But did she come here? Were there other artists coming here? Could there be a period of time in which there were a variety of artists on the property, using it to inspire their creative endeavors?” Oldendorf said that the grant will allow them to answer these questions. “We have a historic consultant doing research, documenting the cabins and their contents, looking at old newspaper articles from the area and looking at old photographs,” she said. The mill site was first established in 1847 and later evolved into a full-fledged town. Although the passage of time had all but erased the signs of the commu-
nity that once lived there, the mansion was discovered in the 1920s by the Van Meiers. They purchased the house and restored it; before her death in the 1990s, Katherine left it to a community nonprofit to preserve and maintain. Since then, it has been added to the National Historic Register of Places. The property now stands at 55 acres in a forested natural setting. The cabins that may have housed an artist colony are spread around the property. Oldendorf said guests at Arcola Mills often express curiosity about these structures. “What about those cabins?” Oldendorf said. “People have been fascinated SEE LOST ERA, PAGE 10
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