100 years, 100 stories

In March 1925, the Rochester Post & Record merged with the Daily Bulletin to form the Post Bulletin.

How many stories has the Post Bulletin told in 100 years since? An unfathomable question, but at the current rate of about 4,000 staff bylines per year, you’d arrive at some 400,000 stories. It would take a lifetime to read all of those – and in fact it has, for many longtime readers.

Some stories, of course, are bigger, more important, more interesting, more emotionally touching, more fun, and simply more memorable than others. In recognition of 100 years of Post Bulletin history, let’s take a look back at 100 years of local history in this sampling of 100 stories. A subjective list, to be sure. What stories would you include? Tell us in the comment section below.

1 - THE FIRST EDITION

Publication date: March 30, 1925

Vol. 1, No. 1 of the newly minted Post Bulletin rolled off newsstands with a note to readers under the headline, “Rochester Post-Bulletin Makes Appearance Today; Will Benefit Community.” (We’ve lost the hyphen since then, as well as the practice of capitalizing words across headlines.) The story notes benefits to advertisers, not to mention to subscribers who had previously paid for two newspapers, the Bulletin and the Post and Record. More importantly, the story laid out the newspaper’s mission, which continues today: “to serve the public … without bias and without prejudice” and to hold fast to a local focus.

2 - PRESIDENTIAL VISITS: FDR to Trump

Publication date: Various 

One of the most famous images in Mayo Clinic’s collection is the one that shows Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo sitting in the back seat of a convertible with President Franklin Roosevelt on his visit to Rochester in 1934. FDR’s visit was the first of many presidential visits to come. As reported by Matt Stolle in a 2018 lookback , Harry Truman campaigned here in 1948, Richard Nixon in 1970, Jimmy Carter in 1978, Ronald Reagan in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1990, George W. Bush in 2002 and 2004, and Barack Obama in 2011. Matt’s story was occasioned by the first of two (2018, 2020) visits by Donald Trump.

3 - MAYO’S DARKEST YEAR, PART 1: SISTER JOSEPH

Publication date: March 30, 1939

The year 1939 was a darkening time for the world, and it became particularly challenging for Mayo Clinic, which saw the deaths of three of its pioneering figures in a short succession of months. The first casualty was Sister Mary Joseph, the longtime head of Saint Marys Hospital and first surgical assistant to Dr. William Mayo, who died at age 82.

4 - MAYO’S DARKEST YEAR: PART 2: DR. CHARLES MAYO

Publication date: May 26, 1939

Just eight weeks after Sister Joseph, Dr. Charles Mayo died in Chicago after a short battle with pneumonia. Family members surrounded his bedside there, but not his lifelong companion and partner, his brother Dr. William Mayo, who was recovering in Rochester from his own serious abdominal operation. The world mourned the loss of a pioneer in medicine. Charlie was 73.

5 - MAYO’S DARKEST YEAR: PART 3: DR. WILLIAM MAYO

Publication date: July 28, 1939

The cycle of loss was completed with the death of Dr. William Mayo, whose own health challenges began months before the loss of his brother, but whose suffering was augmented by the grief over the loss of his companions. Dr. Will, as he was known, could not attend his brother’s funeral, due to his health, and had undergone a second surgery not long before he died. He was 78.

6 - ‘BIG BLUE’ ARRIVES

Publication date: Feb. 8, 1956

Rochester built itself around Mayo Clinic, but the city truly expanded under the influence of another major employer, IBM, which announced its plans to build here in stunning fashion, pledging a “big blue” campus – designed by world-renowned architect Eero Saarinen – on what was then the northwest side of the city. For decades, IBM was the city’s largest employer and its efforts to diversify its workforce made it a model.

7 - A MEDICAL DESTINATION: DMC

Publication date: May 23, 2013

Mayo was already growing fast, but a 20-year expansion plan attracted $585 million in state public funding support for a $5.6 billion economic development project titled Destination Medical Center. The aim? To build the public infrastructure and attract private investments to support Mayo Clinic’s effort to remain a global health care destination.

8 - A ‘BOLD’ BUILDING PLAN

Publication date: Nov. 29, 2023

Mayo Clinic announced its soon-to-be-realized $5 billion expansion plan in June 2023. That dizzyingly stunning investment will reshape six blocks of the downtown area and include the construction of five new buildings comprising 2.4 million square feet. What those buildings will look like was not revealed until November, when the architecturally stunning illustrations were released. This is a story that has yet to be fully written.

9 - SISTER GENEROSE

Publication date: Oct. 10, 2016

Another seismic loss struck Mayo Clinic in 2016, when longtime Saint Marys Hospital administrator Sister Generose Gervais died at age 97. She led the hospital from 1971 to 1985 and served as a spiritual touchstone for decades after.

10 - A HOME FOR ‘U’

Publication date: Jan. 9, 2007

Decades of longing for a full-fledged university in the state’s third-largest city were finally realized with the formation of the University of Minnesota Rochester, which took up space in two remodeled floors of a downtown shopping center. The university was set up to prepare students for careers in health sciences.

11 - THE FLOODS: MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Publication date: April 19, 1965

In Minnesota flood lore, the events of the spring of 1965 are an all-timer. The river has never been higher in Lake City – the next closest level is 2 feet lower – and the flood caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage over the length of the Upper Mississippi.

12 - THE FLOODS: ROCHESTER

Publication date: July 6, 1978

Five people were killed, 5,000 had to flee their homes and an estimated $58 million in damage resulted after a sudden, heavy 6-inch rain deluged Rochester and the surrounding region. The Zumbro River reached a height of 23.36 feet, as measured by a south Rochester river gauge, where flood stage began at 12 feet. About one-third of the city was under water, and small boats plied southeast Rochester streets in rescue efforts. The disaster prompted the $115 million flood control project that protects the city to this day.

13 - THE FLOODS: RUSHFORD

Publication date: Aug. 20, 2007

Nearly 30 years later and 50 miles to the southeast, the cities of Rushford, Stockton, Minnesota City and Elba were brought to the brink of extinction by floods that claimed seven lives and destroyed homes and businesses. But, united under the slogan “Never, ever give up,” the communities came back. A local grocery store, Rushford Foods, reopened a mere 74 days after the flood, on Halloween, and set a daily sales record.

14 - WE’RE IN THE ‘MONEY’

Publication date: Aug. 14, 1993

“The economy is humming, the crime rate is among the nation’s lowest, pollution isn’t a major problem, and housing is affordable.” So said Money magazine in awarding Rochester its “Best Place to Live” award. By 1997, when the city was No. 2 in the rankings, it had run a cycle of five straight years in the top 3. Rochester last made Money’s list in 2008. As for today’s city, though the economy, low crime and clean environment are still attractive, in that golden year of 1993 the city found itself briefly in the national spotlight.

15 - MAYO CLINIC NO. 1

Publication date: Aug. 2, 2016

No. 1 was a perennial position for Mayo Clinic in U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Hospitals” rankings. Starting in 2016, until 2022, when U.S. News discontinued naming a top hospital, Mayo beat out the likes of Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and other contenders for the crown. Mayo still garners more departmental plaudits than those competitors in U.S. News’ annual report and recently brought home top honors for the seventh straight year in Newsweek’s annual “World’s Best Hospitals” review.

16 - OLMSTED MEDICAL CENTER

Publication date: June 21, 1955

As much as Mayo Clinic’s national standing can be applauded, you can’t overlook the local contributions of the community-based Olmsted Medical Center, opened in 1955 with the help of a voter-approved, Olmsted County $750,000 bond referendum for construction. Thousands of people attended the opening ceremony and tours. The hospital and related services have expanded in the years since.

17 - FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER

Publication date: Sept. 27, 1985

The closure of the Rochester State Hospital in 1982 opened an opportunity for another large, institutional tenant. The Federal Bureau of Prisons petitioned to build a medical center on the site. The proposal prompted local opposition, but the prison system prevailed through regulatory hearings and court challenges, and the FMC began hiring employees and admitting prisoners in 1984. The prison was dedicated in 1985. To date, no one has escaped from Rochester’s FMC. (A false report took hold in the national media in the 1990s, but that has been debunked by local reporting.)

18 - TERROR FROM THE SKY

Publication date: Sept. 11-12, 2001

The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent shock waves around the world. Chief among the concerns: Where would the terrorists strike next? In Rochester, the FMC (which held an Egyptian terrorist, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman), Mayo Clinic and IBM were seen as prominent potential targets, and a story even circulated later that one of the 9/11 terrorists had been in Rochester. The world – including our small part of it – would never be the same.

19 - ROCHESTER’S HONKERS

Publication date: Nov. 9, 1962

As distinctive a feature as Rochester’s well-known corn tower (more on that in No. 33), the geese of Rochester represent a subspecies of Canada goose that was thought to be extinct. That is, until 1962, when PB outdoors writer Gordy Yeager broke the news of a wildlife study that concluded Branta canadensis maxima, or the Great Plains goose – the largest of the various species of Canada geese – was alive and well, and living here. The geese have since featured on the city flag and as the namesake of a local baseball team. (Rochester’s storied history with resident birds also includes Mayo Clinic’s peregrine falcons and the great groups of winter crows.)

20 - HAROLD CRAWFORD

Publication date: May 8, 1981

Many of the city’s grandest and more interesting homes and public buildings are the product of one Harold H. Crawford. The best known architect in city history, his works include Folwell Elementary School, the former Rochester Public Library (now the Mitchell Student Center on Mayo Clinic’s downtown campus), and a host of homes across Rochester’s Pill Hill neighborhood, now a local and historical preservation district.

21 - HARRY BLACKMUN

Publication date: May 12, 1970

A one-time legal counsel for Mayo Clinic rose to the highest level in the legal profession. President Richard Nixon nominated Harry Blackmun to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970, and Congress’ confirmation vote for him was unanimous. Blackmun later became known as chief author of the court’s majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, a 1973 case that secured a woman’s right to abortion. (Roe was overturned in 2022.)

22 - SANDY KEITH

Publication date: Feb. 2, 1989

A Rochester native made his own path to prominence in the law. Alexander M. Keith – you probably knew him as Sandy – was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1989. A year later, he was elevated to chief justice. Keith’s storied local career includes a term as state senator, a term as lieutenant governor, a campaign for governor, and local leadership roles too many to count. At the time of his death, in 2020, he was said to be the only person to have served in all three branches – legislative, executive and judicial – of Minnesota’s state government.

23 - NANCY BRATAAS

Publication date: Feb. 10, 1975

“Unconventional?” Nancy Brataas’ last word before she died, in 2014, summed up a life that had followed an uncommon course. She was, in her words, a “normal, cookie-baking housewife” until a friend convinced her to go to a Minnesota Republican Workshop meeting. She was hooked. Brataas became the first woman to join the Minnesota Senate in 41 years after she won a special election in 1975. She served for 17 years in the Legislature, securing a reputation for working across the aisle and securing funding for local projects including Rochester flood control and the airport, where today a service street bears her name.

24 - STATE CHAMPS! (JM FOOTBALL)

Publication date: Nov. 17, 1973

The old saying, “defense wins championships,” proved true, as John Marshall High School dominated its opponent, St. Paul Harding, to win the state championship game 25-0. Harding gained only 71 yards total, and in fact had negative rushing yards. “I knew we could beat Harding,” Coach John Drews said after the game, “but I didn’t think it would be so easy.”

25 - STATE CHAMPS! (JM HOCKEY)

Publication date: March 21, 1977

The first team south of the Twin Cities to win a high school title in the “state of hockey” turned out to be another John Marshall team. The Rockets gutted out a 4-2 win over Edina to cap a 25-2 season. They silenced their doubters – and even their coach, whose reaction was quite different than Drews’ nearly four years earlier. “It’s really hard to believe what’s actually happened,” said Coach Gene Sack. “I’m speechless.” JM was the only southeastern Minnesota school to win a hockey title before 1992, when schools began competing in classes based on size. (Red Wing won a Class A title in 1997.)

26 - ROCHESTER’S ACES

Publication date: Aug. 13, 2016

What is it with Rochester and tennis? The list of top players with Med City pedigrees is a long one, and it’s topped by Eric Butorac, who competed professionally for 13 years, a career that included a runner-up doubles finish at the Australian Open and ended with him ranked 45th in the world. (He also earned nearly $2 million across the years of his career.) Other standouts from Rochester have included Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Ingrid Neel, Ben Kopecky, Alexa Palen, Claire Loftus, Tej Bhagra, and the dominant teams of past and present from Lourdes and Mayo high schools.

27 - THE 173rd

Publication date: June 24, 1995

In 1966, still fairly early in the U.S. war in Vietnam, John Hutcheson, from Rochester, learned about an Alabama community’s “adoption” of an overseas combat unit. He came home and told fellow members of the Rochester Junior Chamber of Commerce about it. Soon, the Jaycees spearheaded a drive to adopt the 173rd Airborne Brigade, collecting money, soap, books, linens and other items for them. Fast-forward to 1995, and the 173rd, reminded of their relationship to Rochester by then-Mayor Chuck Hazama, held their annual reunion here and were featured in the Rochesterfest parade. “For many years I’ve been to parades honoring other people,” said one veteran. “Now there’s one honoring me.”

28 - SOLDIERS FIELD VETERANS MEMORIAL

Publication date: June 26, 2000

The return of the 173rd gave rise to an idea: to build a memorial for the country’s military veterans in Soldiers Field Memorial Park. That idea, in 1995, led to a fundraiser (1996), then to groundbreaking and construction (1997), and finally to a dedication ceremony (2000), held in conjunction with the 173rd Airborne reunion. The memorial has grown in the years since, and today is a year-round attraction near Rochester’s downtown. A law enforcement memorial is being built nearby.

29 - PRESTON VETERANS HOME

Publication date: Jan. 4, 2024

What a birthday present for Walter Hanson. What a gift for aging veterans in southeastern Minnesota. A decade-long process of fundraising, planning and construction to establish a skilled nursing facility for veterans in Preston came to its conclusion on Jan. 3, 2024, when Hanson, on his 91st birthday, was one of the first people to move into the new facility, which has space for 54.

30 - DAVID BROM

Publication date: Feb. 19, 1988

A real-life horror story unfolded in the dark night at a Rochester residence. The next morning, 16-year-old David Brom was taken into custody without incident, a quiet ending to one of Rochester’s most disturbing chapters. Brom had killed his parents, his 13-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother with an ax. The shock of realization and the ensuing trial traumatized Rochester for 20 months in 1988 and 1989 — and at the heart of it stood a teenage boy, courteous enough to hold the door for his jailers, yet capable of wielding merciless, intimate violence with his hands.

31 - DIOCESE IN DISARRAY

Publication date: Oct. 8, 2014

“It’s been covered up. It needs to stop. End. Over,” said Paul Hotchkiss, a once-childhood victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, at a press conference where details emerged regarding abuse committed by 14 priests who were part of the Diocese of Winona. Locally, the abuse scandal ended with a financial settlement for 145 survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and the Diocese reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

32 - NO ORDINARY BISHOP

Publication date: Feb. 10, 2024

Some eight years later, the Diocese – now the Diocese of Winona-Rochester – stood to receive public recognition of an entirely new variety, having installed as its leader perhaps the most well-known Catholic bishop in the United States, Robert Barron. Barron, who boasts 3 million followers on social media through his multimedia company, Word on Fire, has emerged as a thought leader who projects forceful messages with a conservative Catholic perspective into the mainstream. He recently attended President Trump’s State of the Union address.

33 - CORN TOWER

Publication date: July 2, 1931

An auspicious beginning – four paragraphs on Page 9, headlined “Steel Water Tower To Be Shaped Like Big Ear of Corn.” But, like a tiny seedling that’s grown waist-high before you knew it, the “Ear of Corn” water tower – yes, yes, “corn cob” tower still has its adherents – had become a local landmark, emerged on half the postcards in the drug store display, got itself a facelift in 2021, and finished third in the running for Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.” (One of those is untrue.) What remains true? That this big ear is a feast for the eyes.

34 - THEY CAME FOR CARE: GEHRIG TO JAMES

Too many dates to mention

How did Rochester’s clinic become the “World Famous Mayo Clinic”? Attracting those who are world-famous themselves doesn’t hurt. FDR’s son James was among the first, and his arrival was front-page news on Sept. 11, 1938. Lou Gehrig (1939) was soon to follow. Ernest Hemingway (1960), Billy Graham (1965), King Hussein (1998). The Saudi royal family’s visit in 2010 was said to put $1.3 million into local retailers’ registers. The Dalai Lama (2015) came after that, and then, in 2023, LeBron James’ son Bronny received care here.

35 - THEY DIED IN OFFICE

Jean McConnell, Dec. 14, 2005

Mike Podulke, Feb. 24, 2011

Dennis Hanson, June 27, 2012

In the span of less than seven years, three of Rochester’s top elected officials died without warning. Seven-term Rochester City Council member Jean McConnell, 86, a renowned fiscal hawk, “died doing something he loved” – reviewing the city budget, said council President Dennis Hanson. McConnell collapsed at a city council budget review meeting and died the following day. In 2012, Hanson, 57, himself suffered a brain aneurysm and died, setting up a general election months later in which he faced a living challenger – and prevailed, setting up a special election. And in between, in 2011, a 24-year member of the Olmsted County Board, jovial Chairman Mike Podulke, 67, died of undetermined causes after he was found deceased in his car on the side of a road in southwest Rochester.

36 - WINONA STATE PLAYER DIES

Publication date: July 23, 2014

Sudden death came in a truly unexpected way for a 22-year-old player for the Winona State University football team, leaving the campus in a state of shock. Shawn Afryl was doing voluntary exercises with his teammates in the early evening hours of July 21, 2014, when he collapsed and died from what was determined to be cardiac arrest related to an enlarged heart. (In 2018, Afryl’s mother filed a wrongful death suit against the university; the case was settled in 2021 for $80,000.)

37 - NOBEL PRIZE: PART 1

Publication date: Oct. 26, 1950

“Mrs. G,” a 29-year-old patient at Mayo Clinic, had suffered for years from the debilitating and painful effects of rheumatoid arthritis – that is, until doctors administered an experimental treatment that dramatically relieved her suffering within a matter of days. The doctors’ discovery, a hormonal drug called Compound E – later cortisone – opened a new field of medical study and won them the Nobel Prize. As the Post Bulletin reported at the time, the prize “places the names of Dr. (Edward C.) Kendall and Dr. (Philip S.) Hench … on the roster of scientific greats.”

38 - NOBEL PRIZE: PART 2

Publication date: Oct. 30, 1968

“He was always a real genius” – one who aced high school math tests without having to study. So said Dr. Edward Judd, a Mayo Clinic surgeon who was a Rochester high school classmate of another Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Luis Alvarez. Alvarez won the prize in 1968 in physics for the discovery of the Onsager reciprocal relations, “which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes.” Alvarez, who headed the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California, described himself as “one of the boys” and credited his supporting cast for helping with the work that won his award.

39 - MAYO MEDICAL SCHOOL

Publication date: Nov. 12, 1971

Today, Mayo Clinic is a vast educational enterprise that educates more than 4,400 students each year. A great leap forward in that regard occurred in 1972, when Mayo Medical School opened – “a tall day for us all,” according to the University of Minnesota’s then-president. Dr. Raymond Pruitt was named the school’s first dean, and plans called for starting that first semester with 40 students. Today, Mayo operates five schools, all under the umbrella of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

40 - NEW HEARTS

Publication date: Aug. 19, 1981

Mayo Clinic’s first successful heart transplant patient was a 33-year-old woman from Michigan. Sharon Jahns took walks outdoors with her mother in the days following her groundbreaking surgery at Saint Marys Hospital. “I’m feeling stronger all the time,” she told reporter Ken McCracken. In a 3-½ hour surgery, Jahns received the heart of a 26-year-old woman from Owatonna. She lived for about 10 months, dying June 8, 1982, of cardiac arrest. By 2008, surgical techniques had advanced to the point where a 20-month-old boy could receive one new heart on a Sunday, and when that heart wasn’t functioning properly, have a second heart installed to replace it three days later.

41 - GUEST HOUSES

Publication date: April 18, 1980

Foundational to destination medical care, Rochester’s chief non-medical industry has become hospitality. One of the leading providers of it, the Ronald McDonald House, got its start in 1980. Then known as Northland House, it was founded and first operated by a local corporation, Northland Children’s Oncology Services, Inc., and run out of a three-story home at 613 Second St. SW. The house boasted 13 sleeping rooms with two kitchens, a large living room, a playroom, library and offices. After 10 years, Northland House was invited to become a licensed Ronald McDonald House, and five years after that, in 1995, moved to its present location.

42 - DIAMOND JUBILEE

Publication date: June 11, 1929

A four-day celebration of the 75th anniversary of Rochester’s first settlement was the stuff of legend. For one thing, a parade of more than 100 floats and a dozen bands – “interspersed with Indians and clowns” – and costing $15,000 passed through downtown, and an almost unbelievable total of 40,000 people bore witness to it. (Rochester’s population at the time was near 20,000. An equivalent public celebration today would attract 250,000 people!) Miss Arlene Town was crowned queen of the Diamond Jubilee. The event coincided with the dedication of a new city airport near the site of today’s county fairgrounds. Mark your calendars now for 2054, when Rochester will reach its 200th birthday.

43 - PLUMMER BUILDING

Publication date: Sept. 17, 1928

Roses dropped from a plane rained down over ceremonies to dedicate the stately, art deco structure built to supplant Mayo Clinic’s first building as chief headquarters of the medical operation. The Plummer Building represented the height – metaphorically and truly – to which Mayo Clinic had grown. Ten thousand people stood and heard the heaviest carillon bell sound 65 times, ringing out the years that had passed since Dr. William Worrall Mayo came to Rochester to begin his medical practice.

44 - METHODIST HOSPITAL

Publication date: Dec. 17, 1966

Echoes of the past are heard today in Mayo Clinic’s plan to build new facilities that will revolutionize hospital care. The same grand claims accompanied the opening of Methodist Hospital, a $14.5 million ($140 million in today’s dollars) structure that incorporated a modern physical structure and cutting-edge technology – pneumatic tubs, closed-circuit television systems, individual air-handling systems and up-to-date pharmacies and kitchens – that attracted interest from the wider medical world.

45 - GONDA BUILDING

Publication date: Oct. 8, 2001

Three years of construction led to this – the opening of the (then-) 20-story, $375 million Gonda Building, the first major construction on Mayo Clinic’s downtown campus since the 1950s, when the adjoining Mayo Building was built and later expanded. “For a lot of us who work here, this is the dream of our professional careers,” said Dr. Hugh Smith, chairman of Mayo Clinic Rochester’s board of governors. Gonda’s 1.5 million square feet combined with the neighboring Mayo and Charlton buildings to provide the equivalent floor space of 60 football fields. More importantly, the three buildings gave Mayo the ability to centralize care to allow patients to receive exams and tests in one place.

46 - BEAM ME UP

Publication date: Nov. 13, 2012

It’s made of 2.9 million pounds of steel, 19,419 cubic yards of concrete, and 2.34 million pounds of rebar. And yet, the most significant material object in the $185 million Jacobson Building, first home to Mayo Clinic’s proton beam therapy center, is a little brass bell. It’s what patients ring when they complete their course of treatment at the center, one of fewer than 20 in operation or under construction at the time it was built in the early 2010s. A second facility, adjacent to the Jacobson and Eisenberg buildings, is currently under construction to expand the care offering.

47 - LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Publication date: Oct. 1, 2005

A $232 million highway project was completed at highway speeds. From start to finish, it took just 1,065 days to complete a $232 million makeover of U.S. Highway 52 through Rochester. The ROC 52 highway project remade 11 miles of highway (widening it to six lanes), replaced seven city interchanges, and included 26 new bridges – all under a new approach to construction management known as “design-build,” which, as the name suggests, folded design and construction together to speed the process. “We delivered it on time and in budget,” said Nelrae Succio, who oversaw the work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

48 - THE AS/400

Aug. 25, 1988

May 23, 1992

How big was the AS/400? Well, if IBM Rochester, the division of IBM that developed and produced that minicomputer system in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, were a standalone company, it would have been the second-largest computer company in the world, behind only its corporate parent and ahead of Hewlett-Packard Corp. IBM Rochester had 7,600 employees at the time, down from its peak but still ahead of Mayo Clinic and the largest employer in Rochester. About that “minicomputer” – it was the size of a small refrigerator.

49 - MIRACLE MILE FIRE

Publication date: Feb. 22, 1971

Twenty-six businesses were destroyed in the then-worst commercial fire in Rochester’s history. Believed to have been caused by a downed power line, the fire spread from south to north in Rochester’s Miracle Mile Shopping Center. Damages were estimated at $1.5 million or more. Nobody was hurt in the fire, which began before sunup, around 6 a.m.

50 - NELSON TIRE FIRE

Publication date: July 19, 1979

The loss from the Miracle Mile fire was surpassed by a fire affecting just one business, but a big one. The office of Nelson Tire Town, located beyond the western boundary of Rochester on 19th Street Northwest, caught fire due to a short in an electric fan. The fire spread to the tire business’ yard, where some 200,000 burned, sending a “black, oily mushroom cloud of smoke thousands of feet into the still, clear air,” according to Ken McCracken’s report. Responders fought the fire for hours, from mid-morning into the late afternoon. The loss was estimated at $2 million or more.

51 - “KILLER GRANDMA”

Publication date: April 21, 2018

A Blooming Prairie woman who led local, state and federal authorities on a monthlong chase was apprehended near the U.S. border, in South Padre Island, Texas. Fifty-six-year-old Lois Riess was dubbed the “Killer Grandma” after she murdered her husband, David, apparently to collect money to repay gambling debts, and later killed a near-lookalike, Pamela Hutchinson, in an attempt to steal her identity. Riess’ story is told in an HBO documentary released last year.

52 - ROCHESTER’S SERIAL KILLER

Publication date: July 5, 1973

What was, at the time, the city’s worst homicide found four people – two women and two children – dead in southwest Rochester. Their killer? The father of the two children and husband of one of the women. (The other woman was the family babysitter.) But this was not the first time that David James Torgerson had killed. He had previously strangled to death two other teens among other attempts. He was caught in Michigan and hung himself in his jail cell before he could be tried.

53 - ACCIDENTAL SAVE

Publication date: May 24, 1990

If you value the historic appearance of the 300 block of South Broadway and the nearby area in downtown Rochester, you might have a pornographer to thank. Ferris Alexander, from the Twin Cities, owned three porn shops and five buildings total across that area, and his ownership and business practices depressed any interest in redevelopment there. Alexander was essentially Minnesota’s version of Larry Flynt, and his conviction on 25 counts of racketeering, obscenity and tax fraud. Alexander went to prison and lost his properties, opening the possibility for a fresh start for downtown.

54 - BANK ROBBER STRIKES TWICE!

Publication date: Dec. 16, 2015

There’s “hiding in plain sight.” And then there’s what happened at a Sterling State Bank location in Rochester on Dec. 15, 2015, when a robber returned to the bank he had already robbed the day before, thinking he’d take a second helping at the last place authorities would expect. In this case, a bit of bad luck worked against the robber. A KIMT television crew was outside filming an update on the story of the first robbery. As the robber fled, reporter Adam Sallet, realizing what had happened, said, “This is live TV, folks. I have to go here. I have to call 911.” Sallet’s call made the difference: Police were able to apprehend the robber at gunpoint less than 45 minutes later, near Coates.

55 - “IT WAS A NIGHTMARE”

Publication date: Aug. 10, 2009

Dreams of suffocation are unsettling, fairly common, and could indicate a likelihood of sleep apnea. A situation on the runway at Rochester International Airport in 2009 was that nightmare brought to life. A plane making its way from Houston, Texas, to the Twin Cities had to land in Rochester, and there spent six hours in a – as Jeff Kiger reported – “cramped and increasingly smelly plane” before they were let out to gasp for air in the terminal. The situation attracted national news coverage. “This was a sardine can,” one passenger said. “It was a nightmare.”

56 - “HEADLESS BODIES” CASE

Publication date: Nov. 27, 1999

Two bags found by a road maintenance worker in a ditch northwest of Rochester seemed to be filled with garbage or animal waste. But when a child’s hand popped out of one of the bags, inside were found the decomposed bodies of a young woman and 3-year-old boy – minus their heads. What would prove to be a tough case to solve – "If you can't identify the victims, you can't solve the crime," said then-Olmsted County Sheriff Steve Borchardt – was an even harder one to prosecute once investigators believed they had solved it. The trail led to Bangladesh, where the suspected killer, Iqbal Ahmed, had fled the reach of U.S. authorities. Iqbal later died in prison there, where he served a sentence for a different murder.

57 - KINGSBURY MURDER

Publication date: April 9, 2023

A missing Winona woman attracted a large-scale community search, more than 700 volunteers strong. Eventually, the body of Madeline Kingsbury would be found on a maintenance road in rural Fillmore County about a mile from Highway 43. It was near property maintained by the Fravel family – Adam Fravel was Kingsbury’s one-time partner and the father of her child. Adam was arrested and convicted of murder in Blue Earth County, where the trial had been moved due to the amount of publicity surrounding the case. Fravel recently appealed his conviction to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

58 - UNSOLVED MURDER

Publication date: April 20, 2007

One of Rochester’s great enduring mysteries: Who killed April Sorensen? The 27-year-old woman was found in her northwest Rochester home, stabbed, beaten and burned. A maintenance technician making a scheduled call noticed smoke coming from the split-level house on a quiet street corner where April lived with her husband. The killing unsettled neighbors. “You hear about it all the time, but when it happens in your own neighborhood, it really makes you think,” said one.

59 - TWIN KILLING

Publication date: Oct. 20, 2023

Law officers responding to a fatal vehicle crash involving an SUV and an Amish buggy were seeing double: the driver of the SUV and her twin sister. But which was which? Officers believed that Sarah Beth Petersen, who claimed to be the driver, really was not, and that it was her sister, Samantha Jo Petersen, who was. The accumulated evidence pointed that direction, and now Sarah will be sentenced in the case where she was charged with falsely claiming responsibility for the crash. Samantha is scheduled to enter a plea in her criminal vehicular homicide case in June. Two Amish children were killed in the crash.

60 - “BABY ANGEL”

Publication date: Sept. 14, 2011

A white tote bag containing the body of a tiny newborn girl and several angel figurines was found floating in the Mississippi River. The discovery of “Baby Angel” deeply affected law enforcement and the Winona community, and the case remained open for more than a decade. In 2024, authorities drew closer to the answer to the question, “Who was the mother?” It was thanks to a match using DNA technology that a 42-year-old person of interest was found.

61 - CHARITY CARE

Publication date: Nov. 22, 2022

In exchange for their nonprofit status, hospitals must provide an adequate level of discounted or free medical care to patients who qualify based on their income. A Post Bulletin investigation found that Mayo Clinic not only was issuing less “charity care” than many other hospital systems, but in some cases actually pursued collection actions and denied care to patients who ought to have qualified. Lawmakers and the attorney general took action based on the report, and new laws now require hospitals to do more to promote their charity programs. This year, Mayo Clinic’s annual report reflected a sizable uptick in the amount of “charity care” granted.

62 - “OFFICER SHAWN” 

Publication date: Dec. 21, 2011

A few days before Christmas, two Lake City police officers responded to a concerned friend’s call about a domestic dispute. On arrival, one of the officers, 32-year-old Shawn Schneider, was shot in the head. The suspected shooter, Alan Sylte Jr., of Hager City, Wisconsin, barricaded himself in the home, prompting a day-long standoff. (He wound up killing himself.) One-thousand people gathered for a vigil for “Officer Shawn,” and three officers stood guard over Schneider’s body as he fought for his life at Saint Marys Hospital. He died Dec. 30, 2011.

63 - SMOKING EXTINGUISHED

Publication date: Nov. 14, 2001

Hard as it may be to believe, it is within the living memory of most adults in Rochester that smoking used to be allowed inside restaurants (and in many other places, including workplaces). That began to change in the early 2000s, when Olmsted County became the first county in the state to prohibit smoking in restaurants. Many restaurant owners opposed the change, saying it would cost them business. County board Chairwoman Jean Michaels responded, “It would be nice if we could make everyone happy, but this is a health issue – a public health issue.”

64 - TRAGEDY ON SILVER LAKE

Publication date: Dec. 24, 1953

On Christmas Eve of 1953, 9-year-old John Paul Stephenson and friend Larry Bluhm walked across the frozen Silver Lake. Halfway across, John Paul fell through the ice. Larry ran to get help. The first firefighters on the scene – Ambrose Riley, 38, and Stan O’Brien, 40 – did not hesitate and started crawling across the thin ice. Just before they reached John Paul, both men fell through the ice, into frigid water that was just above their heads. They tried holding John Paul above the surface as they treaded water, but hypothermia set in. Other rescuers in a canoe reached the trio, just as John Paul disappeared below the surface. Riley and O’Brien could have swam for the canoe, could have saved themselves. Instead, both men dove underwater in search of John Paul. None of the three resurfaced alive.

65 - ASSISI HEIGHTS OPENS

Publication date: March 23, 1955

The motherhouse on the hill opened 70 years ago in May – that makes another anniversary that Rochester can celebrate this spring. Even as soon as March of that year, Assisi Heights welcomed its first group of 70 novices into the house and their classes began. The facility was built to serve as headquarters for the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St Francis, and included an administrative wing, classrooms, living quarters for students and senior Sisters, and of course a chapel.

66 - CAPX2020 REROUTED

Publication date: Feb. 25, 2012

The power of citizens to influence public policy was put to the test in a routing decision for high-voltage power lines through southeastern Minnesota. “We’re this little, bitty nothing compared to Xcel,” the energy company pressing forward with its CapX2020 transmission line project, said Anna Mae Norman, whose property, Woodland Camp, a Christian youth camp near Lake Zumbro, lies along what was the planned route. But objections from Anna Mae and her husband, Merl Norman, did ultimately reroute the transmission lines and save the natural character of their camp.

67 - BENEFITS FOR SAME-SEX PARTNERS

Publication date: May 25, 1999

Mayo Clinic took a leading role in extending rights to its employees in same-sex relationships. The clinic announced that, in 2000, it would begin to offer medical and dental benefits to both partners. “From Mayo’s perspective, we feel this is an important part to Mayo’s devotion to affirmative action,” said spokesman Chris Gade. The decision also reflected Mayo’s desire to remain a competitive employer. IBM began offering benefits to same-sex partners in 1997.

68 - “NOT IN OUR TOWN”

Publication date: May 3, 1997

An incident of racial violence inspired a vigorous reaction in Rochester: “Not in Our Town.” The campaign included school activities, community activities and a signature drive for a pledge of nonviolence. The phrase “Not in Our Town” had a surge of reuse in 2024 after a racist message was spelled out in plastic cups in the chain link fence on a pedestrian bridge near Century High School.

69 - PANDEMIC ARRIVES

March 12, 2020

If there was any doubt that COVID-19 would have an immense impact on our part of the world, that doubt was extinguished in the second week of March. Minnesota’s fourth confirmed case of COVID-19 was found right here in Rochester. Mayo Clinic started a drive-thru testing lane for the virus. The University of Minnesota suspended in-person classes at all five of its campuses. And this was just the beginning.

70 - SHANNON O’HARA

Feb. 3, 2012

Like many people, Shannon O’Hara’s deeds in life and beyond left a mark on her community. Like few of those people, Shannon’s life was only 13 years long. Shannon, who died of brain cancer, was remembered by friends and family as a bright and exuberant presence. “She let her light shine,” one aunt recalled. And Shannon loved hockey, even though she wasn’t the best at it. Her contributions to the sport, though, have been huge, and a charitable foundation created in her name has given 103 scholarships, totaling $196,000, to high school hockey players, most of them from this area.

71 - JOHN DZUBAY’S 1,000 WINS

Publication date: Oct. 6, 2021

John Dzubay had 999 wins in his long, illustrious high school volleyball coaching career. But he was home in bed fighting off COVID-19 as his Stewartville team took the court and won a couple of matches. He had to wait a week for his milestone 1,000th win, against Fillmore Central. At that time, Dzubay’s coaching career had spanned 40 seasons and included five state championships. He retired from coaching in 2024, by which time he had added 39 more wins to his total.

72 - HERB BROOKS WAS HERE

Publication date: Jan. 27, 1999

Rochester is not the biggest or best hockey town in Minnesota, but it does have a memorable connection to one whose face would be on the Mt. Rushmore of hockey. Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 Olympic hockey team that upset the USSR (“Do you believe in miracles?”), also got his start playing for the old senior Mustangs in the 1960s. “This was the place to play hockey,” Brooks told PB sportswriter Bob Brown in 1999. “I came this close to making my home in Rochester.”

73 - HORMEL STRIKE

Publication date: Aug. 15, 1985

One of the longest strikes in state history began 40 years ago this August. Some 1,500 union workers at the Geo. A. Hormel plant in Austin rejected the company’s contract offer and walked off the job effective 12:01 a.m. Aug. 17. Wage and benefits cuts created the bitter conditions between the union workers and Hormel. In the year prior to the strike, Hormel cut the base hourly wage from $10.69 to $8.25, though an arbitrator added 50 cents back to that. The strike lasted until Sept. 13, 1986, and the striking workers were not the winners.

74 - ANOTHER ROUND FOR LOCAL BREWERIES

Publication date: Oct. 2, 2012

A trip to brewery-rich Boston in 2009 was inspirational to Donovan Seitz. “It was there that I got a whiff of something that I thought Rochester could use,” he said. “One thing led to another, and I started Kinney Creek.” It was the first local brewery to open here since before Prohibition, paving the way for others which today include Forager, LTS, Little Thistle, Thesis and SXSE.

75 - JOHN HASSLER

Publication date: March 21, 2008

“He was a hero for all of us at the theater,” said a longtime collaborator of Jon Hassler, the novelist from Plainview who went from southeastern Minnesota to the best-seller lists. The theater mentioned, by the way, was the Jon Hassler Theater, where its namesake was a familiar presence. “He was always very supportive,” said one actor who performed in several adaptations of Hassler’s works. Hassler died at age 74.

76 - THE ATHLETES: PAT O’CONNOR

Publication date: March 2, 1967

Sixteen-year-old Pat O’Connor – the son of legendary Rochester boxing coach Jack O’Connor, the kid who had been boxing since he was two – fulfilled one of his first big boxing goals by winning the National Golden Gloves competition in the welterweight (147-pound) class, in an era when winning the Golden Gloves brought boxing glory. O’Connor turned pro soon after, and started his career with 31 consecutive victories, a record that carried the middleweight to a top-five ranking before a series of tough losses – and an admitted loss of interest in boxing – ended O’Connor’s career, which was capped by an induction in the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.

77 - THE ATHLETES: DARRELL THOMPSON

Publication date: April 23, 1990

The first and only Rochester athlete to be picked in the first round of the NFL draft, Darrell Thompson played alongside four Hall-of-Famers in a five year pro football career. In high school, he was recognized as a Gatorade All-American in football, and he went on to star for the University of Minnesota for four years. Post-football, Darrell is president of a Minnesota nonprofit, Bolder Options.

78 - THE ATHLETES: THE MILLER TWINS

Publication date: March 17-18, 1997

Mayo High School’s girls basketball team went through its 1996-97 season without once having the sour taste of defeat. The team was led by a matching pair of athletes – twins Kelly and Coco Miller – both of whom went on to play for the University of Georgia and in the WNBA. The “Miller twins,” as they were generally known, lost only 13 times in 137 high school games.

79 - MICHAELS CLOSES

Publication date: Jan. 1, 2015

It’s hard to believe it’s already been 10 years since Michaels closed its doors. The storied Rochester restaurant – the go-to for visiting celebrities – wrapped up its last to-go bag of garlic toast on New Year’s Eve 2014, ending a 63-year run. Development was soon expected at Michaels downtown site, but instead the building sat idle for 10 years until demolition began this month.

80 - MAY DAY STORM

Publication date: May 2, 2013

The Post Bulletin headline said it all: “Mayday: We’ve been hit.” More than a foot of snow covered southeastern Minnesota, including 15.4 inches recorded at Dodge Center, 13.5 inches in Kasson, 12.5 inches in Pine Island, and 10-plus inches in Rochester – filling up many a May Day basket.

81 - THURSDAYS ON FIRST

Publication date: July 29, 2005

What we know today as Thursdays Downtown got its start in 2004 under the leadership of a local business task force headed by Wayne Flock, and under a different name than the one we know today. Then, it was called the First Avenue Market and Summer Concert Series. Flock, an architect with HGA and president of the Downtown Business Association, started the Thursday events to get people enjoying downtown. And with crowds rising into the hundreds, “It’s going really well, better than we expected,” he said.

82 - CHATEAU THEATRE OPENS 

Publication date: Oct. 24, 1927

“The effect is that of being in the street of a French village of the Fourteenth Century.” So wrote the uncredited PB author in an architectural review introducing the new Chateau Dodge theater in downtown Rochester. Known today as the Chateau (maybe also known as a money pit), the theater was further described as the only one of its kind in the northwest. As the city looks for ways to reuse this historic building, it’s important to take note of the enthusiasm and admiration it once inspired.

83 - MUSIC MEMORIES: BON JOVI

Publication date: March 6-7, 1987

Bon Jovi was a big deal in the late 1980s. What musical artist today would inspire fans to line up outside the concert venue at 3 a.m. the day of the show? The then-biggest band in the world not only performed in Rochester’s Mayo Civic Center, its video for the song “Livin’ on a Prayer” was recorded there. Sixty-nine of the 7,000 concertgoers were treated for bumps, bruises, cuts and scrapes, bloody noses, hyperventilation and heat exhaustion. As reporter Tom Weber summed up in his review, “They got their money’s worth with Bon Jovi.”

84 - WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE

Publication date: March 25, 2015

One of the best-known paintings in the U.S., a version of “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” called southeastern Minnesota home for about seven years. It was the iconic piece on display at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, and one of three versions of the painting produced by the artist, Emanuel Leutze in 1851. One of those versions was destroyed in a fire, and the other one, a larger version of it, is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “People know this image … It is tucked deep inside our psyche,” said MMAM Executive Director Andrew Maus. The collector who owned the painting sold it in 2022 for $45 million … presumably to someone on the other side of the Mississippi.

85 - CALEDONIA FOOTBALL’S STREAK

Publication date: Nov. 23, 2019

Caledonia High School’s success in football was peerless through the latter half of the 2010s – not just in Minnesota, but nationally. The Warriors had won 67 straight games at the time that reporter Pat Ruff chose to spotlight their record of success. That was the longest active winning streak in the nation, covering five years. It included four straight – soon to be five straight – Class AA state championships. Ultimately, it took the pandemic to break the streak. Caledonia finally lost, 30-13, to Lake City, and the streak ended at 71 games.

86 - YMCA CLOSES

Publication date: Jan. 29, 2022

More than a building to work out in, it was a social fixture in many people’s lives. The Rochester YMCA fell victim to declining membership and lost revenues as shiny new fitness places opened elsewhere in the city. And so, the city lost an important gathering place for people of various ages and races that had served since the mid-1960s. The building closed for good on Jan. 31, 2022.

87 - APACHE MALL OPENS

May 13, 1967

Jan. 8, 1968

Oct. 14, 1969

It pains me to debunk an oft-repeated claim by our Answer Man, that the Apache Mall name is a reasonless cultural appropriation. There is a reason. The name is a clumsy amalgamation of the three corporate founders’ surnames – Anderson, Plank and Arnao. The “che” was added at the suggestion of an employee who was given a $25 savings bond as a reward. Cultural appropriation really came in at the 1968 groundbreaking event, where regular shovels were exchanged for “pickaxes resplendent with Indian feathers.” That couldn’t be done today. Things have changed. So, too, has the viability of shopping malls generally, but Rochester’s Apache seems to weather the losses of major retailers (Sears, Herberger’s) and smaller ones (most recently Forever 21) just fine.

88 - GALLERIA OPENS

Publication date: May 11, 1989

The opening of Apache Mall dragged the retail spotlight from downtown to the city’s edge. The $17 million development of Centerplace Galleria shopping center represented an effort to get back to the light. At its opening, the center had space for 60 stores and an upper-floor movie theater. Today, about half of the Galleria space has been given over to the University of Minnesota Rochester.

89 - JAIL RIOT

Publication date: Sept. 7, 2004

Inmates took over the Olmsted County jail for about seven hours on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, after some of them staged a sit-down protest over a double-bunking plan and others took advantage of the confusion to rush the control desk and chase three staff members out of the jail. In the riot, inmates soaked an electrical control panel and smashed fire sprinkler heads, furniture and glass. The expensive “brouhaha” – as Sheriff Steve Borchardt referred to it – was expected to lead to criminal charges.

90 - TROOPER CRASH KILLS TEEN

Publication date: May 20, 2024

An 18-year-old woman who was just weeks away from graduating high school was killed in a crash involving a Minnesota state trooper. The trooper, Shane Roper, now faces criminal charges including five felony counts of manslaughter, criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation. He has lost his job with the State Patrol. Evidence submitted in the case indicates that Roper was driving 83 mph at full throttle just 1.4 seconds before the impact with the other car, and that his lights and siren were not activated. Other evidence submitted in court showed that earlier in the day, Roper was driving 135 mph in response to a medical call, and his work record showed a long disciplinary history for reckless driving.

91 - OLMSTED BANK ROBBERY

Publication date: Dec. 4-6, 1926

In what was described at the time as “the first thrilling daylight robbery Rochester has ever experienced,” four armed men made off with $30,000 from the Olmsted County State Bank & Trust. They scuttled the city’s sense of being insulated from the gangster crime that plagued St. Paul and gave rise to the creation of the city’s first volunteer police force. Two patrolmen who responded to the bank alarm were shot, but recovered.

92. NEW RAILROAD OWNER

Publication date: Sept. 5, 2007

A change of ownership in the railroad line that crosses Rochester was hailed as a “new opportunity” for the city after years of legal – and sometimes rancorously personal – fighting with the previous owner over a proposal that portended a massive increase in train traffic just blocks away from the downtown core. Canadian Pacific purchased the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad in a $1.48 billion transaction. Officials’ hope for better relations with the new owners proved well-founded: The $6 billion coal train expansion that had been promised by DM&E never materialized.

93 - AMPI

Sept. 10, 1969

More than 75 milk producers were called to a meeting by the Rochester Dairy Cooperative to explain its reasons for merging and reorganizing with a much larger consortium – Associated Milk Producers Inc., or AMPI. In short, joining AMPI would give local producers greater bargaining power and better earning potential. By 2019, the struggling state of the U.S. dairy industry spelled demise for the AMPI cheese processing plant in Rochester and cost the city 75 jobs there.

94 - KEMPS

Publication date: June 14, 2014

“Rochester is very important in our past and for our future.” So said Kemps CEO Greg Kurr on the occasion of the company’s 100th anniversary nearly 11 years ago. At the time, the Kemps plant on North Broadway produced about 35 million gallons of ice cream per year. And a fluid plant on South Broadway put out about 32 million gallons of milk. The company then employed about 350 people in Rochester at the two plants. “That’s our home,” Kurr said.

95 - MAYO ONE

Publication date: Sept. 19, 1984

Rochester Magazine described Mayo Clinic’s well-equipped helicopter transport service as “a hospital at 130 mph.” The transport service extended Mayo’s potential emergency response radius by 200 miles, and what began in 1984 as a single chopper – and the first helicopter evacuation system mobilized by a hospital or health center in Minnesota – is now a fleet of four. Last year, Mayo replaced some of its aircraft state-of-the-art H145-D3 models, which fly smoother, more safely and quietly than the models they replaced. Look closely at the new models, and the tail numbers, 483, reference the four founders of Mayo Clinic and the tornado that led to its founding in 1883.

96 - IGOR’S NEW SHOES

Publication date: Oct. 19, 2012

If the shoe store is ever out of your size, don’t curse the inconvenience – think of Igor. That’s Igor Vovkovinskiy, America’s tallest man, who lived much of his life using just one pair of shoes. You don’t find many shoes in size 24, 10E. That is, until the Reebok shoe company made Rochester’s gentle giant three pairs of custom athletic shoes in a variety of colors. “This is the first time in my life that I have a choice in shoes,” he said. “It feels so good, like I’m walking on pillows or mattresses.” Igor, who came from Ukraine to Mayo Clinic for treatment in 1989, died in 2021.

97 - BIG ON BIG MACS

Publication date: Dec. 13, 2010

A St. Paul man reached the heights of what he believed to be a world record – unfortunately one he couldn’t verify because he didn’t keep all the receipts. But when Paul Dickison placed an order at his 15,000th McDonald’s restaurant, he reached the milestone number at one owned by his childhood friend Kay Butler and her husband Tom. It’s the McDonald’s in Zumbrota, just off the highway exit. Guinness didn’t come calling, but that’s fine. “It’s never been about proving it to anyone,” he said. “It’s just because I enjoy it.”

98 - DASHOW

Publication date: June 20, 2020

Two minutes and 42 seconds is all the time it took for a Rochester traffic stop to end in a fatality. So found a Post Bulletin investigation, using police-worn body cameras and squad-car cameras to examine an incident outside Cub Foods in southeast Rochester. Albert Dashow, 39, drove slowly away from a traffic stop before the officer was finished. When the officer tried to arrest Dashow, a physical struggle ensued, and moments later, it was over. The six officers involved in the stop and response were placed on paid leave but all returned to work a few weeks later.

99 - NEW PRESS FOR PB

Publication date: March 9, 1989

A two-story addition to the Post Bulletin building in downtown Rochester cost $1.6 million and added 18,900 square feet. But what was inside cost three times as much and improved the newspaper’s production capacity and quality tenfold. It was a new Goss Headliner Offset press, bought, disassembled, moved from Iowa and reassembled at the Post Bulletin. Maybe you watched it run through windows on the southeast corner of the building. The press – “old iron” as it was affectionately called – reached its 30th birthday in 2019 , still at the height of its powers. But by then, the final run was only months away, as the Post Bulletin gained new owners who did not opt to buy the printing press – or the building surrounding it. The press was a casualty of the building’s demolition the following year.

100 - BOUGHT BY FORUM

Publication date: May 16, 2019

From one family-owned company to another, the Post Bulletin was purchased by Forum Communications Inc., a property of the Marcil family of Fargo, North Dakota. The terms of the transaction were not announced. Forum is the third owner in the 100-year history of the Post Bulletin, following Small Newspaper Group (1977-2019) and the Withers family, which owned the newspaper from its formation in 1925 until 1977. The purchase resulted in changes for the Post Bulletin – a move from its downtown location to one in southwest Rochester, a shift in emphasis from print (still two editions per week) to online, and other changes. A change in ownership didn’t stop the newspaper from continuing to deliver quality to readers, as evidenced by two Vance Trophy wins (the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s annual award for the best daily newspaper in the state) since the time of the purchase. The Post Bulletin has won the Vance five times since 2018 and nine times overall since the award was established in 1985.