Roots & Riddles

What if one bridge became so notorious that a newspaper devoted an entire article to its unbelievable history?

In 1894, The Lanesboro Journal called the railroad bridge on the east edge of town “A Scene of Famous Accidents.” The stories sound almost impossible to believe: a caboose hurled from the trestle with every passenger surviving, a young couple hanging beneath the bridge as a speeding train passed overhead, a woman forced to leap twenty feet to save her life, and horses outrunning—or even jumping from—the bridge only to walk away unharmed.

Were these stories exaggerated over time, or did one small bridge truly earn a reputation unlike any other in Minnesota?

Join Preston and Lenora as they uncover the remarkable history of Lanesboro’s most infamous railroad bridge and the extraordinary accidents that made it a local legend.

A head injury. A brand-new automobile. A trail that suddenly goes cold.

In March 1928, 37-year-old Mabel farmer Harry Goelberg set out to buy a new car in La Crosse. Along the way, he was involved in two automobile accidents, traveled more than 150 unexplained miles, and was last seen walking along a road between Lewiston and Stockton.

Then… he vanished.

For weeks, family, friends, law enforcement, and newspapers searched for answers. Some believed a blow to the head had left Harry confused and wandering. Others struggled to explain his strange behavior in the days leading up to his disappearance—including an unusual confrontation over a slot machine in downtown Mabel.

What really happened during Harry Goelberg’s final days? And why did one of Fillmore County’s most puzzling missing person cases end not with answers, but with even more questions?

Join Preston and Lenora as they retrace Harry’s final journey through Mabel, La Crosse, Winona, and Lake Pepin in search of the truth behind a mystery that has endured for nearly a century.

How does a young woman simply disappear… and almost no one remembers?

This week on Roots & Riddles, Preston and Lenora investigate one of Fillmore County’s oldest unsolved mysteries: Matilda McQuillan.

Census records prove she was living with her family near Hamilton through 1865. By 1870, she was gone.

Later family traditions claimed she had been kidnapped by Native Americans, but the surviving accounts don’t all agree—and no contemporary record has yet been found to confirm what happened.

Together, we’ll follow the paper trail through census records, family letters, local histories, and the turbulent years following the Dakota War to separate documented fact from generations of family lore.

Was Matilda kidnapped? Did she marry and disappear under a new name? Did tragedy strike on the Minnesota frontier? Or is the truth still waiting to be uncovered?

More than 160 years later, one question remains:

What happened to Matilda McQuillan?

What do rattlesnakes, moonshine, and an early Fillmore County settlement have in common?

This week, we’re traveling back to 1856 to the forgotten community of Choice in Preble Township, where one ambitious settler claimed to have discovered the cure for rattlesnake bites. Business boomed—until federal officers arrived to investigate.

What they uncovered sparked one of Fillmore County’s most entertaining frontier tales, complete with a hidden operation, a colorful raid, and an ending that’s almost too good to be true.

Whether this story is fact, folklore, or somewhere in between, it has been preserved in History of Fillmore County (1882) for nearly 150 years—and it’s one you won’t want to miss.

What did the Fourth of July look like in Fillmore County 150 years ago?

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, we’re stepping back to 1876—the nation’s Centennial—to uncover how communities across Fillmore County celebrated one of the biggest holidays in their history.

Using newspaper accounts, advertisements, and firsthand descriptions from Preston, Spring Valley, Chatfield, Lanesboro, Rushford, and beyond, we’ll explore midnight bell ringing, brass bands, horse races, baseball games, balloon launches, fireworks, dancing until sunrise, and the patriotic spirit that united a county just 23 years old.

Along the way, we’ll place these celebrations in historical context, examining what life was like for the immigrants, Civil War veterans, and pioneer families who called Fillmore County home during this remarkable year.

Join us for a journey back to the summer of 1876—and discover how past residents celebrated America’s first 100 years.

In January 1901, a routine stagecoach run into Preston nearly ended in tragedy.

As the Preston–Isinours stage approached town on Engle Hill, a loose piece of paper spooked the horses. Within moments, the team bolted, the driver was thrown from his seat, and the coach overturned as it raced down the hillside. Miraculously, no one was killed—but the accident left behind a dramatic newspaper account and a glimpse into the challenges of travel in Fillmore County at the turn of the twentieth century.

In this episode of Roots & Riddles, we follow the forgotten story of Preston’s stagecoach scare, explore the history of stage travel in southeastern Minnesota, and uncover what happened on that windy January afternoon when disaster came frighteningly close.

For nearly a decade, Fillmore County farmers believed they had discovered the future of Minnesota agriculture: Early Amber Sugar Cane. Newspapers praised it, county fairs awarded premiums for it, local mills were built to process it, and hundreds of acres were planted across the county.

In this episode of Roots & Riddles, we uncover the forgotten story of Minnesota’s sugar boom. From towering 16-foot stalks grown in Jordan Township to sugar mills near Spring Valley, amber cane promised farmers a sweet fortune. But despite the excitement, the industry vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

What happened to Fillmore County’s sugar fields? And why did a crop once hailed as “The Great Sugar Producer of the North” disappear from our landscape?

Join us as we explore one of the sweetest—and most overlooked—chapters in local history.

On September 21, 1894, an F4 tornado tore through the north side of Spring Valley, Minnesota — killing residents, flattening homes, and leaving parts of the town in ruins. In this episode of Roots & Riddles, Preston and Lenora uncover the terrifying story of the cyclone that changed Spring Valley forever.

Using firsthand newspaper accounts, survivor stories, and historical records, we explore the chaos of that night: homes blown apart, debris driven through walls, mysterious “balls of fire” seen before the storm, and the strange aftermath that drew sightseers from across the region.

From heartbreaking losses to unbelievable tales of survival, this is the story of one of Fillmore County’s deadliest disasters.

In 1922, a bizarre and disturbing crime shook the Mabel area of Fillmore County. Former marshal Arch Gordon discovered that several of his cows had been poisoned after eating ears of corn that had been hollowed out and filled with Paris green — a deadly poison commonly used at the time as an insecticide.

As rumors spread through the community, bloodhounds were brought in from Waterloo, Iowa, and investigators followed a trail of threats, grudges, and suspicious evidence. Before long, local man Dave Coonradt found himself at the center of one of southeastern Minnesota’s strangest criminal investigations.

In this episode of Roots & Riddles, we explore the shocking cattle poisoning case that horrified rural Minnesota, the newspaper coverage that fueled public outrage, and the revenge-driven mystery that still feels stranger than fiction more than a century later.

In the spring of 1940, a gang of safecrackers armed with acetylene torches swept across southern Minnesota and northern Iowa — leaving behind burned vaults, stolen cash, and nervous communities. One of their boldest crimes happened in the heart of Spring Valley, when burglars broke into the local post office under cover of darkness and torched their way through two steel vault doors.

In this episode of Roots & Riddles, we follow the trail of the so-called “Torch Gang,” explore the regional crime spree tied to Lanesboro, Caledonia, and beyond, and uncover the story of James Burl Johnson — the ex-con eventually connected to the robberies. From stolen welding equipment to late-night break-ins and dramatic newspaper headlines, this forgotten case reads like something out of a noir crime film.