I noticed that, too!

I enjoyed reading the article about the stone arches and wall that stood amidst the weeds alongside Highway 52 in Inver Grove Heights for decades [“The Ruin,” September]. Growing up in the fifties and sixties, my family made a monthly pilgrimage to visit my grandmother on the shores of Lake Pepin. Sitting in the back seat of the car looking out the window, I’d see those lonely “ruins” go by and wonder what they were from. Neither Mom or Dad had any idea. As a young man I spent a few years in the Mediterranean area and often thought of the Inver Grove ruins when I passed some lone arch or pillar alongside a road, a similar forlorn remnant of bygone days. In time I returned to the Twin Cities, had a family, and pointed the Inver Grove ruins out to my children on the way to Lake Pepin. Of course, the passing of the Inver Grove ruins is no big deal–it was just a base for a billboard. But in a land bereft of real ruins it was all we had. Nice to know someone else besides me wondered about it, and cared enough to find out the story behind it.

Steven M. Hansen
Plymouth