Sinclair Lewis' Minnesota: A State of Mind; 4; Sinclair Lewis's Other Main Street: Mankato

When you've been wandering the world very. Easy. The only thing you've lived in the soda can be your home in Minnesota or will you feel a little bit. With. The sink lads they call a broadcasting service under a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting present center Lois's minutes out state of mind. You can't escape here is I know you can't escape your time as your person with my. This is was written by Dr. James Lundquist native Minnesotan and author of

several articles and a book on Sinclair Lois. When most people think of Sinclair Lois they think of his most famous novel Main Street and when they think of Main Street they inevitably think of Sauk Center the town which is usually accepted as the model of Lewis's fictional Gopher Prairie. But Lewis's version of small town life was also based on his observations of many other municipalities. Among them men Cato in some ways men Cato was a better city to look at in terms of Lois's statement about a Minnesota town than a stock center for man who has grown in the way Lewis predicted Gopher Prairie grow somethings Oksana has not done. So here with Sinclair Lewis his other main street Cato is our narrator Leslie Davis. One of the often overlooked facts connected with the writing of Sinclair Lewis is Main Street

is that Lewis spent much of the summer of 1990 working on the book in man Cato where he took a three month lease on an old brick house at 3:15 Broad Street while in man Cato Lucas wore a monocle to the great amusement of the local citizens took his wife and their small child for picnics and swims at Madison lake and amused himself by drinking with the Chatauqua lecturers. His work however came first and he rented the back room of a photographer's studio and there looking over the railroad yards wrote portions of Main Street. Being the observer he was Lewis could not help putting at least some of man Cato into his book and he pointedly mentions that his heroine Carol Kennicott grew up in man Cato where her father was a judge. Lewis emphasizes that men Cato is not a prairie town but in its garden sheltered streets and aisles of elms is white and green New England reborn. But when we visited man Cato we discovered some things that reminded us of over prairie especially the picture of

Gopher Prairie that developed late in the book. A picture that Carol kind of cut could remind you of better than I could. I'm Carol Kennicott. You remember me I hope I told you my story a while ago about how I married Will Kennicott and came to Gopher Prairie and all the trouble I had in accepting small town life. I became an authority on the small town as a result of my experiences and now I've been asked to tell you about how the citizens of Gopher Prairie one day got tired of their town and themselves or at least decided that it was time they did something to build the town up. It was back in 1989 I believe or just after the war ended the town was booming because of the war price of wheat. Don't think for one minute however that's a wheat money remained in the pockets of the farmers. The towns existed to take care of all that I were farmers were selling their land at $400 an acre and coming into

Minnesota. But whoever bought or sold or mortgaged the townspeople invited themselves to the feast. Miller's real estate men lawyers merchants and I have to admit my own husband Dr. Will Kennicott was in on some of the wheeling and dealing. They bought land at one hundred fifty sold it the next day at one hundred seventy five and bought it again in three months. My husband made $7000 which was rather more than four times as much as society paid him for healing the sick. Anyway in the early summer of that year a campaign of boosting began the Commercial Club decided that Gopher Prairie was not only a weak center but also the perfect site for factories. Summer cottages and state institutions in charge of the campaign with Mr James Blauser you heard of him I think who had recently come to town to

speculate in land. He liked to be called honest Jim and he was a layer on of hands. That is he never came to the house to see my husband without trying to palm me. He had a hand like a damp piece of white fish. But he used words that were soon being heard nearly everywhere in town. Words like Pep punch go bigger enterprise red blood he man fair women Gods country. James J Hale the blue sky the green fields the bountiful harvest increasing population fair return on investments alien agitators who threaten the security of our institutions the hearthstone the foundation of the state senator can you now listen 100 percent Americanism and pointing with pride. Honest Jim and the Commercial Club. We're going to turn Gopher Prairie into a Midwestern Garden of Eden and the whole thing seemed perfectly absurd to me.

It didn't to my husband and we argued about it believe me. And now when browser comes along and does stir up excitement and beautified of the town like I've always wanted somebody to write essays a roughneck and you won't jump on the bandwagon bandwagon. That's the word that's all honest Jim has done. Reorganize the band and convince the Commercial Club to provide those awful purple and gold uniform that's just a good means of publicity publicity that efficient and modern variety of Fame. I suppose hiring a professional pitcher from Des Moines for our amateur baseball team and then scheduling games with every town for fifty miles about is also published city. Now carry would you like to go to the games. Remember all the fun we had going to sink cloud in the caravan with the rest of the routers. I was embarrassed to death if you want to know the truth. Riding into St. Cloud with those silly banners all over our car. Watch Gopher Prairie grow and that other one smile smile smile well if we had a bigger car we

might have gotten one of them bigger banners like. We've got the team we've got the steam Gopher Prairie he's got a dream. Thank heaven we don't have a big car and you can't deny that I boost and hasn't done some good. Industry has been set up and go for perhaps some industry a factory to produce wooden automobile wheels they say there's a chance we might get another factory cream separator works. Why not a light bulb factory since we acquired the glory of glories the white way along Main Street. We might as well keep the light bulb money in town. Well you've got to admit it's got the town lit up like Broadway. Sure and to quote honest Jim. Come on you Twin Cities are had it in the ring. If you ask me. Our hats are to be traded in for larger ones because swollen heads are becoming a common ailment in this town. Or haven't you noticed doctor trying to argue with you is like. Well I don't know what but I've had enough and I'm going back to the office.

That was just one of our arguments and like most it was not very serious. But I learned a lot during the boost Gopher Prairie campaign. The Commercial Club issued a booklet prepared by a great inexpensive literary person from a Minneapolis advertising agency. A red headed young man who smoked cigarettes in the long amber holder. I read the booklet with a certain wonder and learned that clover and M. ashy lakes were world famed for their beauteous wooded shores and gamey pike and bass not to be equalled elsewhere in the entire country that that the residences of Gopher Prairie were models of dignity comfort and culture with lawns and gardens known far and wide that the Gopher Prairie schools and public library were celebrated throughout the state that the Gopher Prairie Mills made the best flour in the country that the surrounding farm lands were renowned wherever men ate bread and butter for their incomparable number one hard wage and

Holstein for Asian cattle and that the stores in Gopher Prairie compared favorably with Minneapolis and Chicago and their abundance of luxuries and necessities and the ever courteous attention of the skilled clerks. I learned to be brief that Gopher Prairie was the one logical location for factories and wholesale houses. And I decided that there's where I want to go to that model town to that Gopher Prairie. But where is it. Where does it exist. I wish I knew. The Brewster syndrome that Carol has described for us seems to be a pervasive one in the Middle West and perhaps pervades the entire country. A visit to the Chamber of Commerce office and the city of 10000 population or over well expose the would be industrialist or the common tourist to a form of

literature in which the language of honest Jim wild toned down still lives in this literature you could read about ideal cities that have real names and become acquainted with the geography of utopia. The psychology of boosterism is a double edged phenomenon. On one side is the suspicion that the town which is being boosted is indeed in dire need of boosting that it ought to be changed in drastic ways that it needs new businesses and new blood in the population yet paradoxically the publication's concocted to boost the city and achieve change. I stress that the city as it is has attained such a state of perfection that it is indeed the most have a bald spot on earth already. The psychology of boosterism also has some things in common with the religious revival. The process of talking about the virtues of a city seems to have an inspirational influence on all concerned and Chamber of Commerce or Commercial Club meetings. As Sinclair Lewis has shown often take on a distinctly evangelical

cast. Whatever the psychology involved in boosterism the procedure of renewal through a program of urban salesmanship seems to be a necessary prelude to revitalization for the city and Kate it was a case in point early in the 1960s when Caitlin's became a little concerned with the city's image. About the only thing that set Ben Kaito off from dozens of other small cities in the Middle West is a footnote in history and a grisly footnote at that. As any schoolboy could tell you most people are familiar with the famous story of the Sioux Indian insurrection when hundreds of early Minnesota settlers were killed. The defeat and capture of the Sioux resulted in 300 Indians being condemned to death in 1852. Although President Lincoln pardoned the majority of the condemned Indians thirty eight were hanged from a mass Gallow the day after Christmas in 1862 the execution marks the final event of the Sioux war and gave man Cato its place in American history.

But such a place in American history could hardly be called a distinguished one and certain man Cato citizens thought that something ought to be done because even in 1964 a man Cato appeared to be a tired city. More than one visitor and even some of the local citizens were saying things like this man Cato is like an old clack an old grandfather clock that is gradually gradually run and never stopped taking. But then you never know it might stop at any minute. Although men Cato residents weren't really sure just what the old town needed. They all agreed that it needed something an agreement that has been in effect almost since the earliest days of man Cato's history as any history professor could tell you. If there is one phrase that would characterize man Cato story it would be the phrase never a boom never a depression. The

first entrepreneur in the main kiddo area was a Frenchmen Pierre childless or made his first visit in sixteen eighty three. The local Indians being cordial fellows showed us or some of the blue and greenish clay they had taken from the banks of the blue earth river. I thought it looked as if it had copper in it. He took it back to France one of the king's men looked at it and said Oh yes you have in this high copper content. King told us or to return to the blue earth river and open a copper mine there. Unfortunately Le Soir ship was captured he was thrown into prison in England and it wasn't until 17:00 that he was able to open his copper mine after suffering through a cold winter. A party of French men began their mining operations and LA bori a sleigh loaded forty thousand pounds of the clay onto a barge and floated it back to New Orleans

where unfortunately they learned that the clay contained no copper at all but at least it seemed some of the country the actual settling of man Cato took place in the early 1850s when two men P. K. Johnson and Henry Jackson came out from St. Paul to find a likely place to prosper over the objection of the Indian chief names. Sleepy Eyes who did not like the idea of white men taking over the Indian best hunting ground especially without pain Ford Johnson and Jackson picked the present side of man Cato because it looked like a good place for a town. The Indians became disgruntled however and in the 1860s attempted to persuade the settlers to leave hundreds of white men were killed in vicious battles were fought it for Gridley no Wollmann birth coolie. The Indians were defeated and surrendered near Montevideo

Indian prisoners were brought to men Kyoto for the infamous mass execution but by the 1870s the community had a population of four thousand five hundred and was thriving as a river criminal for traffic from St. Anthony St. Paul road soon followed and when Kato became a commercial center for a largely agricultural economy its development was a measured one with a few small but sound industries thriving in the community but in no sense could man Cato have been called a city on the move. In 1964 a man named Red Skillman then Chamber of Commerce manager and then Cato decided it was time to start an overhaul job. He suggested a reorganization of the chamber and the formation of a community development plan patterned after the United States chamber self-help program. Frank battles are Zach order of guaranteed gravel and sand company and man kettle was asked to

investigate and organize the new community development program. Zach and several other businessmen decided that a separate organization was needed apart from the chamber to rally support from a greater number of individuals. The result was the formation of an organization called act short for active community thought. A study committee was formed in February 1965 to attend an intensive course on the details of the US chambers community development plan. We had to know the fundamentals since many of us were not familiar with the basics of community development explained out of the study group came a steering committee charged with compiling a list of needs for the improvement of man Cato. The committee selected 104 study areas. Then on September 15 1965 a town meeting rally was held to explain the act program. More than 1000 citizens attended the meeting. We knew that somehow men Cato just wasn't coming to grips with its potential. And we set out to

do something about it Zach said. So act came up with a 12 point priority program listed as follows in order of importance one urban renewal to revitalization of downtown. Three sewers drainage and pollution four airports five long range planning six flood control and seven interest city cooperation 8 and industrial development park nine to 10 Civic Center and auditorium 11 Parks and Recreation and 12 tourism. After act was formed some movement did begin in man Cato. A bond issue was passed for a new vocational technical school authorization for a 2.6 million dollar airport was obtained. A million dollar downtown parking ramp with room for three hundred eighty seven cars was completed along with a million dollar water treatment plant then two new fire stations. The city also has authorized an architect to start plans for re modeling the city hall and

plans are underway for a new zoo at Sibley Park. A consulting firm has been hired to plan a downtown renewal program for Housing and Development Authority has been operating in Mankato for the past several years. An industrial park with 80 to 120 acres is in the works. Three hundred thousand square foot shopping center called Madison East with an enclosed mall has been completed on the east edge of the city and this list goes on and on. Acta seems to be one booster campaign that has produced considerable results. But the economic renovation has not so far been overwhelming. We asked the Chamber of Commerce executive Thomas Walker whether the campaign has succeeded in luring new industry demand Kaito. It's difficult to say whether or not we're going to crack off any big ones. We have to and we're working hard on improving our industrial development program. There are a lot of things were turning around for example. We are in the midst of completing research

so we have the facts and figures necessary. We do have some parties private parties that is which hope to develop land for industrial use. We're also looking forward to some type of either broad based industrial corporation or publicly owned industrial development part. Whether this will bring any one large industry or perhaps several small and medium sized ones we don't really know. But we have to look at what types of businesses can best exist here and make a profit. A lot of this of course again is based on agriculture but also on existing industries and services here where are beginning to develop somewhat of a plastic pace with Atlas plastics. There are a back which is part of the chaotic boat complex which is going into plastics and types of plastics for various types of watercraft. And they're now getting into the mobile home business and making bodies for other types of sports equipment. I really think we're going to see a continued growth in this area. Plus many others.

What growth man Cato has achieved and it has been substantial has been in the face of a conservative tradition that is one of the strongest in Minnesota. This is a tradition that Sinclair Lewis devoted much attention to and Main Street and what ultimately kills off the boosterism of Gopher Prairie is the fear of basic social change that updating of the town would bring. The word conservative is one we heard most often on our visit to man Cato and it was a large pond for us by PROFESSOR EARL Wigley Mankato State College Professor Wigley has taught the Minnesota history course of Mankato State for many years. The office really I think is rather characteristic of the whole valley. To the altar. We have a little wrangle going right here which. I think reflects a personality. But I think the conservative.

Has a long history because back to early day because most of the people that came over. And they were. Much for anybody else. And they were the recent Republican persuasion Republican Party 54 people. Settling in 52. Conservative and then we had. Such a strong flavor to our side. Through the Wall Street sperm bank you know. They join the Republican Party. Some because of their opposition to slavery. Some of. The Republicans were smart enough to put the right kind of they don't you know free life with. Them

but they were conservative. And I think we still are. And a Professor Wigley final pronouncement that man Cato wins are still mainly of the conservative persuasion. Most men Cato state college students would say. We asked one student whom we encountered working at a Clark station in man Cato whether he thought there is a strong conservative element in man Cato that's willing to leave the town as it has been rather than accepting the changes that are taking place. Stalin can. Do it in Canada for Christmas. Yeah you never get. Them. I still think you know some people. I'm here. Because of people like you. People come in for gas and they think the Macalister and they react to me. So we asked Professor Wigley whether he thought that over the past 10 to 20 years there has been an erosion of the area's indigenous conservatism.

I get the impression of college. And where you see. Let's face it the liberal conservative. And. More. Times when I think yes. But. When I want to particularly lower life. Seems to me that by the time police promises release. Gets more. That's a concern. That's probably the ambitious plans of act and the traditionally strong conservatism of man Cato made for a volatile situation in the city and the political climate of man Cato was one of the most intensive in Minnesota. Words like

establishment and Radical have unusually painful connotations in man Cato the city has shifted to a council city manager form of government and this has necessitated a restructuring of political thinking a process not relished by all the city manager named William Bassett sees the changes taking place in local government as one of the most important factors in man Cato's future. Thanks. Major problems is just reorganizing local government here along with more efficient lines for many years we've been going along with a fairly outdated organizational arrangement. We're starting to make some changes and I think I think this is going to be one step in the right direction for all the steps meant Katowice taken in the right direction. The city retains certain resemblance is to Sinclair Lewis is Gopher Prairie the boosterism the conservative progressive struggle that is characteristic of Gopher Prairie is

writ large and then Cato. Such a finding is by no means a condemnation of man Cato indeed and Cato seems to be a vital place because of what act in the Chamber of Commerce the influence of Mankato State College and even the foot dragging of the Conservative Citizens. Add up to a flavor that is distinct and in many ways representative of what is best in the American heartland. It meant Cato as in Gopher Prairie. You can find a hopeful vision of the future mingled with civic pride and a love for things as they have been a combination of elements perhaps unique to American culture and in man Cato. You can also find it Sinclair Lewis's understanding of the Minnesota mind is still very yeah. Lewis knew a small town perhaps better than any other American writer but he knew his cities too. As we shall see next time when he examines some of his most

relevant work his commentary on the urban environment in Minnesota. You have been listening to Sen. Claire Lois's Minnesota a state of mind. This 12 program series has been produced by the same cloud broadcasting service under a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To expose. The not mess with. You speak with we can see you and you cannot hide. Confessing. Sinclair you assume when we. Run with. That and. I say.

This. One. This series was written by Dr James Blunt Quist of the St. Cloud State College Department of English. A music composed and performed by Lol psyche. This program was produced and directed by James S. Taylor executive producer Scott for. ME AS. You. Know. The part of Sinclair Lois Mr. Sugar. Mr. Bassett and other characters were played by members of the same club State College Department of theater. This is the national

educational radio network.