Aryn Henning Nichols

At age 105, Marjorie (Marge) Costigan is a real treasure for Elkader. You might think that Marge would live in a nursing home or assisted living facility. In fact, Marge lives in her own home near the Turkey River. She is a slight woman who walks around freely, is up-to-date on politics, reads, plays bridge, and entertains others. Marge even likes to make up fun little poems like the one in the last question below. Her children are all retired and able to visit often, and a niece in town is very good help to her. Most notably, she is people-oriented and fun to be around. Her friends consult her when they have questions about bridge rules or how to play a hand. She is one of few surviving World War II veterans, having served in the US Navy Reserve’s WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

What did you want to be and do when you grew up?

At first, I wanted to be a dancer. As I got older, I would have liked to have gone to law school.  But I was the youngest of four children, and it was during the Depression; so that was not possible. What I did do was teach school a year in Colesburg, Iowa, and a year in Northwood, Iowa. Then my sister Elizabeth and I thought our life was boring, so we decided to go out West. We moved to Tacoma, Washington, and I taught there for a year.

What other things have you done?

After teaching in Tacoma, my sister and I decided to join the service (the WAVES). I went to Hunter College in New York and then was sent to Milledgeville, Georgia, and from there to Pasco, Washington. It was about 30 miles from Hanford, where there was a nuclear production facility. There were big fences and wires where they had the plutonium.

What came next in your life?

In 1945, I married John Clark Costigan at the air base in Pasco, Washington. We returned to Elkader, and I have lived here ever since. Clark was a contractor, and we had four children. Heidi lives in Minneapolis; John lives in Florida; and Colleen lives in Seattle. Dan (Dino) divides his time between Washington state and Elkader. Clark and I traveled all over the world. We went to Europe, to Russia, to Morocco, and flew over the Himalayan Mountains. Our most exotic trip was to China; we went up the Yangtze River on a Chinese boat. Our last trip was to Australia.

What hobbies and interests do you enjoy at this point in your life?

My big interest is in the Carter House Museum in Elkader. I go there on Thursdays in good weather and help maintain the museum and work on displays. I have done research with David Beck of Elkader and wrote up a history of the house. I have a Kindle and read books on it and also listen to books provided by the Iowa Commission for the Blind. All my life I have read the newspaper while having my morning coffee. I like to play bridge and go out for pizza on Friday night. In the past I loved playing golf. I am interested in the history of religion.

What is the best advice anyone every gave you?

My mother always said, “This too shall pass.” That has helped me get through difficult times. I was born in 1919, when the flu was rampant, and I have lived through the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and World War II.

Describe yourself in one or two sentences:

“I’m weary, I’m old, and my feet are cold. I’m ready to fold.” I’m a realist and a people person.

Spring Grove has a vibrancy that’s easy to see but kind of hard to explain. With a population of about 1,200, the Southeast Minnesota town is not an industrial center, and not on a major highway. Yet it has an amazing energy and spirit, consistently outperforming its modest town motto: “Pretty. Neat. Small Town.”

“We gotta fight a little bit harder to get people to come to our town,” says Patrick Longmire Jr., co-owner of Fat Pat’s Brewery, which opened in a freshly renovated space on Spring Grove’s Main Street in 2024. “You see so many people that wanna see this town succeed in many different ways. There’s not one person that is able to make it happen on their own. It literally takes the entire town.” 

Indeed, Spring Grove folks have come together to foster innovation across the community. Main Street is home to a cinema, an art gallery, a craft distillery, a microbrewery, an opera house, and more. Spring Grove Soda Pop has been bottling beverages for 125 years. The Norwegian Ridge Birding and Nature Trails provide hikers and nature lovers paths to wander in peace. Annual events like Uff Da Fest in the fall and Syttende Mai (Norwegian Constitution Day, which is just around the corner, May 14–18, 2025), bring people together to celebrate the town’s heritage. There’s even a town-wide “Homecoming” event every 10 years, which has been going strong for 100 years. And on top of all that, there’s a full-service grocery store, a medical clinic, great K-12 schools, and a popular swim center.

Is there something in the water?

“I’ve been on road trips around the country,” says Joseph Grodahl, executive director of Spring Grove’s Giants of the Earth Heritage Center. “I’ve been to 49 states and through a lot of small towns. It is not common to have a town of its size have the kind of vitality that Spring Grove has.”

Community Anchors: ‘Connection &  Rootedness’

David Storlie has lived in Spring Grove since he was just two years old. His wife, Rachel, grew up nearby in Caledonia, Minnesota, so they both understand that small town commitment.

“We’ve got a lot of friends that say, ‘Wow, when we moved to Spring Grove, we ended up being busier than we even were living in a city,’” says Rachel. “So, I think that’s kind of the exciting, but also kind of exhausting part of things.” 

David and Rachel have both served on many local committees and boards. Interested in music ever since he sang on Sundays at the vibrant downtown Lutheran church, David’s one of the main driving forces behind Ye Olde Opera House, a community theatre that puts on five or six shows per year. David has directed 65 of them. Rachel is also involved in the opera house, is a Spring Grove Chamber board member, and even did a stint on the city council.

“I’ve tried very hard not to get involved with anything other than the theater, but with Rachel in my life, it’s impossible,” David says with a laugh.

About 12 years ago, Rachel started volunteering at Giants of the Earth, where she continues to be a board member and volunteer outreach coordinator. 

Painted a cheerful, bright yellow, the poetically named Giants of the Earth Heritage Center occupies a fully renovated historic inn, now equipped with an elevator and a recording studio for preserving oral history. Incorporated in 2009 as a non-profit educational institution, it’s steeped in art and stories, with beautiful murals, gardens and outdoor seating, local history exhibits, and a Norwegian-themed gift shop. Giants of the Earth has been run solely by volunteers until Joseph Grodahl’s hiring as the organization’s first-ever executive director this spring – a milestone the board is extremely excited to have finally achieved.

Joseph, who recently moved to Spring Grove from the Twin Cities, connected with Giants of the Earth through his previous work as the programs and operations director for Minneapolis’s Norway House, which seeks to be a hub for Norwegian-American groups and cultivate ties with today’s Norway. 

As a self-proclaimed history buff, Joseph is in his element in Spring Grove. Many people throughout this region have strong historical connections to Spring Grove because of the role the town played in Norwegian immigration in the late 1800s, he explains. Spring Grove was “a portal community,” where immigrants could start their new lives in America. Typically, these immigrants would work on Spring Grove-area farms for a couple of years before moving on to other locations. Joseph’s own family members were early Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota as well, and he loved hearing old stories from his grandparents. 

“I’m deeply aware of the role and the importance of that intergenerational connection. That’s really a big part of the values of Giants of the Earth – and it spoke to me because it’s been a major part of making me who I am,” Joseph says. “That’s what Giants is about to me: a sense of connection and rootedness in a place and in a community and in stories there. Something we all universally need.”   

Something in the Water: Joyful Energy 

Just as Spring Grove maintains its deep roots, it also has always had a bent toward innovation.  

“It’s got an entrepreneurial spirit to it.

It’s got a risk-taking spirit to it,” Joseph says. “It feels like it has that American dream energy.”

One of the striking ways this entrepreneurial spirit has manifested itself is in the area of beverage production. As the town’s name indicates, Spring Grove was originally sited at a good water source. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the town is noted for good drinks, from Spring Grove Soda Pop, bottled in glass with old-fashioned flavors like lemon sour and cream soda, to RockFilter Distillery, which opened in 2017 in a former creamery, serving completely homegrown craft whiskey and bourbon. Literally, the ingredients are “planted, tended, milled, and distilled in Spring Grove.” They even serve some cocktails that mix in Spring Grove Soda to create drinks truly rooted in place.  

The most recent beverage newcomer is Fat Pat’s Brewery. Co-owner Patrick Longmire Jr. calls his family “technically transplants.” They moved to Spring Grove in 1989 when they bought the grocery store, Red’s IGA, named for Patrick’s father, Patrick “Red” Longmire Sr. The grocery store has offered local groceries and a community-caring spirit ever since.  

In Patrick Jr.’s early 20s, he decided to migrate south to Austin, Texas, to become a professional bass player. (He still performs with the La Crosse-based band El Caminos.) While touring around the Lonestar State, he fell in love with Texas-style BBQ and started experimenting with smoking ribs, pork butt, and brisket. He and his wife (Fat Pat’s co-owner and dessert chef), Jayme, returned to Spring Grave to raise their kids – and bring the Austin vibe to Southeast Minnesota. They started with a BBQ food truck in 2017.

“We got to see how a bigger city like Austin, Texas, works, all the awesome things that can happen in a town,” he says. “Fat Pat’s is us just bringing a taste of Austin to Spring Grove. We wanted to create something that you don’t see in a lot of rural America.”

Patrick’s vision for the microbrewery came about when he saw the success of RockFilter Distillery. He was looking to grow Fat Pat’s, and figured the town could grow their craft beverage tourism as well. “So, I dove in headfirst to learn how to brew,” he says. When the former auto garage building went up for sale, he took his chance. 

Patrick calls it a “pretty typical brewery restoration building,” with a look that’s “a little bit industrial” with an open-concept kitchen. But he acknowledges the wow factor for people who see it for the first time: “Anybody who comes through Spring Grove, they just can feel that presence of ‘holy crap, you don’t see this just anywhere.’” 

Opened in May 2024, the brewery has eight of their own microbrews, plus two guest taps. They offer burgers and wings every day, with Texas style BBQ on Fridays, and a broad array of “New York-Neapolitan-style” pizzas on weekends, made by co-owner Chelsea McManimon-Moe. 

A Caledonia native, Chelsea connected with Patrick a few years ago at a mutual friend’s bonfire. They share an artistic bent (Chelsea is a Viterbo theater grad) and are both inspired by how the Spring Grove community welcomes entrepreneurs and risk-takers. 

In the Spring Grove tradition of bringing something special and unique, Chelsea searched long and hard to find her perfect tool: a rotating-floor, wood-fired, gas-assist pizza oven, which allows her to flex the pizza-making chops she learned in Brooklyn, New York, and Silver Lake in Los Angeles. 

“I’ve always felt close to Spring Grove,” says Chelsea. “It’s the community. Across the board, everyone shows up for the people that are out there doing stuff. 

“Something I’m proud of here at Fat Pat’s is that we really do find joy in the work, and laugh – maybe more than we even should, because we get distracted,” she adds. “But that energy makes waves. People feel it and want to be a part of it. Everybody wants to feel they are a part of something and wants to feel seen.” 

The Arts, Creativity, & Collaboration

Besides good food and drink, the community supports the arts and other specialty businesses in a big way. 

Spring Grove Cinema was opened 15 years ago by the town’s telecommunications cooperative, Spring Grove Communications. The first company to provide all-fiber optic services to this area of Minnesota, Spring Grove Communications is a critical business and community asset. In January, the telecom sold the cinema to yet another entrepreneur, Luke Hall, who moved to Spring Grove from the Twin Cities a few years ago. Luke is expanding the cinema to include a versatile community gathering space, with room for games and e-sports, a coffee shop, and treats from the nearby Caledonia Bakery. They’ll be adding concerts, craft events, and other community activities, too, and screening both first-run and classic movies as well as film work of local students.  

Just down the street, Bluff Country Artist Gallery has connected Spring Grove to the regional arts community for close to 20 years. More than 75 professional artists who have ties to the Driftless Region display their original work there. 

“We have a rich history of producing musicians and artists, actors, historians, chefs,” says Lara Wold-Mendez, board president of the non-profit, member-supported gallery. “I couldn’t begin to tell you what ignited the love for arts here – it may go back to whomever first settled in this area. But the amazing thing is, the passion is still there. It’s remarkable and so lovely.”

When Laura Kubes moved with her family to the Spring Grove area to take over ownership of Hidden Springs Peony Farm, she noticed this same dynamic. 

“I think everyone gets the theory that when our town does well, our businesses do well and our people do well; we all need each other,” Laura says. “When we support each other, it makes us all succeed.” 

Hidden Springs Peony Farm features a glorious abundance (600 varieties) of the beloved flowering plant. The public is welcome to visit the peony fields in season (mid-May through June), to shop or to just admire the peonies’ many colors and scents. The farm offers select fruit trees and berries, and other perennials and shrubs as well. The farm also has a thriving online business of shipping bare root peonies, thanks to the excellent Internet service provided by Spring Grove Communications. 

Laura has found multiple creative ways to collaborate with fellow Spring Grove business owners. She made a peony simple syrup for a spring cocktail at RockFilter Distillery. Fat Pat’s serves BBQ when she holds events at the farm. She refers her farm visitors to nearby Big Raven Farm retreat center, where her peonies seasonally adorn the rooms. And she has new partnerships in the works for this year, including one with Gardner Farm, a local producer of chicken and eggs. “The collaboration possibilities are endless, and to me that’s a win-win situation,” Laura says. 

‘Building and Growing’

In this spirit of creativity and collaboration, even disaster can turn into opportunity. In December 2022, a devastating fire struck downtown Spring Grove, destroying Mulqueens Ace Hardware Store as well as six apartments. Today, blue birds adorn a wooden fence where the building once stood, symbolizing the community’s commitment to bringing the site back to life. 

“There are so many people that keep stuff like the brewery, the distillery, Spring Grove Pop, and the nature trail going, and keep stuff looking really nice,” says Patrick of Fat Pat’s. “Even the sad parts of town aren’t so sad, because you know that one day something’s gonna go in there.”

Everyone echoes this mindset of love, hope, and faith in Spring Grove. “It’s just a really clean, nice little town,” says Laura Kubes. “And I really do feel like it’s building and growing. We’ve had a couple of retirements, where there are some businesses that closed in the past few months. 

“But looking at that, it’s like okay, now what can this space be? Who has had in the back of their mind, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do that someday?’ And, now is their time.” 

Fungi are among the most widely distributed organisms on earth. Despite their importance to people and the environment, they are also among the least understood. Since the 1700s, any type of fungus, including yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms, was considered a mysterious member of the plant kingdom, somehow able to grow without light. By 1969, taxonomists (professionals who classify living organisms) assigned them to their own biological kingdom, the Fungi, after which they assumed their rightful place alongside the plant and animal kingdoms. 

Mycologists (profoundly patient people who study fungi) have identified more than 144,000 species of fungi. Found in nearly all terrestrial and aquatic habitats, they range in size from microscopic to “say what?” The world’s largest organism, a honey fungus, has spread across almost 2,000 acres of western Oregon. It is thought to be thousands of years old, a fungal Methuselah.

In terms of impact, fungi run the gamut from helpful to harmful. We wouldn’t have bread, wine, or beer if not for the fermentative magic of yeast. Penicillin, the world’s first and best-known antibiotic, is derived from Penicillium mold. Decomposers par excellence, fungi are vitally important for soil health.

On the flip side, plant rusts, identified by visible orange smudges on plant leaves and stems, cause billions of dollars of damage to crops annually. Since 1970, chytrid fungus, an infectious fungal disease in amphibians, has decimated tropical frog populations across the world, resulting in the extinction of some species. White nose syndrome, a disease that afflicts hibernating bats, is caused by a cave dwelling fungus. 

While most fungi exist in relative anonymity, mushrooms are a notable exception. Some have achieved near celebrity status as trendy food items: “The chef recommends the Shiitake sandwich.” “Would you prefer grilled portobellos instead?”

If there was a mushroom Hall of Fame, the original inductee would likely be the renowned morel. There isn’t another mushroom that generates as much excitement as this furtive fungus. Its mild, nutty taste certainly contributes to its popularity. But the clincher is the inability of anyone, even seasoned “shroom hunters,” to predict exactly when or where they will emerge.

Like robins and trilliums, morels are harbingers of spring. While relatively common in the Driftless Area, they can be notoriously difficult to find. Knowing when and where to look is critical to success.  

Morels emerge when the soil temperature reaches 50 to 60 degrees, typically late April to early May. A wet spring may increase their abundance. Woodland edges are typical habitat, especially those with dead or dying trees. Word spreads after the first morels are discovered, causing morel enthusiasts to drop what they’re doing and head to the woods. Once found, they are collected and consumed locally or are bundled and sold, often at farmer’s markets. Be careful, mushroom hunters – there are inedible look-alikes. Know before you pick.

The popularity of morels has spawned numerous attempts to grow them commercially. None were successful due to the mushroom’s enigmatic biology, making their mystique even more powerful. It’s clear the unassuming, rumple-headed mushroom has become a fungal luminary, shining a light on the fascinating world of fungus. Morel soup, anyone?