Minnesota

Minnesota’s century-old popcorn stand marks 104 years in Granite Falls

Published

2 years ago

May 11, 2023

Minnesota’s century-old popcorn stand marks 104 years in Granite Falls

A summer staple in western Minnesota is now open for its 104th consecutive season. For more than a century, a popcorn stand in Granite Falls has brought smiles to the lives of its customers.

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. (FOX 9) – A summer staple in western Minnesota is now open for its 104th consecutive season. For more than a century, a popcorn stand in Granite Falls has brought smiles to the lives of its customers.

For decades, Granite Falls was known for the power plant just up the Minnesota River that produced electricity for western Minnesota. But when summer rolls around, nothing in town generates more excitement than the opening of the popcorn stand at the corner of 7th Avenue and Prentice Street.

“We get our share of anxiety when that time of year rolls around,” said Les Bergquist, the Granite Falls Popcorn Stand’s co-manager,

The stand has been popping for more than 100 years, from May Day to Labor Day. For a couple of hours every night, volunteers from the local Kiwanis Club serve up tub after tub of hot buttered popcorn to give customers a summertime snack.

“The opening day of the popcorn season in Granite Falls is almost like a national holiday. We’ve had people line up down the block here all the way down and yeah, it’s amazing,” said Les.

The stand itself is quite small, only 30 square feet. “We affectionately refer to it as a one-butt popcorn stand,” said Les.

But it has an oversized impact on the entire community and beyond. “This popcorn stand is an icon not only in Granite Falls but most of southwest Minnesota,” Les added.

The popcorn stand started as a mobile popcorn cart in 1919 by brothers Fred and Julius Ernstson, who owned a business transporting train passengers to the hotels downtown, as a way to contribute to the annual summer festival in Granite Falls. The brothers built the first permanent structure in the late ’20s, which lasted until 1969. Then Fred’s son, Burnett, constructed the current building, which was remodeled to look like a box of popcorn in the early 2000s.

“We would love to know the answer to who came up with that idea. We have searched and searched. We believe it was local contractors who built it, but we don’t know who came up with the idea for it to look like a box of popcorn,” said Les.

Now the familiar fixture is a hot spot on Main Street to make new memories or relive old ones. And for the people who live here to get their fill of the tasty treat. “I actually like it just plain. It’s so good just the way it is. I don’t get any butter on it. It doesn’t need it,” said Emily.

“We have people come from all over the place. We have people who come from the metro. We have people who come from South Dakota heading to their lake cabin on Friday in Minnesota and they’ll make a special trip through here,” said Les.

Any popcorn left over at the end of the night is used to feed the birds or the dogs, as the case may be. “We have the fattest sparrows in Granite Falls. A lot of it gets spilled around town at night,” Les added.

And whether butter or nostalgia is the essential ingredient, customers hope their summer staple keeps on popping for another century. “Hopefully. I won’t be here. You won’t be here, but let’s hope it continues. Hope the legacy will live on,” said Les.

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Minnesota

How to get tickets for Minnesota Vikings vs. LA Rams NFC Wild Card playoff game

Published

7 hours ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

How to get tickets for Minnesota Vikings vs. LA Rams NFC Wild Card playoff game

The final game of the NFL’s Wild Card weekend is set to take the Minnesota Vikings to LA to face the NFC West champion Rams Monday night at SoFi Stadium. The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET, and tickets are still available to catch the action live.

How to get Vikings vs. Rams NFC Wild Card tickets: Seats are available for the NFC Wild Card matchup between the Vikings and Rams on secondary sites Vivid Seats, StubHub, SeatGeek and Viagogo.

As of Jan. 9, the starting prices were as follows:

Vivid Seats starting at $87
StubHub starting at $92
SeatGeek starting at $92
Viagogo starting at $91

#5 Minnesota Vikings (14-3) at #4 Los Angeles Rams (10-7)

NFC Wild Card Playoffs

When: Monday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT)

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Calif.

The Vikings had a shot to win the NFC’s top seed in Week 18, but fell short against the Detroit Lions, losing the NFC North Division and slipping to the No. 5 spot instead for a road matchup on Wild Card weekend. They are listed as 1-point favorites against the Rams after finishing the regular season with a 14-3 record and nine straight wins prior to last weekend’s 31-9 loss in Detroit. Though all the ingredients are in place for the Vikings to make a run, just three of their 14 victories this season came against playoff teams and one of their three losses came to the Rams (30-20) back in Week 8.

Minnesota Vikings vs. Los Angeles Rams NFC Wild Card tickets: Vivid Seats | StubHub | SeatGeek | Viagogo

The Rams found their way through an injury-marred start to the season and closed it out strong with five straight wins before resting starters in a Week 18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks (30-25). The highlight of that stretch and their season as a whole was a 44-42 shootout win over the Buffalo Bills that was fueled by two Kyren Williams touchdown runs and a big day from the receiving duo of Puka Nacua (12-162-1) and Cooper Kupp (5-92-1). The same combination of playmakers around quarterback Matthew Stafford are central to LA’s path to victory against Minnesota.

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Minnesota

If Arizona hosts Los Angeles Rams vs Minnesota Vikings due to fires, it wouldn’t be a first

Published

15 hours ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

If Arizona hosts Los Angeles Rams vs Minnesota Vikings due to fires, it wouldn’t be a first

There could still be one more football game played in Arizona this season. On Wednesday, the NFL announced that it has a contingency plan to potentially move Monday night’s wild-card game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams to State Farm Stadium due to ongoing wildfires raging across Southern California.

For now, the league is preparing for the game to take place at SoFi Stadium, the Rams’ home in Inglewood. But if a change of location is deemed necessary, the Cardinals’ stadium in Glendale would play host, giving Arizona its first playoff game — excluding Super Bowls — since the 2015 divisional round.

It would, however, not be the first time that NFL teams have had to move to Arizona. Here are the other times that similar moves have occurred:

2020: San Francisco 49ers

Due to the spread of COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, Santa Clara County briefly banned all contact sports. That forced the San Francisco 49ers to play three home games at State Farm Stadium. The team used fields near the stadium as its practice facility and stayed at the Renaissance Phoenix Glendale Hotel and Spa across the street.

2007: San Diego Chargers

It would not be unprecedented if the Rams had to make Arizona home due to fires. The then-San Diego Chargers practiced at the Cardinals’ Tempe facility for three days in 2007 due to the Witch Creek Fire, which forced 40 members of the organization to evacuate their homes. The team returned to San Diego for their game that Sunday, defeating the Houston Texans.

2003: San Diego Chargers

Four years earlier, the Chargers had a Monday Night Football game against the Dolphins moved to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. Again, the move was due to fires in Southern California, which caused poor air quality. The Chargers’ home field, Qualcomm Stadium, was also used as an evacuation center during the fires. Both teams flew to Arizona on game day for a game Miami won, 26-10. The NFL distributed 73,104 free tickets to the game.

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Minnesota

Boston Fleet fall to Minnesota Frost in overtime

Published

23 hours ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

Boston Fleet fall to Minnesota Frost in overtime

Taylor Heise scored the overtime winner to lift the Minnesota Frost to a 2-1 victory over the Boston Fleet on Wednesday night

The win is the Frost’s third in as many games this season against the Fleet, and the second in seven days by an overtime finish. Hannah Bilka scored early on for the Fleet, making this the first time Boston has opened the scoring against Minnesota this season.

Later in the first period, Denisa Křížová scored her first goal of the campaign, tying the game at one and ending the game’s regulation scoring. Heise’s winner came at 3:20 of the extra frame on Minnesota’s first shot of overtime on Emma Söderberg, who stopped 24 shots throughout regulation. Maddie Rooney picked up her fourth win of the season with a 26-save performance.

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