Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/704

 CHAPTER XXXII. RED WING INDUSTRIES. Busy Manufacturing Plants that Furnish the Foundation for Red Wing's Prosperity — Pottery and Sewer Pipe Making — Malt- ing Houses — Shoes and Shoe Pacs — Hats — Furniture — Iron Works — Advertising Novelties — Lighting Facilities — Milling Concerns — Lime Burning — Linseed Products — Sand — Tele- phones — Job Printing — Utilizing the Forests — Brick Making — Other Concerns — Edited by Jens K. Grondahl. In the course of a generation the city of Red Wing has changed from the Largest primary wheal markel of the world to the mosl important manufacturing city of its size in the Union. The transition has come about through changing conditions, which have gradually closed the old avenues of prosperity and opened new ones. In the early history of Red Wing wheat often came a three days' journey to find a market, the nearest compet- ing point, to the south, being McGregor, Iowa. The wealth of golden grain which for years poured into the city made Red Wing the busiest place in the Northwest, and laid the founda- tion for many modest fortunes. But any community which de- pends upon resources which can be diverted or exhausted must in time face the serious problem of maintaining its position, not to mention further progress. Railroads have constantly reduced the natural territory of the agricultural town and the depletion of forests the lumber towns. Red Wing, partaking of the charac- teristics of both, has not been the exception. Time came when the tremendous wheat area tributary to Red AVing had been reduced to its own immediate surroundings, and when the traf- fic in wood and lumber diminished to small proportions. The city stopped in its growth, even went backward a few steps for three or four years, and the future looked dubious, indeed. Many buildings were vacant, public improvements lagged, and people were moving to other towns. Fortunately for Red Wing, there were forces at work, and had been for some years, modestly and hopefully, in spite of many discouragements, shaping for her a destiny of which the most sanguine had never dreamed. Men of 616