HEART OF STEELE

Visiting with Blooming Prairie librarian and local historian Nancy Vaillancourt always makes for a fun conversation.

I’ve long been fascinated by the way history shapes a community, how neighborhoods and business districts develop and evolve over the years. There’s also something to be learned, I think, by taking a look at how state and national happenings affect local politics and social development.

And then there’s history that’s just plain fun.

This time of year always gets me thinking about the ghostly tales that make up the fabric of local lore. I’ve gone on many a haunted cemetery tour and once sat in a car that rolled up an allegedly haunted hill.

(I later learned this “gravity hill” phenomenon is caused by a condition where a downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope and was thoroughly disappointed to find my eerie ride was just an optical illusion.)

But I also can’t deny my own experiences: After deliberately avoiding a certain well-traveled road, learning that several people had died in accidents there. Feeling a cold draft while walking through a 150-year-old house whose owner died in a tragic accident. Seeing the shimmer of a ghost in a photo taken by a friend.

Nancy will share the “Haunted Steele” stories she has collected over the years in an upcoming presentation offered through Owatonna Community Education. You’ll find details elsewhere in this edition of the Times.

While her historical tours are meticulously researched, “Haunted Steele” includes the rumors she’s heard and the stories people have shared with her–tales requiring a belief that there are things in this world we will never understand.

I have that. I believe our spirits–and our hearts–live on long after our bodies have worn out and stopped working. So I encourage you to attend the “Haunted Steele” presentation… if you dare.