Thanks for a great summer of WLP!!!!!!!!!!
Walking Lake Pepin will be back in June 2025, and all are encouraged to keep “ Walking….It’s Good for the Soul!”
A walk and talk in and about the Jewel Nursery was the final gathering for Walking Lake Pepin (walkinglakepepin.com) participants.
On Wednesday August 14, the WLP group walkers met up at Underwood Park on 10th and after Jim Schreck gave a talk about the history of how the Jewel Nursery started the walkers headed up Wabasha County 5 and then along the paved walkway the connects CTY 5 with the Jewel Development.
Jim has been doing research into the Jewel Nursery history for a video he plans to create and had lots of new stories to share.
Phineas Jewel was a physician who wanted a livelihood in the outdoors after serving in the Civil War. He traveled up the Mississippi River in search of the right place to start a nursery to grow trees and fruit to supply the new settlements that were being established. He found just that next to the bluffs in Lake City.
Phineas along with his brother-in-law J. M. Underwood started the nursery with 10 acres of land in 1868. By 1923 the nursery had grown to 1,500 acres with 200 employees and as many as 700 salesmen scattered throughout the country.
Jewel Nursery not only grew trees, shrubs, ornamental vines and plants but was also a self-sufficient industry with a saw mill to build its own shipping grates, it grew feed for the horses and cattle and had a dormitory to provide housing and meals for its workers.
At its peak the nursery grew millions of trees, hundreds of thousands of apple, plum and cherry trees and tens of thousands of ornamentals. It was the largest nursery in the Untied States and a leader in producing new varieties of trees and fruit.
The 1930’s depression brought the end of the Jewel Nursery. The nursery was sold to William Lindmeier in 1944 and was managed by his sister Agnes until 1996. Eight hundred acres of the original nursery was sold to developers who began building the Mississippi Jewel that we know today.
After the walk and talk a drawing for Lake City Chamber Bucks was held for those walkers who logged their miles and minutes over the 10 weeks of the walking challenge. Jen Befort and Terry Smith were the winners of the drawing. Door prizes were given away to those in attendance who had attended weekly group walks.
The WLP committee would like to thank Treats and Treasuer and Anytime Fitness for assisting with sign up walkers, Erica Swenson for the t-shirt design and printing and Jim and Anne Schreck for monetary support.
Special appreciation to Katie Himanga for providing historical content on two of the group walk, the Catholic Worker’s Farm for letting WLP walk their meadow, Flower Valley Orchard Flower Farm for giving us a tour of their beautiful farm and First Lutheran Church for sharing their Labyrinth with WLP.
Walking Lake Pepin will be back in June 2025, and all are encouraged to keep “ Walking….It’s Good for the Soul!”
A walk and talk in and about the Jewel Nursery was the final gathering for Walking Lake Pepin (walkinglakepepin.com) participants.
On Wednesday August 14, the WLP group walkers met up at Underwood Park on 10th and after Jim Schreck gave a talk about the history of how the Jewel Nursery started the walkers headed up Wabasha County 5 and then along the paved walkway the connects CTY 5 with the Jewel Development.
Jim has been doing research into the Jewel Nursery history for a video he plans to create and had lots of new stories to share.
Phineas Jewel was a physician who wanted a livelihood in the outdoors after serving in the Civil War. He traveled up the Mississippi River in search of the right place to start a nursery to grow trees and fruit to supply the new settlements that were being established. He found just that next to the bluffs in Lake City.
Phineas along with his brother-in-law J. M. Underwood started the nursery with 10 acres of land in 1868. By 1923 the nursery had grown to 1,500 acres with 200 employees and as many as 700 salesmen scattered throughout the country.
Jewel Nursery not only grew trees, shrubs, ornamental vines and plants but was also a self-sufficient industry with a saw mill to build its own shipping grates, it grew feed for the horses and cattle and had a dormitory to provide housing and meals for its workers.
At its peak the nursery grew millions of trees, hundreds of thousands of apple, plum and cherry trees and tens of thousands of ornamentals. It was the largest nursery in the Untied States and a leader in producing new varieties of trees and fruit.
The 1930’s depression brought the end of the Jewel Nursery. The nursery was sold to William Lindmeier in 1944 and was managed by his sister Agnes until 1996. Eight hundred acres of the original nursery was sold to developers who began building the Mississippi Jewel that we know today.
After the walk and talk a drawing for Lake City Chamber Bucks was held for those walkers who logged their miles and minutes over the 10 weeks of the walking challenge. Jen Befort and Terry Smith were the winners of the drawing. Door prizes were given away to those in attendance who had attended weekly group walks.
The WLP committee would like to thank Treats and Treasuer and Anytime Fitness for assisting with sign up walkers, Erica Swenson for the t-shirt design and printing and Jim and Anne Schreck for monetary support.
Special appreciation to Katie Himanga for providing historical content on two of the group walk, the Catholic Worker’s Farm for letting WLP walk their meadow, Flower Valley Orchard Flower Farm for giving us a tour of their beautiful farm and First Lutheran Church for sharing their Labyrinth with WLP.
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