

File photo by Clay Schuldt
Monica and Lance Sorensen of Hector test a cup of egg espresso as Harkin Keep as supervisor
Ruth Grewe describes the record of the store in this May 15, 2019, file picture. The
retail outlet was shut down through the COVID-19 pandemic and has not re-opened.

WEST NEWTON TOWNSHIP — The status of the Harkin Keep on Nicollet County Highway 21, 9 miles northwest of New Ulm, continues to be to be determined, according to Minnesota Historic Culture (MHS) and Nicollet County officials.
The historical retail store dates back again to 1867, when pioneer Alexander Harkin opened the hardware retailer and write-up workplace. It was the social and financial middle of the bustling city of West Newton.
Managed by the Nicollet County Historical Society (NCHS) in collaboration with the MHS, the web site closed in 2020 due to the pandemic and has not reopened.
A indicator on the entrance door states the web page is quickly closed. For the basic safety of staff and website visitors, Minnesota Historic Modern society (MHS) historic sites and museums continue to be closed.
Kayla Stielow, MHS partnership web sites manager, posted on Fb March 24 in response to a question about the doable reopening of the keep.
“We do not have an official update or assertion at this time in regards to the Harkin Retailer,” Stielow mentioned. “Currently, there are multiple conversations about the Harkin Retail store occurring. When we have an update on the standing of the Harkin Retail store in the coming weeks, we will share any information and facts.”
She stated the website has lively upkeep, stability and garden care/snow elimination personnel.
Nicollet County Commissioner John Luepke stated he has been asked about the status of the web-site, and discussions involving the NCHS, MHS, and Brown County Historic Modern society are prepared shortly.“My aim is to get the BCHS and city of New Ulm additional included,” Luepke claimed. “Based on its locale, most people today that go see it will probably devote money in New Ulm.”
Web site manager Ruth Grewe instructed The Journal in May well 2019 when the web-site opened for the time that people unfamiliar with the retail outlet site get in touch with and request for directions.
Grewe stated a couple from Germany visited the shop whilst touring the United States. She said the couple’s other stops ended up Mayo Clinic, Black Hills, Grand Canyon and the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
Place inhabitants say they really feel like they’re taken back again in time by going to the shop, with its really hard sweet, fabrics, storage vessels, chinaware, cooking utensils, medication and other items.
Costumed guides host packages most summer season Sundays. Readers can sit on the entrance porch and glance out earlier mentioned the Minnesota River.
A wide range of courses are featured which include musicians, a musical roundup at the conclude of every year, children’s spelling bees, trunk shows exhibiting what riverboat journey was like quite a few a long time in the past and dress opinions, including fashions as significantly back as the 1870s.
West Newton grew quickly 150 many years back. It included a hotel, livery steady, brewery, sawmill, wagon will work, two blacksmith retailers, a few saloons and numerous houses.
A amount of matters doomed the keep and West Newton. The railroad bypassed West Newton in 1873 in favor of New Ulm. For 4 consecutive decades, locusts devasted Minnesota crops and gardens.
In buy to deliver new financial lifetime to West Newton, Harkin helped farmers arrange a ginseng trade. Ginseng roots, extremely prized by the Chinese, grew wild in wooded spots of southern Minnesota, in accordance to an MHS account. Harkin’s work assisted quite a few farmers make it as a result of the plague.
The addition of rural no cost supply in 1901 changed the retailer/publish place of work, and it quickly shut.
Harkin’s granddaughter Janet Harkin Massopust, reopened the retailer as a museum in 1938. The MHS acquired the keep in 1973 and restored its 1870 overall look.