Pine Island Area Historical Society

04/17/2026

04/06/2026

So excited to share that a YouTube channel titled “Pine Island Football Archives“ has been posted! It will include football film from 1971 - 1995. Games will be added over the next several months. ENJOY!

https://youtube.com/?si=O_2wJiKATo3culhs

Feel free to share the link with others.🏈🏈🏈 from DuWayne Bea

This channel is an archive of Pine Island Panther High School Football games from the years 197x-1998. The films and VCR tapes have been digitized for your enjoyment. They are in their original state: Friday Night Lights, some without sound or gaps in the recording. But they capture a time in histor...

03/16/2026

We are closed today. Next Monday we will be open from 9:00 - 11:30 AM. Feel free to contact us by email at [email protected]

02/14/2026

Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️ Circa 1915.

02/11/2026

A big thank you to those who donated to the Pine Island Area Historical Society via Pine Island United Fund !

02/08/2026

We are super excited for the first event for this year's One Town One Title programming!! It is Monday, 6/9 at 6:30pm at the History Center on Main St.
We hope you can join us as Michelle from Whispering Trees Berry Farm talks about life on her farm.

11/24/2025

Thank you to those who attended our Open House. There still is time to check out the displays. We are open Monday mornings - today, December 1st, 8th & 15th. Also available Sunday, December 13th from 1 - 3:30 PM.

11/17/2025

Shared by Jerry Regan
How Pine Island, Minnesota was connected to the construction of Chevez Ravine (officially, Dodger) Stadium.
It starts with the fact that a company in Wisconsin, based near Red Wing, Minnesota, provided lighting - probably parking lot - for the stadium. The company's business did include building highway and parking lot lighting.They, in turn, engaged Kask Electric of Red Wing to pre-wire the poles. Kask Electric was owned by Robert (Bob) Friese. He was married to Roberta (Bobbie) Daniels who happened to be the half-sister of Jeanette Ronalda (Dolly) Gilbertson - AKA Dolly Daniels. Dolly was married to GL (Jerry) Regan, a Pine Island businessman that provided a number of services, including plumbing, heating and sheet metal work.
The configuration of the lighting was an octagon at the top of each pole. Lights would be mounted at each corner of the octagon. The electrical wiring would be run in a wire duct in an octagonal shape.
Minor detail. Wire duct in this shape was not standard. It needed to be custom built. It came to pass that Kask Electric engaged GL Regan Plumbing, Heating and Sheet Metal to build the wire duct. There were problems. Jerry did not have the equipment to form the wire duct and he was not a welder. His shop, at the rear of the Opera House, was also not large enough to house the operation. Jerry was, however, resourceful. He could buy the heavy gauge steel for the wire duct. Red Nesbit had a machine shop in nearby Zumbrota. Jerry rented time for the use of Red's sheet metal equipment to form the sides of the octagons. Jerry also had a plywood template made to assemble the octagon. Jerry set the template up on sawhorses in a space behind his shop. There a welder and helpers (including Jerry, himself) he had hired would place the sides of the octagon in the template and the welder would weld them together.
In small batches the finished octagonal wire ducts were loaded in a pickup truck and delivered to Kask Electric in Red Wing.
How many octagons were build? More than 20. That's lost to history. Who was the welder and who were the helpers? That, too, is lost to history.
C'est comme ca

11/15/2025

Stop by the history center today to check out our telephone collection. We are open from 10 - 4.

11/05/2025

Holiday Open House
Saturday, November 15th
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Special displays include a telephone collection and Pipka Santa collection. Presentation by Rick Keane from 2 - 3 on the history of the Pine Island Telephone Company.

11/01/2025

Congratulations!