Loren Dahle of Morristown began volunteering eight years ago for the Rice County Historical Society after he became a RCHS board member representing the Morristown Historical Society chapter.
For many years he was a farmer and milked cows. Then, he earned an associate degree in food inspection and manufacturing from the former University of Minnesota, Waseca, a college that specialized in offering various agricultural-related degrees.
After receiving his associated degree, Dahle was hired by Beatrice Cheese to be the field man for the former Treasure Cave Blue Cheese plant in Faribault. He worked with suppliers of milk to the plant to assure quality milk being delivered to the plant. He held the position until the Faribault plant closed in the mid-1990s and production of Treasure Cave Blue Cheese was shifted to Wisconsin. Today he is retired, and the cropland on his family’s farm north of Morristown, rented out.
Dahle is vice president of the Morristown Historical Society. He also serves as secretary for the RCHS Board, on the RCHS’s buildings and grounds committee, and as a member of that committee, volunteers for many hours for projects helping maintain the society’s buildings and grounds around them.
Dahle’s passion is the Morristown Feed Mill, which is open for tours during the community’s annual Dam Days Festival. He helps keep the grind stone working so grain can be ground in the old mill as a demonstration to children of today as to how small town feed mills used to operate. The mill’s stone is turn by a recreated water-wheel that uses water from the Cannon River.
Anyone interested in volunteering to help the Rice County Historical Society can call the museum at 507-332-2121.
