Minnesota Lures
The earliest record of settlers in this area goes back to 1855, and in 1856 the group started a town. This was just south and west of a lake shaped like a ham. They platted and sold lots for a town they named, "Glen Carey," a Scottish name meaning "Beautiful Valley." The place was widely advertised as a future city. However, in 1857 all of the houses were destroyed by a prairie fire. Some of the inhabitants barely escaped with their lives saving only a very few household goods. They soon left the area as they had nowhere to live. There was no more settlement until 1866 when a Norwegian man settled in the area. He was soon followed by other Scandinavians. The Scandinavian settlers found it difficult to pronounce the Scottish name of Glen Carey. Since no name had been chosen by the people, the commissioners named it "Ham Lake," after the lake which had acquired that name on account of its shape.
The early settlers found the soil well suited to farming as it wasn't as rocky as they had been accustomed to in Scandinavia. Through the years, dairying became an important industry. The pioneer farmers soon found the soil well suited to growing potatoes. From the early 1900s through the 1930s potato farming was at its peak. Some of the farms remaining today are the sod farms in the southeastern part of the city, where the ground is low and the soil black and heavy making it well suited to this crop as well as corn and potatoes in some places.
Ham Lake
Oxboro Outdoors, Inc
This lure was designed by Ralph Jon Fritz, a popular TV sportscaster in the Twin Cities.
I found several of these lures in my father-in-laws tackle box. If he used these lures, they must have worked!
This lure was featured as my "Lure of the Month" for August of 2011.
Oxboro also made NFL spoons and spinners.
