Savage officials are celebrating resident Abby Bauleke, who earned her second Paralympic medal earlier this month.

The 23-year-old, who grew up in Savage and attends the University of Alabama, is part of the Team USA Paralympics wheelchair basketball team that earned a silver medal at the Paris games. She was also part of a team that won a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo games.

Savage officials are declaring Friday Abby Bauleke Day. They will host an event at City Hall from 2 to 3 p.m., where Bauleke will sign autographs and take pictures.

“This was one of our only opportunities to have her here and to just congratulate her and celebrate her accomplishments,” said city spokesperson Emily Gunderson.

LANESBORO, MINN. — More than a century after a hydroelectric dam set the Root River on a new course, conservationists are looking to put the Bluff Country channel back on its natural path.

Later this fall, crews will begin clearing a half-mile portion of the original riverbed just north of Lanesboro with the goal of rerouting the channel after next year’s growing season.

The removal of the Brightsdale Dam in 2003 freed the river’s flow but created a new problem. Conservationists estimate that 540 tons — or 40 dump truck loads — of sediment are stripped from the riverbanks each year.

Wildlife officials believe the $1 million project could become a model for preserving fish habitat and protecting against erosion and pollution along the 80-mile river that stretches across southeast Minnesota and into the Mississippi River.

“Ultimately, this project is taking something that was affected and altered by the dam back over a hundred years ago and resetting back to where it would have been if that dam wasn’t there,” said Jeff Weiss, a hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The hydroelectric dam was built in 1915 and brought power to Preston, Harmony and Canton. Lines were later extended across the region to include Mabel, Spring Grove, Fountain, Caledonia and Houston.

To generate electricity, workers spent years blasting and digging through a bluff to construct a 1,750-foot tunnel that sent water pouring down 20 feet to power the turbines. The tunnel still exists today, as does a portion of the original dam structure, both because of the cost of removal and the importance to local history.

“It blows my mind how they were able to do that stuff back in the day,” Weiss said, pointing to historical records that show crews worked around the clock to chip away at the rock.

It was a tragic mix of fire and ice.

On a frigid morning in 1940, a blaze ripped through the Marlborough Hotel near downtown Minneapolis. Firefighters responding to the scene were hindered by zero-degree weather, which froze water being used to douse the flames — creating an icy hazard.

Nineteen people died in the inferno. More than eight decades later, it remains Minneapolis’ most lethal fire.

Brian Rosaaenwas doing genealogy research at Minneapolis’ Central Library recently when he came across records describing the toll of that single hotel fire. He reached out to Curious Minnesota, the Strib’s reporting project fueled by reader questions, wanting to know more about what happened.

He was also curious about whether the Marlborough was a traditional hotel or more permanent housing.

Built in the 1890s, the Marlborough Hotel was on 15th Street near the current site of the Minneapolis Convention Center. It was a “combination residence and transient hotel,” with mostly permanent residents living in 60 single rooms and 25 larger apartments, owners told the Minneapolis Tribune after the Jan. 3 fire.

It was also crowded. More than 120 people were living in the three-story building when it caught fire, according to historian Iric Nathanson, who wrote an account about the tragedy for the Minnesota Historical Society.