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Welch Village founder and skiing zealot Leigh Nelson dies at 94

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Only Leigh Nelson could ski close to 90 days as a 90-year-old, or so say his family and friends.

Nelson, who co-founded the Welch Village ski area with his brother Clem, was a lifelong skier and a passionate ski enthusiast who took every chance he got to advocate for the sport and improve the ski industry for smaller resorts throughout the U.S.

“Skiing is like religion; it’s one convert at a time,” Nelson told the Star Tribune in 2003.

Nelson died at home in his sleep last month at 94.

Nelson was born in 1928, the middle of three sons. As he told it, a well-meaning Lutheran minister misspelled his intended name, Lee, on birth records.

The man who eventually improved ski areas across the Midwest didn’t start his career in skiing. After growing up in Welch and attending nearby Red Wing High School, Nelson graduated from the University of Minnesota with a chemical engineering degree. He traveled across the United States with his wife Mary while working for Shell Oil Corp. before settling back in Minnesota with a job at 3M.

Nelson and his brother Clem founded Welch Village in August 1965. It was one of a number of Midwest ski resorts that opened at that time, when skiing’s popularity exploded throughout the U.S.

The brothers expanded Welch Village almost every year, adding chair lifts, more slopes and other features to attract skiers and snowboarders. Leigh served on regional and national ski boards. After he retired from 3M in the early 1990s, he bought out Clem to run Welch Village as its sole president and manager.

“You ask anybody in the ski industry, they’re not going to find anybody more passionate,” Nelson’s grandson, Peter Zotalis, said. “He was convinced that literally anybody, any family, should try skiing because it would change their life forever.”

Zotalis is Welch Village’s current president. He joined Nelson in 2006, learning the business from his grandfather after years of skiing with him on its slopes.

In the late ’90s Nelson spearheaded a push to install smaller lifts at ski areas in the Midwest, which often were ignored by chair lift manufacturers that favored large-scale resorts in Colorado and other areas out west.

He convinced manufacturers to put custom chair lifts at Welch Village then talked other ski areas into doing the same, creating a new market that has saved many businesses money in the long run, said Amy Reents, president and executive director of the Midwest Ski Areas Association.

“He was really kind of an inspiration to a lot of people in the industry,” Reents said.

Zotalis said he’ll always remember Nelson’s lessons. Nelson took his grandson on a baseball trip in 1992, about a year or so after Nelson’s first wife died. The two visited 10 ballparks in 10 days, sharing games and getting in a few rounds of golf whenever they could.

They stopped at a private country club where Nelson talked their way into playing with a father-son duo. Zotalis, then 15, wasn’t sure about golfing at a place with a dress code.

The other golfers were practically professionals, and Zotalis was forced to wear fancy golf duds – all adding up to a potentially embarrassing experience for a teen.

“I really remember that as a moment where (Nelson) really taught me to be self-confident and believe in myself,” Zotalis said. “I remember playing really well that day. It was fine, I lived through it, but it was really one of those times in your life that sticks out.”

Nelson is survived by his wife, Diane Cooper Nelson, a son, a stepson, two daughters and 16 grandchildren and step-grandchildren.



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Star Tribune

Minnesota offering land for sale in northern recreation areas

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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will auction off state lands in popular northern counties next month.

The public land — in Aitkin, Cook, Itasca, and St. Louis counties — will go up for sale during the Department of Natural Resource’s annual online public land sale from Nov. 7 to 21.

“These rural and lakeshore properties may appeal to adjacent landowners or offer recreational opportunities such as space for a small cabin or camping,” the DNR said in a statement.

Properties will be available for bidding Nov. 7 through Nov. 21.

This all can trim for print: The properties include:

40 acres in Aitkin County, with a minimum bid of $85,000

44 acres in Cook County, minimum bid $138,000

1.9 acres in Itasca County, minimum bid $114,000



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Razor wire, barriers to be removed from Third Precinct

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Minneapolis city officials say razor wire, concrete barriers and fencing will be removed from around the former Third Precinct police station – which was set ablaze by protesters after George Floyd’s police killing – in the next three weeks. The burned-out vestibule will be removed within three months with construction fencing to be erected closer to the building.

This week, Minneapolis City Council members have expressed frustration that four years after the protests culminated in a fire at the police station, the charred building still stands and has become a “prop” some conservatives use to rail against city leadership. Most recently, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a stop outside the building and criticized Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of the 2020 riots.

On Thursday, the council voted 8-3 to approve a resolution calling for “immediate cleanup, remediation, and beautification of the 3000 Minnehaha site including but not limited to the removal of fencing, jersey barriers, barbed wire, and all other exterior blight.”

Council Member Robin Wonsley said the city needs to acknowledge that many police officers stationed in the Third Precinct “waged racist and violent actions” against residents for decades.

Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said the council wants the building cleaned up and beautified “immediately.”

“We cannot allow for this corner to be a backdrop for those who wish to manipulate the trauma of our city for political gain,” Chowdhury said.

Council Member Katie Cashman said the council shouldn’t be divided by “right-wing figures posing in front of the Third Precinct and pandering to conservative interests.”

“It’s really important for us to stay united in our goal, to achieve rehabilitation of this site in a way that advances racial healing and acknowledgement of the past trauma in this community, and to not let those figures divide us here,” she said.



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Last-minute staycation ideas in the Twin Cities

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It’s MEA weekend — the four-day stretch in mid-October when educators traditionally flock to St. Paul RiverCentre for a conference organized by the statewide teachers union as students and their families take an extended break.

Some orchards offer visitors the opportunity to pick their own fruit, while others operate sprawling general stores that sell a variety of apple-themed goodies.

Tiger cub twins Amaliya (female), left, and Andrei (male), right, who were born in May, hang out with their mother, Amur tiger Sundari, after making their debut in their new public habitat at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minn. on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. ] LEILA NAVIDI • leila.navidi@startribune.com (Leila Navidi)

October is usually a happenin’ month at the Minnesota Zoo. The annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular is chock-full of meticulously decorated gourds, and this year’s event runs until Nov. 2. Tickets start at $18 for adults and $14 for children (kids younger than 2 get in free but must still register for tickets). The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular begins at 6 p.m.

But there’s another new attraction at the zoo these days: the pair of Amur tiger cubs born to 7-year-old mom Bernadette just a couple of months ago. This week, zoo officials named the young felines Marisa and Maks. The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.

Patrons enjoy drinks and dinner on the patio Thursday evening, July 18, 2024 at Lola’s Lakehouse in Waconia. Lola’s Lakehouse in Waconia features a large back deck/patio area with views of Lake Waconia. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

With so many people out of town, there’s no better time to visit some of the Twin Cities’ most popular eateries.



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