August 19-21, 2022

Please join us for a weekend filled with Fleckenstein Brewery-focused events.

The Weekend Schedule:

Friday Night:
* 5:15 pm – Car Cruise: Before joining the downtown Car Show, come down to the museum with your car and join a pre-show parade around the city of Faribault. We are asking all drivers to line up by 5:15. The parade will leave promptly at 5:30, escorted by the Faribault Police and the newly restored 1946 Fleckenstein Brewery Delivery Truck.

* 6:00 – 9:00 pm – Downtown Car Cruise-In: Faribault Chamber of Commerce is hosting their monthly Car Cruise-In downtown Faribault

* State Bank of Faribault Fleckenstein Brewery Exhibit Open to the Public during the Car Show

Saturday:
* 10:00 am – Dedication of the new Fleckenstein Bluff Park : To learn more about the park and the City of Faribault’s dedication plans click on the story on KDHL’s website: https://kdhlradio.com/fleckenstein-bluffs-park-is-nearing-completion/ This event is FREE and Open to the Public.

* 1:00 pm – (TICKETED EVENT) “Fleckenstein Brewery, A History” will be presented by long-time Fleck’s collector and historian, Brian Schmidt as well as special guest Al Fleckenstein.  They will share the history of the family and brewery as well as the recently completed restoration of the 1946 Fleck’s Delivery Truck. This event will be held at the Rice County Historical Society at 1814 NW 2nd Ave., Faribault, MN.

* 3:00 pm (TICKETED EVENT) – Tour of the old Fleck’s brewery ruins site Ticket holders will be able to take a tour of the former site of the Fleckenstein Brewery. Please note, although this site is on the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Campus, due to other S-SM events, all guests will need to park in the Tennis Parking Lot. Look for the signs on Shumway Road. Volunteers will also guide you to the right location. (We will NOT be driving through the famed arch for this event.)

Tickets are required for the Saturday program and brewery tour! Due to space limitations at the venue sites, there are only 50 available tickets. The tickets are being sold as a package: for $20 you get entrance to both events as well as one commemorative bottle of Grape Pop produced for this event. All are STRONGLY urged to get your tickets in advance. To purchase tickets, stop out at the museum at 1814 2nd Ave NW, Faribault, or call us at 507-332-2121 to place your order over the phone. Please note, tickets to these two events are only available through the package.

The pop may be purchased separately for $5.00 each.

Please contact the Rice County Historical Society at 507-332-2121 to purchase tickets, purchase pop, or for more information.

Saturday, June18th at 10am at Slevin Park in Faribault

Come join Larry Richie for his program during Heritage Days about the Upper Cannon River Basin. Larry is a local archeologist who has spent years researching the area and history of the Cannon River. His program will discuss how glaciers formed the basin and the role they played in shaping the waterways.

The program will be held at Father Slevin Park at 10am, it is $5 per person. We ask you to bring your own lawn chair. To register in advance (strongly encouraged) or more information on this program please call the Rice County Historical Society at 507-332-2121 or email us at rchs@rchistory.org.

Saturday, June 11 from 10am to 2pm

This summer, on June 11 and August 6, members of the newly formed GIG (Geneology Interest Group of Rice County) will be at the museum to help people with their genealogy research. The GIG volunteer will help researchers find information on their ancestors from any part of the US. GIG volunteers will make use of Ancestry, Family Search, the Dalby Database, and many of the Rare Book resources in the RCHS Collection.

Those interested can call the museum to reserve a time slot at: 507-332-2121. Walk-ins are welcome.

Thursday, May 19, 7pm

Join us on Thursday, May 19, at 7:00 pm as Rice County native Ariel Emery Butler presents her research on “The Unpardonable Case of August Ruther” who was convicted of murder in Rice County, MN in 1918.

August Ruther, served in the German army in the 1890s and moved to the US in 1907. He eventually to Rice County in 1914 where, he met and married Josephine Fiske, whose father had left her a farm. Josephine also had charge of her older brother, August Fiske, who did farm work but was developmentally disabled.

On September 9, 1917, August Fiske was found dead at his brother Henry’s farm and two months later, August Ruther was charged with poisoning his brother-in-law in Rice County. 

Throughout his trial and sentence, Ruther maintained his innocence, yet, despite any direct evidence, a jury convicted August of murder in eighty minutes. Was he convicted because he was guilty, or was the anti-German nativism that was presented in the US during World War 1 the reason he was convicted? 

This program will be held at the Rice County Historical Society at 1814 NW 2nd Ave., Faribault, MN 55021. For more information or to make a reservation, please call us at 507-332-2121.

The program is free and open to the public thanks, in part, to a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Center.