To the editors:
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Yes, Mr. Adams, there is a Lake Lillian. Our city is not located “south” of Bird Island; rather it is north of Bird Island. Lake Lillian is located in the South Central part of the State of Minnesota. We are approximately 90 miles west of the Twin Cities. The lakes in the Lake Lillian area have attracted man for many centuries. The Sioux called Lake Lillian “Witadan,” and, along the shores of these can be found remnants left by the Indians where they gathered food and built their shelters. Edwin Whitefield, an artist and land promoter, visited the Kandiyohi Lakes in 1856 and gave his wife’s name, Lillian, to one of the lakes.
It is true we are a small rural farming community and have approximately 300 citizens. This is “Green Giant” country around here and we have some of the richest black soil you will find anywhere. Our farm citizens help to feed this nation and are darn proud of it! From the article that was written I will guesstimate that your Chicagoan reader is a “city-slicker” just as I was before moving here approximately four years ago. I was under the impression a “farmer” had a tractor, two or more cows, and had a barn. You have not seen farmers, I’ll assure you. The tractors our farmers use are huge and they do not plow only ten acres–that probably would be a good-size garden for them! They do not raise a “couple” cows, or pigs, or turkeys; they raise them by the hundreds or thousands. Granted, some of our farmers have felt the ongoing farm economic crunch but I assure you many of them could buy and sell you and me several times over.
Lake Lillian Civic and Commerce
