Little Known Facts About the St. Cloud Area — Our Top Five

When it was completed in 1922 the 1 ½ mile wall surrounding the St. Cloud Prison was the longest wall in the United States, and the second longest wall in the world, next to the Great Wall of China. Today it’s still the longest granite wall in the world, the second longest wall of any kind in the U.S., and it also holds the title of the longest wall in the world built entirely by prisoners.

A company in Brooten called Maxbat makes hundreds of bats a year for everyone from amateurs on up. However, their biggest claim to fame is the bats they make for major league baseball players like: Josh Hamilton, Jason Kubel, Jimmy Rollins, Torii Hunter, Matt Tolbert, Alexi Casilla, and more. Maxbat is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year.

A man by the name of Ambrose Weeres was asked by a friend to create a contraption out of tubes and oil barrels that would float on water back in 1951. By the next year he had founded Weeres Industries. In 1990 the State Legislature passed a resolution officially recognizing Weeres at the inventor of the pontoon.

A large Catholic cemetery used to be located at 3rd Street North and Cooper Avenue. It was moved in 1891. Supposedly it was up to the families to move the bodies of their loved ones to the new cemetery. Any that were not moved by November 20th, 1891 would be moved by the church. However, legend has it several were forgotten, and there are stories of people finding caskets when digging basements for new homes.

Way back in 1855 when St. Cloud was just getting started record books show the size of the lake to be 7 ½ blocks. However, already by 1876 officials noticed the lake was starting to dry up. The city council took action in the 1920’s to dredge the lake. The mud was used to fill-in the north and south ends of the lake, and by 1928 the 23 acre swamp had been reduced to a seven acre lake, 35 feet deep in spots.