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FOLEY
Schedule of events*
June 13-18, 2025
Commemorative Foley Fun Days buttons are on sale at Foley City Hall, Brenny’s Oil, Frandsen Bank & Trust, Falcon National Bank and Coborn’s as well as through the Foley ambassador candidates and Foley Civic Group members.
Foley Fun Days - 2025 brought to you by the Foley Civic Group Inc.
Friday, June 13 Varied hours ....................................................City-wide garage sales Library hours ............................Friends of the Library Book Sale Foley Public Library 9 p.m............................................................................. Karaoke. Mr. Jim’s
Saturday, June 14 Varied hours ....................................................City-wide garage sales Library hours ............................Friends of the Library Book Sale Foley Public Library 7:30 a.m. ............................................................. Medallion Hunt begins Clues posted each day at Brenny Oil Co. until found 10 a.m. .............................................Foley FFA Alumni Tractor Drive Meet at Foley High School and travel to The Fitch Ranch 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. .............................................. Bicycle Safety Rodeo For ages 10 and under. Foley Lions Park 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ................................................... Car and Craft Show Stone Creek Golf Course Bar & Grill 6 p.m.................................................. Foley Ambassador Coronation Foley High School auditorium 9 p.m. to midnight...............................................Adult Bingo Mr. Jim’s
Sunday, June 15 7:30 a.m. ............................................................. Medallion Hunt begins Clues posted each day at Brenny Oil Co. until found 8 a.m. to noon ................................................ SAL Omelet Breakfast American Legion Post 298
Monday, June 16 7:30 a.m. ............................................................. Medallion Hunt begins Clues posted each day at Brenny Oil Co. until found Varied hours ............................................................ Carnival Downtown 2-8 p.m. ..................................................... Sidewalk Sales Downtown 2:45 p.m. ........................................Timberworks Lumberjack Show 3:30 p.m. .................................CLIMB Theatre — Babe the Blue Ox City Chambers 4:45 p.m. ........................................ Timberworks Lumberjack Show 6 p.m. .......................................................................5K Run/Walk + Kid K Registration begins at 4:30 p.m. Kid K starts at 5:45 p.m. Race at 6 p.m. near Mille Lacs Veterinary Clinic 6:45 p.m. ........................................ Timberworks Lumberjack Show 7 p.m. ...................................... Lumberjack Beard Contest judging Downtown Stage 7:30-10:30 p.m. .. Live music: Radio Nation Downtown Stage
Schedule of events page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF BENTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Joe Freecheck (front, left) holds a pan of baking powder biscuits while lumber workers eat lunch in the woods in the late 1800s. In the mid-1870s, the Foley brothers established the first sawmill in St. Cloud that processed oak and pine wood.
A community rooted in How one commodity shaped Foley BY HANS LAMMEMAN STAFF WRITER
Much of Foley’s history — even several decades before it was formally incorporated as a village — can be told through the lens of lumber, a commodity that has shaped the community since its beginnings as an unpopulated, densely forested stretch of Central Minnesota. In the early 1870s, a set of business-savvy lumber barons from Ontario, Canada, set their eyes on Central Minnesota. Michael H. Foley, then in his late 20s, convinced his brothers, Thomas, Timothy and John, to venture to Benton County for the region’s abundance of timber. At the time, according to Mary Ostby, executive director of the Benton County Historical Society & Museum, the siblings sought a means to make the most of harvesting the region’s towering trees, unaware their initiative would one day spawn a community that would share their surname. “When the original lumber business started and the Foley brothers came out into the Foley area in the 1870s, lumber was one of the big three,” Ostby said. “Agriculture, lumber and granite — those were Benton County’s big three development industries.” Midway through their first decade in Central Minnesota, the Foley brothers established the first sawmill in St. Cloud that processed oak and pine wood.
LUMBER
Prior to starting their logging and sawmill operation, the brothers purchased 160 acres of land, which eventually became the early footprint of Foley. The small community experienced a surge in population and momentum in the early 1880s following the completion of a section of the Great Northern Railroad. This railroad, which connected Sauk Rapids and Hinckley, passed directly through modern-day Foley. In response to the railroad, the Foley brothers built mills in the areas that eventually became the communities of Foley, Foreston and Milaca. “The Foley brothers’ lumber was shipping internationally and nationally, plus feeding the Foley markets,” Ostby said, adding that much of Foley’s early lumber contributed to the expansion of railroads while also going to mills in the community where barrels were constructed for a fledgling pickling industry. The growth of the Foley brothers’ lumber efforts proved contagious to the rest of the young community’s economy. With the arrival of new residents and an influx of foot traffic from the railroad, cafes, hotels and other businesses sprouted in the community around the time it gained village status in 1900. While the Foley brothers are often considered lumber
barons due to the vast amount of land they owned, Ostby said they strayed from the stereotype associated with that title by being hands-on and actively involved in the communities where they worked. This was especially true of John Foley, the town’s namesake, who is recorded as having had a positive relationship with most area residents. Before his death in 1907, John Foley donated funds for the construction of St. John’s Catholic Church and the Benton County Courthouse. He also reportedly gifted properties to former workers who wanted to build homes and promised to maintain the land. The role of lumber in Foley did not stop with the Foley brothers, though. In their wake, several mills popped up around the village, including one where a young William Kotsmith learned the ropes of the lumber industry before launching Foley Lumber in the 1930s. “Lumber availability sure helped the farming community and helped the housing builds in Foley (regarding) travel,” said Randy Kotsmith, William’s grandson and the third generation to have managed Foley Lumber.
Foley history page 2
A supplement to the Benton County News | www.bentonconews.com