Chelsey Lager who worked previously for The Caledonia Argus when an associate was out on maternity leave, has re-joined the staff as the new sales account manager. Lager worked previously from August of 2006 to March of 2007. The enthusiastic young Brownsville native is eager to reconnect to the customer relations she had built during her time here.

The old William's hotel as it was in the early days.                               Photo submitted 

During the past decade a number of businesses have left the downtown Caledonia district to relocate along the Highway 44/76 business corridor. The reasons for the business relocations are numerous…larger lots to construct new buildings, more room for larger parking lots, more visibility and potential customer traffic because of the highway.

 About ten years ago, Nate and Hallie Evans were working for a well known potter in North Carolina.  The Smithsonian magazine had sent a crew out to do a story about the firing of the huge wood fired kiln.  Partway through the firing, disaster struck.  Inside the kiln, some of the tightly stacked pottery had fallen.  Thousands of dollars worth of artistic pottery were breaking up inside the kiln. “We just had to keep smiling and acting as though nothing was wrong”, said Nate. “But we couldn’t feed the pieces of wood in because it was collapsed inside…the man who ran the pottery was probably losing his mind.“ In the wood fired pottery business, these things happen. 

  Nate, Hallie and baby Noah at their studio in northern Iowa.

Photo by Craig Moorhead

Initial ideas for the new highway department building the county is planning to construct on a 22.5 acre tract of land on the west edge of Caledonia were discussed during the April 8 Houston County Board meeting. According to the initial plans, the county’s Highway Department wouldn’t be the only county entity in the new facility.