History of Stillwater is a Puzzle. This photo is from the John Runk Collection sourced from the Stillwater Public Library. It shows an excursion steamboat in 1912 called “Ben Hur”. The Ben Hur was coming back from an excursion to Red Wing, Minnesota at this time. The steamboat was 165 feet in length and 30.5 feet in width. It had considerable draft and used more coal than other steamboats. It looked great!

This video shows the changes in a location in Stillwater, Minnesota over a period of almost 150 years. The original building was called the Torinus Block. Louis E. Torinus came to Stillwater from the Ukraine in 1855. He was a hard worker and a productive citizen with good character traits. Today, the “Miller” building is being built at the same location, only much larger in size at an estimated cost of 25.5 million dollars. The early Torinus building, though smaller in size cost about $100,000. The new building is primarily residential, showing a modern change from the commercial use of the location.