by Shirley Dalaska, Pioneer Room, Hastings City Hall

John Nordstrom was born in Sweden. In his youth he trained in the Swedish army. As was the custom at that time, he took the name of John Bloomstrand, the soldier who preceded him and he kept the name for the rest of his life.

In 1887 John and Hulda and their two children, Walter, age 3, and Alma, age 1, left Smoland, Sweden and immigrated to the United States. John was a stone mason and the family settled in Nininger At one time Walt was employed by Ignatius Donnelly, who played an important part in Dakota county’s early history. Walt husked corn and cut wood for the statesman. With a team of horses, he helped the 68-year-old man and his 22-year-old bride move to Minneapolis Walt enlisted in the Army in October 1916. He was with the Army’s 135th Infantry, Company G as a cook during WWI but was transferred to the 24th detachment. He went overseas in October 1918 and returned from France in 1919.

Walt married Maude Isabel Hyde on September 30, 1919.

Walter bought his first popcorn wagon from John Stamel in September 1921. In August of 1923 he purchased a new popcorn wagon and was conducting business on Second street.

In May of 1931 John took on the job of an official government light tender between South St. Paul and the Hastings dam. It was his duty to see that every light on this stretch of the river channel is functioning perfectly every night. He purchased a motor boat and starting at 4:00 in the afternoon he would start lighting the channel markers and he would finish at 7:00 in the evening.

On July 8, 1932, The Hastings Gazette noted that while Walt was out tending to lighting the river channel lights his boat got away. A stiff breeze was blowing and the waves were high. He dove into the water and swam as hard as he could. He commented that he swallowed about half of the river. After a 600-yard dash he caught up with the boat and somehow pulled his 240-pound body into the boat. He was so exhausted it took about an hour before he could do anything.

In 1934 Walt turned the light tender duties over to Roy Moore of Nininger. Someone in his family had tended the lights for 39 years. His father tended the lights and then his mother took over before Walt took the job. There were eight children in the Bloomstrand family and they all worked at lighting the lamps over the years.

John sold some land to Walt and he opened Walt’s Place also called Walt’s Cave. He rented out boats, sold beer and pop, carried a few groceries for the neighborhood and had picnic tables. He had a card room and a slot machine (which was legal at the time).

Walt rented out boats for duck hunters and they would paddle out to the small islands on the river. During the Armistice Day storm in November 1941, the river was full of hunters. Since it was a warm day they were lightly dressed. In the middle of the breaking blizzard some of the hunters made it to shore and walked ¼ mile to the Harry Benjamin house. Harry called Walt who drove over to bring the hunters to his bar. Walt walked into the house and looked at the nearly frozen hunters and called them Cream Puffs. These guys were covered with ice and were shivering violently, they had lost their guns and then were called Cream Puffs. If they still had their guns, they would have shot Walt. Harry had to settle the men down before they were driven back to Walt’s cave.

In the fall of 1943 Walt, a member of the Hastings police force, went to the 18th street dump. He found an old rusty gun and took it home. After he cleaned it up, he found an inscription that read “Eli Whitney, New Haven, 1839”. He displayed it at his home and a Minneapolis doctor offered him $125. for it, but he declined the offer.

The Order of the Purple Heart was awarded to Cpl. Robert Bloomstrand, U.S. Marine Corps, for wounds received in action on the Island of Saipan, June 22, 1944, and Walt received it in December of 1944.

About 1945 Walt stored his popcorn wagon at the Jackson farm in Nininger. The farm had been unoccupied since 1936 and the neighbors used the barn to store tractors, equipment and other things during the winter. The barn had lots of pigeons and kids from town often would come out and shoot them with .22 rifles. They found Walt’s wagon and ransacked it, taking the popper and an electric motor to run the popper. Then they shot out all the glass windows. There was too much damage done to restore the wagon.

In October of 1950 Walt owner of Walt’s Place, a tavern in Nininger, was fined $100 plus costs in court after he was arrested for possession for sale of 6 percent beer and also whiskey. Sheriff Norman Dieter found 57 cases of beer in a storage cave on his property plus 3-1/2 quarts of whiskey. Walt was only licensed to sell 3.2 beer.

Funeral services were held August 12, 1954, for Walter Bloomstrand, age 68. He died Monday afternoon in the Latto Hospital following a lingering illness of about two years. He was survived by two sons and five daughters.

This picture was taken in the 1930’s. The wagon was horse drawn. Walt sold popcorn, ice cream and other delicacies.

Walt, a former police officer, found a shotgun at the 18th street dump. The engraving stated “Eli Whitney, New Haven, 1839”. He proudly displayed the find in his home.