New Richland Business - Star Creamery. St. Olaf Lake Store, creamery and ice storage house. Store location is about five miles east of New Richland. The Saint Olaf Lake Store by Vida Martinson Langlie: A store was built by H.K. Stearns in 1897 a mile north of Saint Olaf Lake. This was later moved to the lake and was bought in 1905 by Anton Sybilrud. Selmer Langlie purchased the store and approximately four acres from the Anton Sybilrud estate in 1930. The building burned on 29 Dec. 1933 and a new one was built at the same site by Selmer. In 1937 a skating rink was built on land a few hundred feet east of the store. Both the store and rink were owned and operated by the Langlies until 1947 when the store was sold to Gilbert and Lillian Bagaason of Albert Lea. The skating rink was sold in the early 1950s to Bennie Berg of Ellendale, who moved the building to Ellendale. He continued to operate that business for several years but then used the building for another business. The Saint Olaf Lake store continued to be operated by other owners. The last were Wallskog and Botts who sold the building to Tom Vaith who used it as his residence until 2 Nov. 1991 when during a snow storm, which has come to be known as the Halloween Blizzard, the building burned to the ground. A home has been constructed at the location and is owned and occupied by Gilman and Patricia Peterson. The Star Creamery by Vida Martinson Langlie: The Star Creamery at Saint Olaf Lake was built in 1895. Officers at the time were E.C. Sybilrud, president; A.C. Hagen, vice president; S.O. Sunde, treasurer and A.A. Sampson, secretary. In 1898 it was one of 19 creameries in the twelve townships of Waseca County and had 75 patrons. The creamery was in operation until the late 1950s or early '60s when most businesses of this kind were discontinued because milk in volume was more desirable than butterfat from cream.
