Sherburne County Heritage Center Interpretive Plan Final Report 2005

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Bailey's Station had watered and fed stagecoach horses and passengers. In 1932 Vic Foote, an Elk River man, built a new kind of "filling station" at Bailey's Station for the increasing automobile traffic. Named Vic's Place, the new structure provided gasoline and snacks to passing motorists. In 1934 the station manager Vic Peterson bought the business and renamed it Bailey Station and offered three grades of Texaco gas: regular, low test for Model T's and tractors, and ethyl for high performance cars. The building was a typical mom-and-pop gas station of the 1920s. Designed to provide a home -like, inviting image to the traveling public, it is based on the domestic English Cottage Revival style with steep -pitched roofs and clapboard siding. In the I930s, it was common for roadside businesses in northern Minnesota to attract tourists with a variety of strategies, from statues of Paul Bunyan to deer parks, American Indian displays, and souvenir shops. Vic Peterson developed his own unique approach to this problem of competition. He acquired a black bear cub, and then trained it to climb a pole and drink grape soda. He posted a sign inviting customers to "Buy Johnny Bear a Pop!" His strategy succeeded in getting the attention of travelers, pulling them off the road, and selling them gas and soda. One man wanted to see how much the bear would drink and bought him 22 bottles of grape soda before Johnny Bear had enough. Apparently concerned that the bear posed a danger to customers when it became full grown, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shot Johnny Bear. The continued growth of traffic on Hwy 10 is suggested by the need to expand Hwy 10 in 1942. Bailey Station was moved back from Hwy 10 and to the west side of County Road 14 to make room for the expansion. Peterson slept in a portion of the small station until he married the teacher from Bailey's Station School. Then the couple moved a house next to the station and attached the two buildings to provide additional living space. The Petersons also started a dairy farm that helped supplement gasoline sales. Vic Peterson continued to operate Bailey Station until he died in 1977, after which it was closed. (Sources: Dominie Telschow, "The Bailey Gas Station: Playing Part in the Growth of an Industry," Unpublished SCHS Report, December 2004; Gemini Research, MNDOT Report S.P. 7102-100 (T.H. 10), April 4, 2001: 6; Kurt Kragness interviews with George Stonehouse, 6/4/2002, 6/19/2002, 6/24/2002; Jeff Ethen, "History's Long Haul on Highway 10," Historically Speaking (Winter, 2003); Bobbie Scott, "Transportation" theme resource paper, 2005; Edward Van Dyke Robinson, Early Economic Conditions and the Development History of Agriculture in Minnesota, 1915, 33-34; Gilman, The Red River Trails.) Theme statement Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy transportation and access to natural resources and economic resources. Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the Mississippi River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest. Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 16