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Bemidji Woolen Mills
Four Generations of Keeping People Warm
words & photography by Kay & David Scott | CNHI Travel Writers
During a September journey to North Dakota , we scheduled a two-night stop in Bemidji , Minnesota , a community of 16,000 hardy souls residing 218 miles northwest of Minneapolis . Bemidji is a charming college town hugging the southwest bank of the large lake after which it is named . What a delightful place for a couple of Southerners to visit in the early fall . Winters , with an average January nighttime temperature of minus 2 degrees would be an entirely different matter . We ’ re talking serious cold here .
With the bitter cold of northern Minnesota winters , you can rest assured Bemidji households have their closets and basements crammed with cold-weather gear . Fortunately , as fall arrives and the foliage begins exhibiting its colors , town residents can walk a short distance and supplement their clothing stash . Four blocks from towering statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe , the blue ox , is Bemidji Woolen Mills , a business in which the same family has manufactured and sold cold-weather gear for over a century .
During our visit to the mill and its retail outlet we met up with family member and current owner , Bill Batchelder , who proudly offered a brief history of the business . Ira Preston Batchelder , Bill ’ s great-grandfather , was proprietor of a general store in Bemidji when in 1920 , he and son , Ira Hubert ,
An entire wall of the Bemidji retail store is filled with a selection of socks , gloves and mittens .
44 February | March 2023 Thomasville Scene