Over the past 100 years, the current location of Ally’s Corner at Fourth Street and Minnesota Avenue has undergone significant change quite a few times over.
In addition to feeding their resort guests, Bob and Helen Kohl hosted community dinners for major holidays, serving up nearly 250 meals in four seatings.
Lumber had originally drawn people to the area, and sawmills continued to thrive, but the rough-and-tumble town of the late 1800s had matured to the point of being a hub for railroads, bringing freight and passengers and taking huge loads of lumber away.
Bemidji, during the 1930s Depression era, was a mixed bag of tough economic times, resilient individuals who helped each other out, the construction and development of roads, buildings, and lakeshore, and promotion of year-round tourism.
The October 1929 stock market crash and the Dust Bowl that followed in waves throughout the 1930s put much of the country into a tailspin, but Bemidji adapted and survived. The three main banks in Bemidji at that time First National Bank, Security State Bank and Northern National Bank remained open and endured.
Downtown businesses like the Bemidji Woolen Mills, Gill Brothers, Bemidji Hardware and others survived. Money was tight for most people, so they adapted grew bigger gardens, foraged more, hunted, raised chickens and traded what they had for what they needed. With everything that occupied them, they still found ways to entertain themselves and to celebrate.