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For residents of Rochester, August 21, 1883, began with oppressive heat and ominous stillness. By evening, the skies darkened and the winds began to roar. A tornado formed from these conditions, devastating most of the town and much of the outlying rural area. It killed dozens and injured hundreds, dropping people into cemeteries, scattering fish across the landscape, and plucking chickens bald. In the ruins of the small city, however, lay the seeds for its promising future: an emergency hospital, created to tend to the wounded, led to the establishment of the now world-famous Mayo Clinic. Before the storm, Rochester was best known as the hub of the wheat market in southeastern Minnesota. It was incorporated as a town in 1858, the same year that Minnesota became a state. ....