Max Weinmann’s hardware store in ruins the morning after the cyclone, 21 August 1904

The cyclone of 20 August 1904

A storm tore through downtown Waconia, killing five people, injuring more than 20 and damaging over 100 homes. These photographs were taken in the days after.

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What the storm took

About $500,000 of damage in town, in 1904 dollars.

City HallThe 1890 hall collapsed. Its wooden chairs were found still standing in their rows.
ChurchesTrinity Lutheran lost its steeple; St. Joseph lost much of its roof.
HotelsThe Sherman House lost most of its roof.
The lakeThe steamboat Niagara, built in 1883 to carry 300 passengers, was destroyed.

Sources: MNopedia and the 1976 National Register nomination for Coney Island. 1904 photographs displayed courtesy of the Carver County Historical Society.

The 1890 City Hall. City Hall lay in ruins beside Manteuffel’s saloon, almost untouched. The 1909 City Hall was built on the same spot.

The same streets today

11 more matched views. Drag across each photograph.

Max Weinmann’s Hardware Store

21 August 1904 and 2021

The morning after, from the balcony of Julius Manteuffel’s saloon at 100 South Elm Street, looking east. The St. Joseph School cupola shows above the roof on the left.

Elm and 1st Streets, looking southeast

August 1904 and 2021

What was left of the hardware store and its neighbours.

From the school roof, looking east along 1st Street

August 1904 and 2020

Damage around St. Joseph Church, many of its shingles gone.

From the school roof, looking northeast

August 1904 and 2020

Coney Island of the West in the background, wreckage along Main Street and the brick North Star Hotel on the left.

St. Joseph Catholic Church

August 1904 and 2022

The original small church, partly damaged, on the right.

The Sherman House, Elm Street

August 1904 and 2022

The two-storey hotel, missing most of its roof, across Elm Street from the church.

Elm and Main Streets, looking east

August 1904 and 2022

Houses lifted and broken along Main Street.

Trinity Lutheran Church

August 1904 and 2022

South Elm Street on the left and 2nd Street. The storm took the steeple.

Trinity Lutheran Church

August 1904 and 2022

The brick walls held. The church stood until 1987.

Elm Street looking south

August 1904 and 2022

Trinity Lutheran without its steeple at far left, Manteuffel’s saloon left of centre and the roofless Sherman House in the middle. All three are gone today.

Main and Vine Streets

August 1904 and 2022

Beattie’s Bar at 155 West Main Street.

Another storm, 1965

On 6 May 1965 a tornado outbreak struck the Twin Cities area. The National Weather Service photographed this damage at Waconia.

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Uprooted trees and wreckage near Waconia after the tornado of 6 May 1965