Editing Kasota, Minnesota (section)

==History==
Kasota was [[plat]]ted in 1855. "Kasota" is a name derived from the [[Dakota language]] word for "cleared off".<ref>{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n320 301]}}</ref>

On July 1, 1892, the Sontag Brothers, [[John Sontag]] and [[George Contant]], and their partner in crime, [[Christopher Evans (outlaw)|Chris Evans]], tried to rob a train between [[St. Peter, Minnesota|St. Peter]] and Kasota along the [[Minnesota River]]. The bandits acquired nothing of value, but their activities came under the review of [[Allan Pinkerton|Pinkerton]] detectives, and both were apprehended in June 1893.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnriv.com/sontag.html|title=The Sontag Brothers: Southern Minnesota's Own Train Robbers|publisher=mnriv.com|accessdate=November 28, 2012}}</ref>

===The stone industry===
[[File:2009-0805-Kasota-VillageHall.jpg|thumb|left|The Kasota Village Hall is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].]]

During the 1880s, the [[stone industry]] experienced an unexpected boom. During this time, C.W. Babcock took over his father's stone business. He began applying modern quarrying methods, and in 1889 formed a partnership with Tyrrell Swan Willcox, an immigrant from [[Rugby, England]], who was instrumental in promoting the use of polished [[Kasota limestone]] for interior and exterior residential use. Much of the industry's boom was caused by the railroads' expansion westward, which required large quantities of stone for trestles and culverts.<ref>Don Pauley et al. ''Kasota, a Historical Perspective''. Mankato, MN: Mankato State University Urban and Regional Studies Institute, 1976.</ref>

Babcock also was the first to begin quarrying Kasota limestone in and around the city of Kasota. The Babcock Company was the chief stone company during the city's early history, and the relationship between the company and the city was often contentions. At one point, the Babcock Company decided to blast within the city limits. This led to the creation of the park on County Road 21 in the town center, after the company was forced to fill in the quarry near the homes of city residents.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}

In the early 1980s, the Babcock Company went bankrupt. The Vetter Stone Company bought the Babcock quarries, further expanding the business, which now operates just outside the [[Mankato]] city limits. The Vetters were former employees of the Babcock Company who left to start their own company in the 1950s. The former Babcock Company plant in Kasota is now occupied by Door Engineering, which manufactures industrial doors. Much of the former Kasota quarry is occupied by Unimin Corporation, which mines silica sand for [[hydraulic fracturing]] ("fracking").

Kasota stone was selected as the primary stone for building the [[National Museum of the American Indian]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dcfossils.org/index.php/gallery2/ |title=Fossils in the Architecture of Washington, DC: A Guide to Washington's Accidental Museum of Paleontology |publisher=Dcfossils.org |date=September 21, 2004 |accessdate=November 10, 2011}}</ref> and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in [[Indianapolis]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eiteljorg.org/docs/about-doc/building.pdf?sfvrsn=0|title=The Eiteljorg Museum Building}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

===Namesakes===
Kasota (Dakota for "a cleared place")<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA273 |title=Minnesota geographic names: their ... - Warren Upham - Google Books |accessdate=November 10, 2011|last1=Upham |first1=Warren |year=1920 }}</ref> was the name of a wooden Great Lakes iron ore steamer, built in 1884.<ref name="boatnerd1">{{cite web|url=http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/p.htm |title=The Great Lakes Shipwreck File Vessel Names That Begin With P |publisher=[[Boatnerd.com]] |date=March 6, 1904 |accessdate=November 10, 2011}}</ref> The ''Kasota'' sank after colliding with the passenger steamer ''The City of Detroit'' on the Detroit River on July 18, 1890.<ref name="MHOTGL">{{cite web|url=http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=59897 |title=Kasota (Propeller), sunk by collision, July 17, 1890: Maritime History of the Great Lakes |publisher=Images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca |date=January 1, 2009 |accessdate=November 10, 2011}}</ref> The ''Kasota'' was salvaged and rebuilt in 1892<ref name="MHOTGL"/> but sank again after springing a leak during a storm off [[Grand Marais, Michigan]], on September 19, 1903.<ref name="boatnerd1"/>

The [[USS Kasota (YTB-222)|USS ''Kasota'']] was a naval tugboat, launched in 1944 and struck from the Navy list in 1961. It is believed that the ''Kasota'' (also known as the "Mighty Deuces") was the last wooden hull tug in the Navy at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nafts.net/ytb222.htm |title=Kasota |publisher=Nafts.net |date= |accessdate=November 10, 2011}}</ref>