Named Locations

Osk Landscape Supply

Address: 4800 County Road 12, east edge of Ransom Falls commercial fringe.

A working warehouse with an adjacent retail area, set in a six-business commercial strip on a gravel lot backing against a drainage ditch and an empty field. The other five businesses: a farm equipment parts dealer, a propane supply company, a freight logistics broker, a metal fabrication shop and an empty unit that last housed a tire service. The lot is practical and unlovely, the kind of commercial fringe that every county seat has because some businesses require space and low rent and access to county roads.

The building: 12,000 square feet of industrial warehouse with a 1,000-square-foot retail area at the front entry. Steel construction, 1988. Loading dock on the south wall with two bay doors, one of which is functional and one of which was damaged in a 2019 storm and repaired in a way that technically works but requires you to know the trick with the left release handle. The overhead lighting is fluorescent on pull-switches, not a panel, which means the lighting can be selectively controlled in sections. Vera uses this for inventory management. The adventure stage uses it for other purposes.

The warehouse floor is organized: steel shelving in parallel runs, heavier materials staged near the loading dock, smaller items near the retail entry. There are two forklifts, one in regular use and one that needs a hydraulic line replaced that Mirel has been meaning to get to for three months. There is a small office mezzanine accessible by a steel staircase, overlooking the main floor from a height of twelve feet.

The Dispatch Bar & Taproom

Address: 8 Calder Street, two blocks south of Main Street, in a building constructed in 1892 as the Ransom Falls Railroad's dispatch office.

Calder Street is not the main commercial street and is not trying to be. It has a hair salon, an insurance office, a union hall that is used three times a year and the Dispatch. The bar's exterior is unremarkable in the way of buildings that have been in the same place long enough to stop trying to attract attention; a painted sign, a screen door and front windows whose glass has the slight imperfection of original 1892 manufacture. Inside: a long bar along the north wall, ten stools, six tables, two pool tables in the back half of the room. The tin ceiling is twelve feet high. Behind the bar, framed in oak: a railroad map of Carver County from 1898, hand-drawn on linen paper, showing routes that no longer exist. Roy has refused three offers to buy the map. He is not particularly sentimental; he just doesn't think anyone else should have it.

Open Tuesday through Sunday, 3 PM to midnight. Beer selection runs to regional craft and domestic. The spirits selection is considered and not extensive. There is no cocktail menu. "What do you want?" is the full menu.

Roy in the bar: He is at the bar from open to close, behind it approximately half the time and at the corner stool at the far end the other half. To use the back room: ask for Roy and mention the Threshold arrangement or the Society by name. Roy will look at them for a beat, nod and say he'll have someone bring coffee.

Kessler's Diner

Address: 14 North Main Street, forty feet from the corner of Main and Court Street where the county courthouse occupies the block.

A lunch counter with eight stools and twelve booths, fluorescent lighting, a specials board and the texture of a place that has been cleaned every day for sixty years without ever quite losing the smell of the 1962 version of itself. The coffee is Folgers. The pie is homemade. The breakfast is served until 2 PM.

Bud is at the counter from 6 AM to 2 PM, Tuesday through Sunday. He is not behind the counter in an official capacity; he employs two cooks and two servers. He is at the counter because that is where the information is and Bud runs Kessler's Diner the way his grandmother ran it and his mother ran it: as an information service that also serves food.

The Carver County Courthouse

Address: 1 Court Street, north end of Main Street.

A 1921 brick courthouse, well-maintained, housing the county's full administrative function: clerk's office, recorder's office, assessor's office, the county judge's chambers and the sheriff's department. The records here go back to the county's founding in 1842 and are maintained by Hector Merazo with the pride of someone who considers the completeness of the archive a personal accomplishment.

The Harland Inn

Address: 2140 Route 47, ~18 miles south of Ransom Falls.

Route 47 is a two-lane state road running north-south through agricultural flatlands, the most direct route between Ransom Falls and the Shelford corridor. The Harland Inn is at the 47/County Road 6 intersection: twenty-four rooms in two single-story L-shaped buildings arranged around a parking lot, a vending machine alcove and an office that is staffed from 7 AM to 10 PM and has a drop-box key system after hours. The sign is original 1978 neon, working on three of its five letters.

The Harland does steady business with traveling farm equipment sales representatives and the occasional family en route to somewhere more interesting. Its rates are $79/night. It does not ask questions about guests who pay cash, because enough of its clientele pays cash that asking would cost it business.