Bovey, Minnesota, is where my grandmother, Marcellaine Scinto, lived for nearly fifty years. I visited there when I was a kid and now I visit only in cyberspace. It still feels good.

The last time I visited Bovey was in 1995, four years before my grandma died. She was 99 years old. She had told me many times to not ever worry about coming to her funeral, but instead to visit her while she was alive. I did.

Here is the sound of grandma's voice -
If you lived in Bovey any time from the early 1940s to the 1990s, I'm sure you knew her.

I grew up in Minneapolis, and Bovey is about a four-hour drive from there and it was another world for me. My family liked to go camping when I was a kid, and I didn't, so I would stay at grandma's. She always had plenty of drawing paper for me, and I would walk around Bovey, marveling at its treasures. The grown-ups couldn't understand what I found so fascinating about a little town that was slowly dying after the close of the mines. The grownups still don't understand, but I don't care anymore. I like Bovey!

For corrections and comments please contact Brad. All copyrights reserved. This page was updated on March 12, 2012

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This page is done just for fun.

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Small towns are nice, but they were never practical for me. The best jobs are in the big citites. But even when I lived in Los Angeles, I insisted on making it a small town, and I knew a lot of people who did that, too. It's done by taking the same attitude that you would have in a small town - find people that you trust, greet people by name, wave to people going by in cars. Talk to strangers. And wherever I went, I would ask people if they knew about Bovey, Minnesota. And a lot of people did!

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Go to> Bovey Farmer's Day - The Most Important Day of the Year!

Go to> John Greenway in Ajo, Arizona and Coleraine, Minnesota

Go to> Phoenix historical images

Go to > The history of the street names in Phoenix, Arizona

Go to> Sunnyslope and Cactus Business Directory from the 1950s

Go to> The history of street names in Los Angeles, California

Go to > Santa Barbara photos from old postcards

Go to> Ford Mustang 5.0

Go to> Saab Sonett III

Go to> My brother Roger Hall's wildlife drawings in vector format

Go to > Brad Hall's professional blog

Contact Brad directly

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Bovey, Minnesota, jewel of the iron range

Photos and images of Bovey, Minnesota

This is where my grandma lived, on 5th Avenue in Bovey, Minnesota. It is right across the street from the elementary school. The door was never locked. There was a lock on it, but it didn't work.

Bovey City Hall. This is where the library is, about two blocks from grandma's house on the main street, highway 169. I think they have re-routed the highway these days, but it doesn't matter to me, it's just the main street. When I was a kid I could check out books just by saying that I was the grandson of Marc (pronounced with a soft c) Scinto. The last time that I visited, in 1995, Candy (Foss) was working there. I met her husband Brad at the print shop.

 

Here are my parents, Mary Lou (Scinto) and George Hall leaning against a car in front of the Bovey School in 1949. The car belonged to a friend of theirs, and it was brand new.

 

The most important day of the year - Bovey Farmer's Day!

 

The Bank of Bovey, The Prigge Bank.