I always love running across these stories. Traditions that have managed to stay alive and prosper for many decades make for interesting stories.

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This story is about a small, and when I say small, I'm talking about 30 square feet. Those are pretty tight quarters for any kind of business and they have been in business for 104 years. "We affectionately refer to it as a one-butt popcorn stand," said co-manager Les Bergquist.

This 30 square foot popcorn stand shaped like a big box of popcorn is located in Granite Falls, Minnesota and is only open from May Day through Labor Day. It's always a pretty big deal every year, in Granite Falls, when the open up on May Day.

"The opening day of the popcorn season in Granite Falls is almost like a national holiday. We've had people line up down the block here all the way down and yeah, it's amazing," said Les.

According to fox9.com, it all began when brothers Fred & Julius Ernstson started with a mobile popcorn cart in 1919. The first permanent stand was constructed in the late 1920's and that stood until 1969.

That's when Fred's son, Burnett built the current stand that looks like a giant box of popcorn. "We would love to know the answer to who came up with that idea. We have searched and searched. We believe it was local contractors who built it, but we don't know who came up with the idea for it to look like a box of popcorn," said Les.

 

At any rate, it seems like the perfect destination for a Minnesota road trip. "We have people come from all over the place. We have people who come from the metro. We have people who come from South Dakota heading to their lake cabin on Friday in Minnesota and they'll make a special trip through here," said Les.

Any popcorn left at the end of the day is given to the birds to eat. We have the fattest sparrows in Granite Falls. A lot of it gets spilled around town at night," Les added.

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