Rapidan Dam Store new location approved in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Mankato City Council has approved a new downtown location for the Rapidan Dam Store after flooding earlier in the summer made its previous location uninhabitable.

The new location, the former site of the Wagon Wheel Café, has been vacant but is considered ideal for the reopening. The café, with its perfectly vintage and old-school interior, is already undergoing some rehabilitation and is expected to be ready for business sometime in September.

David Hruska, the owner of the Rapidan Dam Store, which will now include the café, shared his excitement about the new location with FOX 9.

"Yeah, it’s got that old-fashioned feel to it," Hruska said. "But one nice thing about it is it’s about twice the size of what we’re used to."
The reopening of the café has been met with overwhelming community support. Multiple fundraisers and the sale of about a thousand T-shirts have helped the Hruska family get the Dam Store back in business. 

The Rapidan Dam Store is demolished after officials determined the building would likely be swallowed by the Blue Earth River (Courtesy: Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office). (Supplied)

"We’d have never been able to do all this on our own," Hruska said. "That’s how we’re getting by - the support from all our family."

The reopening comes seven weeks after the Blue Earth River began eroding the shoreline around the Rapidan Dam, eventually forcing the closure of the bridge next to the dam due to unstable piers. The county purchased the original Dam Store site with plans to tear it down, leaving only the store’s tile floor behind.

The bridge will need to be replaced, a process that could take several years once funding is secured.

However, Hruska remains optimistic about rebuilding the Dam Store at its original location.

"It’s not a hope; it will happen, just don’t know when," he said. "That’s the problem."