Located in the woods of Cold Spring Minnesota is Assumption Chapel, and in Central Minnesota it is lovingly known as Grasshopper Chapel. The story of Grasshopper Chapel is a story of faith and of an answered prayer.
During the springs of 1856, '65, '73, and 1874 Cold Spring Minnesota was harmed greatly by Rocky Mountain Grasshoppers. The grasshoppers in this story should really be called Rocky Mountain Locusts, as they were said to be 3 inches in length and had a veracious appetite.
On a sunny April morning in 1876 the sky grew dark, the grasshoppers were back, and in record numbers. The farmers fields went from showing the beginnings of a fabulous harvest to completely decimated within a period of 24 hours. The farmers did everything to try to protect their precious plants, they fought back against the invaders with tar-covered sheets of metal dragged over their fields and set oil fires. Stearns County even offered a bounty by the bushel for the locusts.
The farmers in the Cold Spring area thought that they would have much better luck during the spring of 1877 as there had been severe cold snap the previous winter with temperatures at 30 below zero for several weeks (no this is not normal for the area.) In early spring the farmers, now deeply in debt from the past years of problems with the grasshoppers, went out and started to plant their fields with high hopes of a good harvest. Their hopes were shattered by the announcement from the Minnesota state entomologist who warned that because of the previous infestation that 2/3rds of the state was infected with the eggs from these insects, and that they would soon be ready to hatch. The community needed help, and Govenor John Pillsbury at a loss, wanting desperatly to be of assistance, offered what he could to help the farmers restore their faith.
Gov. Pillsbury donated $10,000 out of his own pocket to finance the construction of a chapel to honor the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and called for a statewide "Day of Prayer." In his proclamation he stated that all businesses should be closed on April 26, 1877. Everyone was to participate in "a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer in view of the threatened continuation of the grasshopper scourge."
Critics of Govenor Pillsbury nicknamed the Governor of Minnesota's assistance "Pillsbury's Best", a spoof of the now famous brand of baking flour. One of his most vocal critics, the Liberal League, stated of Pillsbury's announcement and generousity, "We hold that the belief in the power of prayer is palpably untrue, its influence pernicious, and in this day, a marked discredit to the intelligence of Minnesotans..." Then they finished off their comments with the statement "From the beginning down to this day, outside of so-called Sacred History, there is not one well-authorized instance of such prayer having been answered, not one."
The Day of Prayer came, and the state went quiet, and the citizens prayed. Then something miraculous happened on April 26, 1877, it began to rain down ice, killing the grasshoppers and their eggs as they hatched. " It was a miracle, the grasshoppers were gone!
The original wooded chapel built to honor the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin was destroyed by a tornado It was smashed into thousands of tiny pieces. But the statue of Mother and Child hand carved by J. Ambroziz, of St. Joseph, for the alter survived the terrible storm. Assumption Chapel has now been lovingly replaced by the citizens of Cold Spring, built completely out of what else but granite and still has the statue, made by one of the grateful farmers, on the alter.
There has not been another grasshopper plague in Cold Spring Minnesota since 1876.
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