IT WAS THE NIGHT THE BANK BURNED

Carlton Lee. "It Was The Night The Bank Burned." Cokato's First Century (Cokato Historical Society, 1979) p. 35.

"I hear a fire siren!" A Cokato fireman was sitting down to a Christmas Eve supper in 1935. It was a blustery night. A snow-clad gale howled out of the northwest. As the night wore on the temperature was to drop to ten degrees below zero. Fire had started in the basement of the Community Drug Store, located next door to the First National Bank building, facing Third Street. George Butcher, who operated a restaurant south of the bank corner, facing Broadway, heard sounds of explosions. Through a window he saw smoke pouring from a basement window of the drug store. He phoned in the fire call. 

Read More