​Margaret Anderson, "Sunset Over the Silage Pile." In The Midst Of, Cokato Historical Society (Late Fall, 1996) vol. 16 no. 4.

​It was the closing hours of Monday, September 25, 1978. I sat on a bench outside the Green Giant plant near the slab on which the trucks deposited their 20-25 ton loads of sweetcorn. Thousands and thousands of tons had come and gone over the summer, dumped on the slab and pushed over to the conveyor belt which would take it in to the huskers. It would emerge from the cookers hours later, ready for the warehouse. I felt a sad sense of history that night as I watched those last cobs of corn roll by on the belt,  because it was the end of an era I was watching. After seventy-five years of operation, Green Giant’s parent company had decided earlier that year the Cokato plant would be closed after the 1978 pack.  

Little Red Jug, Cokato High School, 1972 Yearbook.

​Sports rivalries are not limited to just the professional or collegiate ranks.  High schools are noted for their sometimes spirited rivalries also. 

In the case of Cokato High School, one of their more fierce rivals was their neighbor to the west, Dassel.  Football was one of the sports that drew upon that competitive spirit. To acknowledge that spirit, the schools took a cue from the Universities of Minnesota and Michigan--who play each year for the Little Brown Jug. 
 
In the case of CHS and DHS, they played for the Little Red Jug. According to the scores written on the Little Red Jug, the rivalry seems to have started in 1966, with Cokato beating Dassel 26-13. Cokato also won the final game between the two schools in October of 1971. What remains a mystery is who came up with the idea, Dassel or Cokato?

​Football was not the only sport that saw a spirited rivalry over an inanimate object.  The Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato hockey team has one with Willmar.  They played for a cream can.  Not just one can though; there were two.