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Article by Michael Worcester from the Cokato Historical Society's newsletter In the Midst Of, October, 2005, Vol. 25 No. 4.  Standard Oil Station, Broadway and Third. It is known that the first car seen in Cokato appeared in late August 1900. As written in Cokato’s First Century:
“the occupants were a man and wife reported to be en route to Mille Lacs Lake to hunt and fish. The Enterprise editor wrote that the vehicle ‘speeded” along at a rate of 12 miles per hour when on a good road, and the horseless carriage was quite a sight for those who had never seen one before, which probably meant almost everyone in Cokato.” It would be another three years before car ownership arrived in Cokato, when businessman Emil Erickson and farmer John Ojanpera each purchased a new Oldsmobile. Gust Akerlund joined the ranks of car owners two years later, when he purchased a 1905 Oldsmobile from a stranger who drove into town. In that day, there were no service stations to supply the essentials needed for auto ownership. Oil and gas were bought in bulk from hardware dealers. It would be another thirteen years until an actual service station opened in Cokato. And when it did, it was under the ownership of the largest corporate conglomerate in the world, Standard Oil. Article by Michael Worcester from the Cokato Historical Society's newsletter In the Midst Of, January, 2004, Vol. 24 No. 1.  The exterior of the bowling alley, taken from a street scene postcard in 1943. The sounds of rolling balls and crashing pins came to an end on Friday, April 17, 1966. That evening, the last game of bowling was played at the Cokato Bowling Center. While not really a long-standing institution in the city, the bowling alley was a popular spot for people to gather and spend time with family and friends.
Article by Mike Worcester from the Cokato Historical Society's newsletter In the Midst Of, April, 20o5, Vol. 25 No. 2. Editors note: This article is in no way intended to be a complete history of the Cokato Hospital. It is only intended to provide a general overview of this venerable institution's story.  For almost fifty years, a hospital served the people of Cokato and the surrounding townships and communities. Located at the corner of Third Street and Swanson Avenue, just east of downtown, the Cokato Hospital played a vital role by providing much needed medical services. An imposing two-story structure, the hospital was originally built sometime during the late 1880s as a private residence for the A. W. L. Almquist family. The Peter Stevenson family later resided there. The demolition of this structure, beginning in December 2003, gave countless people the opportunity to recall their memories of this place.
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