On Sunday, September 20 from 1–4 p.m., the Valley Grove Preservation Society invites you to spend the afternoon with us for live music, wagon rides, history, children’s activities, coffee and cookies, and plenty of time to enjoy the churches, prairie, and oak savanna.

Participants in this course will observe and describe the landscape near the Valley Grove churches, a deep dive into a small part of the county. This area of elevated ridges and deep valleys sits astride three of the five biomes of Minnesota: Hardwood Forest, Tallgrass Prairie, and, between forest and prairie, Oak Savanna.

Please join us on Aug 18th, 2026 from 4-6pm at Loon Liquors located in Northfield, MN for an event called Cocktails for a Cause, also known as Non-Profit Tuesday. During this time window 20% of net proceeds/sales from food and cocktails will go directly to us! It’s a win-win!

This year’s Summer event, the Artmakers had a sing along in the Wooden Church.

This year the Valley Grove Preservation Society will feature “The Big Bur Oak.” You are invited to bring your favorite painting, photo, sketch, or craft of from the Big Bur Oak at Valley Grove for the two-hour pop-up exhibit in the Stone Church. Coffee and treats, of course, will be served.

Update: February 15, 2026 1-3pm: We had beautiful weather and an excellent turnout for our 3rd Annual Doughnut Hole Roasting Event. Please enjoy these photos and we hope you to join us in years to come.

This year the Valley Grove Preservation Society will feature “The Art of Valley Grove.” You are invited to bring your favorite painting, photo, sketch, or pastel of Valley Grove for the two-hour pop-up exhibit in the Stone Church. Coffee and treats, of course, will be served.

Congratulations to Steve and Barb Strack, neighbors to Valley Grove, who were the winners of the lottery draw. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to Valley Grove Preservation Society, PO Box 75, Nerstrand MN 55053, or online.

Update: Our Steeple Restoration project has been paid in full! The left over money that was contributed will go to painting one side of the wooden church this Spring. Thank you…

On the prairie surrounding Valley Grove, there are the beginnings of seven peaceful and scenic memorial groves. The initial cost of a tree, including mulching and watering until the tree is established is $500.00. We will gladly accept larger donations and put them to good use. Remember that any donation is tax deductible.

Seventeen acres of Valley Grove prairie were put to the torch in April, leaving a blackened landscape as counterpoint to the waving beauty of the adjoining dry thatch of the previous year’s growth. The burn area, a month later, is now a lush field of green with golden alexander already blooming in great profusion.

The shrew was so tiny that the spike that had been used to impale it had nearly passed through its entire body, pushing a bulge of hide out on the opposite side. It was either a pigmy shrew or a masked shrew, the only shrews this small occurring in this area. These are among the smallest mammals on the planet, seldom weighing more than six or seven grams (depending on when they last had dinner), with head and body length less than two and a half inches. For a weight comparison, a nickel weighs five grams, brand new.