But the Hruskas — 84-year-old father Jim and his children Jenny Barnes and David Hruska ­– vow that they haven’t lost the war and plan to one day reopen the Dam Store back where it had been located for 114 years ­– right next to the Rapidan Dam — where the store was started by Jorgen Nelson to sell sandwiches to workers constructing the dam built to generate hydroelectric power.

The store was known far and wide for serving all comers — fishing enthusiasts, tourists and local customers with burgers and fries, shakes, onion rings, homemade potato salad, and an assortment of homemade pies (among the favorites, banana coconut and raisin). That, along with a dose of down-home Midwest friendliness that made those customers glad they came and vow to return.

“We have guest books started in the ’90s and have had customers visiting from all over the world — Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Egypt, Africa, China — and from every single state,” Jenny said. “Mom and Dad never believed in advertising; our business was all by word of mouth.”

It’s a business that Hruska and his late wife Linda purchased in 1972 when living in Fort Dodge, where Jim was working for Gus Glaser Meats after first coming to the city a decade earlier to work for another iconic Fort Dodge business, Kautzky’s Sporting Goods.

Shortly after graduating from high school in Mankato, Hruska met Rudy Kautzky while fishing the Blue Earth River. Kautzky was obviously impressed with Hruska and his fishing knowledge and offered him a job at his store on Fort Dodge’s City Square. Hruska first lived at the YMCA when he came to the city. He left that job for better pay at Glaser Meats, was drafted into the Army and served with military police in Georgia before returning to his job at Glaser. Back then, Hruska recalled, one of their favorite places to eat was Sylvia’s Restaurant. Among his friends were Jack Black, Jim Kern, Harry Dilgis, Lenny Will and Francis Shipman and his wife, Marcella.

Hruska met Linda Lou Leonhardt, a Fort Dodge Senior High School graduate, when both were in the wedding of her brother, and proposed to her on a drive from Fort Dodge to Mankato when he pulled off the highway in Wall Lake to pop the question. They were married in 1968 at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

“She had never fished a day in her life,” he said, “so I taught her to fish.”

Four years later, Hruska’s mother, Genevieve, let the couple know that the Dam Store was up for sale. They bought it and moved to Minnesota with their 18-month-old daughter, Jenny. A year after buying the store, they purchased the house next to it that also dated back to when the store was constructed. Their son, David, was born eight years later. Jim and Linda were married for 48 years before her death in 2016 at the age of 71.

The store was open daily, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., from May 1 to Nov. 1.

The business was closed during winter months for one reason: The old building was too difficult to heat.

Jim Hruska never lost touch with his Iowa friends; they would come to Minnesota in the summer to fish and when the store was closed in the winter, he would come to Iowa to pheasant hunt. William Ball and his wife, Evelyn, were Fort Dodge neighbors when Jenny was born and remained close with the family over the years. When Ball died last November in Webster City, his obituary noted that “William enjoyed going to Minnesota and spending time with his special little girl Jenny, making pies together.”

Hruska’s mother helped her son and his wife run the restaurant. Her grandchildren Jenny and David soon became involved. Jenny did waitressing and made the pies and David operated the grill — but they helped out wherever needed, assisted by high school and college helpers during the summer. The store sold fishing bait and at one time was a gas station. It also sold sodas and beer, snacks and cigarettes. Cash only was the policy: no credit cards.

The last week of June was a sad and unforgettable one for the Hruskas, their family and friends and the many people who had frequented their beloved cafe-style restaurant over the years.

On June 25, the Blue Earth River consumed the Hruska home (where Jim and David lived) when rain-swollen waters eroded the earth underneath. The river had built force with heavy rains the week before, skirted the dam when debris build-up prevented its flow and quickly wore away at the riverbank. A series of explosions occurred at power substations when the water reached them, and the Hruskas called 911.

Authorities told them they needed to get everything out of the house. Friends, neighbors, firefighters, county and power company workers all pitched in, but they had only a half hour to retrieve things from the house before it was too dangerous to be inside. About 85 percent of the belongings remained in the house when it collapsed and fell into the raging river waters. Jenny and her dad were at the Blue Earth County Park across the street along with many others when it happened. Video of the collapse has been viewed in national and local newscasts and on social media by hundreds of thousands across the country.

It was a scene she and her family will never forget.

“We have many memories of living at our house,” Jenny said. “We felt like we were the luckiest kids in the area. We always could hear the roar of the water going through the dam. It was actually relaxing to us. We could tell when the water was coming up and the ice was coming out. The vibrations would rattle our windows. Not only did we live on the Blue Earth River, we also had the Dam Store and the Blue Earth County Park across the street. We had a wonderful childhood living where we did. I couldn’t imagine growing up or living anywhere else. We love this area. Our ultimate goal is to be back.”

Three days later, on June 28, anticipating a similar collapse of the Dam Store into the river, Blue Earth County officials purchased the building from the Hruska family and demolished it so it could be removed from the site, to protect other properties downstream and lessen the environmental impact. Beforehand, officials worked with the family and friends to remove the bar, chairs, tables, booths and memorabilia from the building and place them in storage.

David Hruska estimates that most of the family’s two acres of property rest in the river.

“I never imagined this would happen in a million years,” he said.

His sister added, “You can’t imagine how hard it was to watch your life go into the river. It was our life; you never ever forget it. It was something you could never even imagine happening. No one had to be rescued from the river, nobody was hurt, nobody died. There is that silver lining, but it’s so hard to go down to the site and see your whole life there, gone.

“It was so hard for my dad — no house, no land, no business property. He and my mom gave their heart and soul to the Dam Store and our community and now he has nothing.”

Jim and David have moved in with Jenny and her husband in their home several miles away.

Jenny said there is no way to know how long it will be before county officials deem the ground safe to rebuild where the Dam Store existed next to the dam. The dam has remained intact, but the ground around it has been blocked off as well as the County Road 9 bridge.

“They have to make that whole area safe again,” she said. “A lot needs to be done yet.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited the Rapidan Dam area July 2. He was a customer of the Dam Store when he worked as a teacher in the Mankato school district and visited privately with the Hruska family in a mobile command trailer near the dam prior to addressing news media.

He told the media, “The community feels the loss because this family built something here. Communities are lucky if they have a place like this.”

“He wanted to help us anyway he could,” the Hruska family said. “He even gave us his personal phone number if there was anything we needed. When he lived in Mankato, he enjoyed riding his bicycle out across the dam. He also enjoyed a slice of pie.”

For the near future — perhaps a year or two — the Dam Store will reopen in downtown Mankato in a building once occupied by the Wagon Wheel restaurant. The Hruskas are leasing the space. It will be able to seat 74 customers, double the amount of seating in the original store, and will be open seven days a week.

David Hruska said the new store may open in early September and will include memorabilia rescued from the original store — pictures of the dam and the old store, a Wurlitzer juke box, Hamilton Beach malt mixers and pie coolers. He said a lot of customers have volunteered to help ready the building for opening and that a neighbor friend, Kathy Iverson, who worked at the Dam Store for the past 20 years, will join them.

“This is just a temporary option for us, stay in the Wagon Wheel as long as we can until we get the chance to rebuild in our own location. It might be a year, two years down the road. Nobody really knows that answer right now. Most of our property is in the river.

“Everything is going to be the same. We’ll try to make the feel much like the (original) Dam Store. It’ll be good to get back and see all our customers. And we’re going to make a lot of new customers at this location so we’re excited about that too. Starting out, we’ll go with what we’re used to — Jenny up front and me on the grill.”

Shannon Devens Whittet, daughter of Kathy Devens who is Jim Hruska’s sister, has been instrumental in organizing financial help for the Hruskas. The losses of the house and store were not covered by insurance because they were caused by a landslide.

Three different Go Fund Me drives have raised more than $225,000 for the Hruskas, Whittet said, and she has been selling shirts and caps emblazoned with “The best dam store by a dam site” and “Dam Store Strong 2024” to build on donations.

Whittet is organizing a fundraiser Aug. 9 at the Mankato Brewery. For her, the loss is deeply personal.

“The Dam Store has literally been part of my life since I was born; I don’t know life without it,” she said. “When my Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Linda first bought the store in 1972, my mom and grandma helped them run it. I was born several years after their purchase and have so many memories of the store. I would spend so much time out there during my summers. As I grew up, I started helping out at the store as well — it was sort of a rite of passage. My brother also helped my uncle Jimmy seine for bait before David was big enough to go. Everyone helped out. Currently, before the tragedy occurred, two of my children were working there … and the circle of life continued.

“The Dam Store is more than burgers and pies to our family. It’s the place where my brother and I, my cousins, my nieces and nephews, and my children all have pictures sitting on the stools at the counter. It’s a place that has seen my family through generations. It’s the place we’ve all heard my uncle Jimmy tell a fishing story … maybe more than once. It’s the place we’d all meet at over the summer because we knew if we wanted to see our family, that’s where we had to go because they were working. It’s the place where time slowed down and you actually had to talk to others because your Wi-Fi didn’t work … it was refreshing.

So while the nation waited to see if the little white house would fall over the cliff or not, we sat watching the river wipe away our history day after day. And each day, the river took more … until it was all gone.”

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