new ulm

After years of knocking around the Midwest as a laborer, Bill Thomas found a better niche in New Ulm.

With native artistic talent, a dash of casual entrepreneurship, a skilled crew to help and some solid sales connections, his two-year-old company now supplies screen-printed T-shirts and sweatshirts to a national market. Thomas is responsible for the graphics, which range from his original designs to illustrations furnished by customers.

The Taoist religion defines yin and yang as the male and female principles in nature, total opposities that somehow meld together to produce all that exists. In plain Western lingo, it could best be summed up as the synergy that sometimes occurs when “opposites attract.”

“I’m the kind of person who has these very big pie-in-the-sky ideas,” said Donna Lambrecht, her words bubbling up like popcorn through a hot air popper, “while Curt is a practical realist. My cup is always half full, his half empty.” Their synergystic relationship has created New Ulm’s two largest gift shops, both of which zero in on that city’s burgeoning tourist trade.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Ron Peterson, manager of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing plant in New Ulm, ignores that ancient axiom. He’s on a determined mission to revitalize what’s always been one of 3M’s most successful plants.

Al and Rae Ann Arneson seek their vision of the future where others rarely look – in the past.

They’ve dusted off historic labels and rescued long-lost recipes, freshening the tastes of thousands. Their searches led to 1919 Root Beer, Buddy’s Orange, Buddy’s Grape and Ulmer beers. Now they’re returning Hauenstein beer to New Ulm, where it was brewed until the company folded in 1972. “We’re bringing products back from years gone by, good products,” Al said. “We’re bringing back memories.” Rae Ann adds that “what’s fun about the products we sell is that good memories get better over the years. We’re making good memories better.”