I think it is a crime to tear down one of the few historical buildings still left on main street…
—Al Fleming, Lake of the Woods

By Patric Hedlund, Jill Neptune and Gary Meyer

We don’t know if Al Fleming of Lake of the Woods is psychic, but three days before a demolition crew rolled into town to begin smashing down the Alpine Lumber and Hardware store, the man who has lived in Lake of the Woods for 50 years wrote an angry note to this newspaper about why…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

February 9, 2016 Alpine Lumber and Hardware being demolished

Above: Robert Reiter (left) bought his home on Canada Trail in May 2015. (right) Dennis McFarlane said that 25 years ago—the day after he bought his Canada Trail home—Alpine built the retaining wall at the edge of his road. He’s been hoping that wall would be removed. The demolition supervisor said plans call for the wall to stay. Left: Ace Hardware’s Harry Spyrka watches as the building where his family started in the hardware and lumber business comes down.

The first wall came down on Tuesday, Feb. 9

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This is part of the February 12, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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