The City of Winona has a long-running dread of cottonwood trees.
When the Winona City Code first went online in the 1990s, I was amused by the long list of things that Winona officially considers nuisances. Some nuisances make sense, like “Explosives kept without a license.” One that made me laugh is having a cottonwood tree that expels too much cotton (section 32.01(b)(14)).
But lo and behold! The 1908 city ordinances are on the Krueger Library retention list, and they have an entire chapter—chapter 46—entitled “Trees, Cottonwood.” Section 3 states, “Any tree commonly known as the ‘cottonwood tree’ … which sheds its seeds in such a manner as to annoy the comfort of any considerable number of persons, shall be deemed a public nuisance …” Winona's war on the cottonwood is a Hundred Years War (and counting).
Finkelnburg, W A. The Ordinances of the City of Winona, Minnesota... Winona, Minn: P. J. Barth, 1909.
Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. This is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.
