MANKATO — Last summer, Joe Holtmeier was optimistic but impatient about his plan to transform 90 acres of quarry land into an expansive system of public mountain bike trails, the region’s largest private campground and the upper Midwest’s only cable park for water sports enthusiasts.
“It’s going to happen,” he said in late July. “But what’s frustrating is how long it’s taking.”
Eleven months later, there’s been no waning of Holtmeier’s enthusiasm for transforming the quarry he owns just north of Mankato’s city limits. And there are still no doubts in his mind that it will move forward.
“100% confident,” he said, while giving a tour of the property along Third Avenue.
The project now has a name — Rockwell RV & Adventure Park. It has a project manager — Kyle Kaldor. And it has a timetable — one that has moved from uncertain in 2024 to utterly ambitious in 2025.
When will construction of the mountain bike trails begin?
“Late fall,” the owner of Holtmeier Construction predicted.
And when will people be setting up camp in the first of what could ultimately be 300 campsites?
“June,” Holtmeier said after only a slight pause.
Asked if he was talking about June of next year, he turned to Kaldor: “What do you think, Kyle?”
“Yeah,” said Kaldor, the man Holtmeier hired in April to bring the wide-ranging quarry redevelopment to fruition. “Maybe.”
The two men were in the southern section of the quarry, just south of Pilgrim’s Rest Cemetery. Dramatic limestone cliffs rose on all sides of a pond that campers will be able to use for kayaking, fishing and swimming. Within the quarry walls, the land is mostly level and at an elevation within a foot or so of where Rockwell’s smaller, more serene campground is to be developed.
“Just put utilities in here — water, sewer, electricity — and it’s ready to go,” Holtmeier said.
Tentative concept plans show nearly 90 campsites there, served by a restroom/shower/shelter building.
So, how about the northern side of the development — the one with the larger RV campground and the elements that will put the “adventure” in the park’s name?
“I don’t know if it will be June,” Holtmeier said with a laugh.
Project schematics for that parcel show a wake park where water skiers and wakeboarders will be pulled around a much larger pond by an overhead motorized cable system, flipping over ramps, rails and other floating obstacles. Also called a cable park, the recreation areas are common in southern states and are often described as the water-sports equivalent of a wintertime ski resort.
That section of Rockwell will also include a separate aquatic park, along with adjacent deep-water climbing walls where rock climbers would be able to forego the traditional safety harnesses because any falls would be into the pond below.
Concepts show a restaurant/lakeside pavilion at the wake park with restrooms and showers for roughly 200 campsites on Rockwell’s northern and middle areas, not counting about 60 more sites that could be added in a future phase on the eastern side.
The water park components will obviously take a bit more time to complete, but when Holtmeier provides an estimate on when people will be wakeboarding at Rockwell his answer doesn’t include a number like 2028 or 2030.
“I don’t know … August?” he said, meaning 14 months from now.
‘Hit it from all sides’
It was two years ago that Holtmeier brought his concept to Lime Township, asking them to amend their mine reclamation ordinance to allow for commercial recreation and campgrounds. After 14 work sessions of the township board, the ordinance was approved on June 11 with no opposition from the public and no dissenting votes.
Although the pace of the process frustrated him at times, Holtmeier called the final rules “reasonable,” complimented the township leaders and said the delay was beneficial in some respects.
“We’ve been able to build enthusiasm and steam and really think through what we wanted this project to be while the township was working through the ordinance,” he said.
The next hurdle is an environmental assessment, something consulting engineers Bolton & Menk hope to wrap up by October.
“Once we get approval of that, we’re going to kind of hit it from all sides and work to get it all done,” Kaldor said.
Detailed plans for the project will be submitted to the Lime Township Board as part of a permit application. If the board’s determination is that the plans abide by all of the rules in the recently passed Recreation and Campground Ordinance, the permit should be granted. State regulations, including oversight by the Minnesota Department of Health, will need to be followed in the construction of the campground and related utilities and amenities.
‘Amazing on a lot of fronts’
Although the campground and water park will be a private for-profit endeavor, Holtmeier’s vision for the tapped out limestone quarry has long included plans to make a portion of the unique landscape available for free public use. Local businesses, charitable foundations and area residents will be hearing plenty about that in the weeks ahead.
The perimeter of the entire quarry property, plus roughly half of the northern quarry site, are to be donated to a nonprofit entity formed to take ownership and assume maintenance responsibilities for a large mountain bike trail system that will be open to the public.
Mankato Area Mountain Bikers, the local organization that maintains the nearly six-mile Kiwanis Mountain Bike Trail located between Highway 169 and the Minnesota River on Mankato’s north side, is working with Holtmeier and Kaldor on that portion of the quarry redevelopment.
“The mountain bike trails will all be nonprofit and run by the mountain bike club and built with donated funds and will be completely separate from the RV park,” said Justin Rinehart, who has been a member of the MAMB board of directors since the organization was founded more than 10 years ago.
The reaction to the project by local mountain bikers is, Rinehart said, “beyond words.”
“To have a gift like this come along … this is beyond any of our comprehensions, ever, to create a very unique destination trail for riders,” he said. “And it’s not just that there’s land being given to us — it’s the type of land. Because it’s not in the flood plain where our current trails are. It’s going to be built out of materials that can be ridden almost all of the time. So it will be amazing on a lot of fronts.”
The current trails at Mankato’s Kiwanis Recreation Area are great when they’re usable, he said.
“But the land’s available for the usage because it floods. And unfortunately it floods and it floods yearly and there’s been seasons where we’ve only had the trails open for people to ride one or two weeks the whole summer.”
MAMB President Jason Thate, speaking on Thursday following several days of rain, knew those trails would soon be under water once more. And he also knew, when the water eventually subsides, he would be again asking members to donate time and effort to make repairs.
“Looking at the river level an hour ago it’s ‘Here we go again,’” Thate said.
The trails at Rockwell, in contrast, will be built directly on stone whenever possible, including on ledges carved directly into the quarry walls and on large limestone slabs donated by Holtmeier Construction and Vetter Stone Co. Other areas will use gravel and crushed stone that will drain quickly rather than turn into the mud bogs that riders find during wet periods on many southern Minnesota mountain bike trails.
Holtmeier said his company is providing not only the land and the materials, it will also donate the use of heavy equipment for construction. Fundraising will be required to cover the wages of equipment operators plus the expense of hiring outside firms with expertise in trail design and construction.
In a recent presentation to the Region 9 Development Commission, he compared it to constructing a new home where Menard’s provides the lot, the lumber, the materials and the appliances — the only cost for the homeowner being the carpenters, electricians and plumbers.
“John Menard says, ‘Here, you can have this lot, you can have this section of my parking lot, build your house here. And whatever you need to build your house, just go in the store and take it off the shelf. But you’re going to have to find your own guys and gals and craftspeople to screw it together and put it together,’” Holtmeier said.
“That’s what we’re doing with the mountain bike trail. Vetter Stone is donating big stones to us. Holtmeier has all kinds of big stones, sand, gravel, we have everything. I’m donating the land. We just need to get the people, the craftsmen, (and) pay the wages to put things together. So it’s a fantastic opportunity.”
‘Great way to build community’
A small section of trail was completed in the quarry this spring to serve as a demonstration project. The segment includes a waterfall, massive cut stones, a historic circular saw blade once used for slicing through limestone and vistas of the broader quarry.
All of those elements — plus additional historic markers, antique quarrying equipment, century-old structures and remnants of a legendary dairy farm — are to be incorporated throughout the trail system.
“I love history and we want to tell the history,” said Holtmeier, who turns from the past to the future — and back again — as quickly as a mountain biker on a hairpin turn.
One moment he’s talking about Sir Pietertje Mercedes the 14th — the renowned bull that was the star of the Holstein dairy farm that once occupied the northeast corner of the property. The next moment he’s envisioning bikers from around Minnesota, from all walks off life and all philosophical and political viewpoints, chatting as they catch their breath at one of the historic markers or beside a water feature along the trail system.
He compares it to the spontaneous discussions between strangers viewing the artworks in downtown Mankato’s sculpture walk.
“To create those conversation pieces and those places were those conversations can happen, I just think it’s a great way to build community,” he said, contrasting it with social media. “I think it’s a much more constructive way to spend your time, communicating face-to-face, outside, in nature.”
Holtmeier also makes the case for how the project will boost the future prospects of Mankato, giving young people and families opportunities to engage in outdoor activities like water skiing and mountain biking, serving as a tool for area employers when attempting to recruit and retain workers in a tight labor market and enhancing the local tourism and hospitality sector.
‘Really going to be different’
All of those arguments will be made repeatedly during efforts to garner corporate sponsorships for sections of the mountain bike trail system. The first six miles of trail on land donated by Holtmeier are expected to require about $1.5 million in donations. MAMB is in the process of trying to get access to adjacent land, including along a power line easement that leads south from the site and into Mankato, that could allow the trail system to grow by another 10 miles. Creating all 16 miles would require an estimated $3 million in sponsorships and contributions.
The strategy was to lay a foundation before starting the solicitations: build a trail section to provide a sample of what’s to come, get the township ordinance passed and finalize the maintenance agreement with MAMB.
“So when we go out and ask people, we can say ‘This is where it’s going to be. Yes it’s a permitted use. Here’s what it’s going to look like. And this is who is going to maintain it,’” he said.
Thate was one the club volunteers who put the finishing touches on the demonstration trail in mid-May. While creating a preview of coming attractions, the workday also provided evidence of how people tend to react when they visit Rockwell.
“Even the thousand-foot trail that we made to show it off, we get ‘wows’ all the time,” Thate said. “… It’s going to be probably the most popular trail in southern Minnesota, including the metro. That’s what we’re hoping.”
Although local mountain bikers provided design advice on that sample trail, hiring firms with nationwide experience in trail design and construction is critical in ensuring Rockwell Mountain Bike Trails reaches its full potential, Rinehart said.
“Even though we ride trails, it doesn’t make us the best at making them,” he said. “A race car driver might be able to drive the car fast, but they don’t know how to build the track.”
In addition to fundraising, the project’s developers, and local organizations who support it, will be working on ways to give more people a sneak peek of the site.
Mankato Area Bike and Walk Advocates may add it to their fall festival showcasing the region’s various bike trails. Greater Mankato Growth, the area’s chamber of commerce and visitor’s bureau, wants to do an event, according to Kaldor. And there may be an attempt to offer tours to a more general audience of area residents.
The pre-tour presentation to the Region 9 economic development group provided plenty of proof of Holtmeier’s zest for showing off the future Rockwell RV & Adventure Park — which he considers something of a legacy project after decades of building roads, utility projects and commercial sites for others.
“When you come to the quarry and see what we’re capable of doing with the stones, with the water, it’s really going to be different and it’s going to be very nice,” he promised. “… We’ve already invested a whole bunch of money into this project, and it’s going to be fantastic.”