Fill 'er Up With Music

Sep 23, 2011

If you like good music, be sure to swing by the Crandall Pumps this weekend. Owner Dave Swain is holding his annual fall music festival there from 2-5 p.m. Sunday afternoon. He’ll have a few light refreshments, like candy bars, coffee and ice cream. But the real treat will be the local musicians, whom you can hear from your lawn chairs just a stone’s throw from the rugged Coteau hills, which pass just to the east of town.

The historic gas station is one of the only remnants of Crandall, which lies about seven miles straight east of Conde. It was a full-service station that catered to drivers passing through on Highway 20 until it closed in 1971. At the time, it was the only station in the country still using gravity pumps. The Standard Oil Company wanted to include them in a museum, but the station owner produced a receipt proving he owned them, so they still stand in front of the tidy white building.