Seth Varner, creator of Wandermore Publishing, poses by New Ulm’s downtown mural during his March 27 visit to the community. New Ulm was the 99th Minnesota city visited in his mission to explore all 856 incorporated communities in Minnesota. Photo Submitted by Seth Varner

NEW ULM – Last week New Ulm and Sleepy Eye received a special visitor. Seth Varner of Wandermore Publishing came to New Ulm on Thursday, March 27, and then traveled to Sleepy Eye Friday, March 28 as part of his goal of visiting and documenting 856 incorporated communities in Minnesota.

Varner has completed similar projects in five other states, starting with his home state of Nebraska and moving on to Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota. Varner visited every incorporated city in each state, documenting his progress on Facebook and concluding by publishing a travel guide for each state. Last December, he announced on his Facebook page that he would next tackle Minnesota.

Varner started his journey through Minnesota in February and on March 27, New Ulm became his 99th Minnesota community visited and Sleepy Eye became number 100.

Asked how he decided which order to visit the communities, Varner said, “When you are visiting 856 cities in a state you don’t want to do it consequently. Otherwise they would all be a blur.”

His strategy is to break the state up into regions and set aside certain weeks to travel to that region.

“I’ll give myself eight days to cover the region,” he said. “I can usually do eight to ten towns in that time.”

The amount of time he spends in a community varies. Some of the larger communities take several hours to cover, while the smaller communities can be photographed within an hour.

“For New Ulm, I knew taking photos would take 12 hours,” he said. After photographing New Ulm, Varner spent the night New Ulm and in the early morning traveled to Sleepy Eye the next morning.

Photos taken by Varner during his stops in New Ulm and Sleepy Eye can be viewed on his Wandermore in Minnesota Facebook page. There are 100 photos posted for both cities, but Varner said that is only because Facebook sets a cap at 100 photos.

“I took 398 photos in New Ulm and 327 photos in Sleepy Eye,” he said. “Its nearly 800 photos between the two towns.”

Some of the photos that could not make it on Facebook will be published in his book later this year.

Since this is the sixth state Varner has traveled through, he has developed a system for how to explore a town. He does plan his community visits in advance, but there is also some improvisation.

“I start by looking at Google maps,” he said. “I scroll around and figure out how long it will take to photograph the town.”

With most communities, he tries to hit the churches and school but also other points of interest. Varner said in the case of New Ulm he had plenty of choices. Before coming to New Ulm he planned to visit Schell’s, Kaiserhoff, Turner Hall and the downtown area. He scheduled his visit to make sure he could see certain locations before they closed. In between these scheduled stops he tends to wander.

This was not Varner’s first visit to New Ulm. He came through the town in 2018 on a road trip with his father and brother. He said they were traveling from Omaha to Green Bay and passed through New Ulm. They did stop at Hermann the German and even climbed to the top. Because of that brief first visit, Varner realized New Ulm was an extensive town with a lot to enjoy.

On his latest visit, Varner said there was a long list of highlights. He liked the Glockenspiel and was fortunate to see the figures come out at scheduled time. The Kaiserhoff reminded of Omaha’s German American Society. The different beer halls at Schell’s and Turner Hall were also a highlight.

In Sleepy Eye, Varner was impressed with Sleepy Eye Brewing Company and the monument to Chief Sleepy Eye. Varner said exploring all the historic sites in Sleepy Eye took longer than anticipated.

He was also surprised to see the Linus statue near Sleepy Eye library. He said it struck a cord to learning the Peanuts comic character Linus got his name from a real-life native of Sleepy Eye. Varner said he new his audience would be impressed by that connection.

After visiting New Ulm and Sleepy Eye, Varner said he is a little over 14% through Minnesota. His goal is to visit the remaining 86% of the state between now and November.

Varner said aims to have the Minnesota travel guide published by Nov. 25 to make it available for holiday purchases. He said most of the book is put together along the way.

Varner said he does intend to return to New Ulm and Sleepy Eye at a later date to explore the things he missed, but also to show the communities to his fiance, who has a strong connection to her German heritage.

“It was interesting because I visited New Ulm and Sleepy Eye back to back,” Varner said “and the Facebook posts for both cities are the two most popular for this leg of the journey.”

All of Varner’s community posts can be found on his facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/WandermoreMinnesota