Findings of Fact, Site Location, and Information on
Rochester AFS M-101, based on information provided by US Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Used Defense
Site (FUDS) document E05MN0030 of 1996
Site Location
On Township Road, app 8 miles northeast of Rochester, Olmstead County, MN
44 - 04 - 10 North, 92 - 20 - 20 West
Site History and Findings of Fact
22.2 acres fee and 0.81 easement acres were acquired and the Air Force constructed and operated Rochester Air Force Station, which included 11 structures, between 1954 and 1957.
The radar station was excessed by the Air Force to GSA in July 1958, which conveyed the property in 1959 to the Minnesota State Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare. It was then conveyed to Penz Farms, Inc in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
The facility, as it existed at the time of the 1996 report, consisted of eight major buildings one mess hall, a large garage or shop, and two buildings possibly used for storage. Lesser buildings consist of a pump house for water supply and a small building, possibly used for sewer outfall monitoring.
The large, earth-mounded water supply reservoir is still in use.
Penz Farms, the current owner at the time of the 1996 report, was using the site, buildings, and water supply, with exception of the sewer-monitoring building, which was not being used. Two of the `old` barracks had been remodeled and are currently rental units, with the other two barracks used for farm and related activity storage, as is the mess hall and the other two storage buildings. The largest building on the complex is being used as a shop/garage.
The site is generally cluttered with new, used, and `junked` farm and other equipment.
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