Maple Valley Golf Country Club

Maple Valley Golf & Country Club is a public course set in the Root River bluff country southeast of Rochester, where the terrain changes sharply from the surrounding farmland. The Root River wraps around the property, which is marked by tall white limestone bluffs, rolling ground and stands of mature trees.

The land was first purchased in 1855 by James Marshall, shortly after Minnesota became a U.S. Territory. Part of it passed to George Green, who dammed the river to run a saw mill in 1856, with the upper ground farmed as cropland and the lower kept as pasture and woods. After changing hands many times, the property was bought in 1945 by Torval and Minnie Idso, who farmed it with their three sons.