Yo-ho-ho! A merry pirate Christmas
Make no bones about, the skeleton residing on a small sandy island two miles south of Minneota is preparing for the holidays, too. The approximately 20 foot by 15 foot island on the west side of County Road 3 was formed by Mother Nature after the south branch of the Yellow Medicine River overflowed its banks the past two springs. Jason and Jessica Laleman, who own the property one-quarter mile east of their farm where the island formed is located, decided to have some fun with the sandbar early this summer.
"The river runs on the other side of the road and pushed all this sand through the culvert and made this," said Jason, pointing to the mound of sand that gives the appearance of a small island beach. The Lalemans, with the help of their children, Chase, Max, Ella and Molly, initially secured a lawn chair and a pink flamingo on the island to make it look like a tropical beach. It soon drew the interest of passers-by.
"We started noticing all these lights shining toward our house at night," Jason said. "We knew they were (turning around) to get a better look at why there was a lawn chair and a pink flamingo there."
As time went on, the Lalemans began to add items to the sandbar to make it look like a shipwrecked island. And as more items have been added, the popularity of the island has increased, too.
"We've heard several people tell us they like our little island," Jason laughed. "We were surprised so many people have seen it." Among the additions to the island this fall was a skeleton that the Lalemans purchased at Menard's around Halloween.
"We put a bandana on his head to make him look like a pirate," said Jason. "We call him Slim. And we anchored him down with rods so he doesn't blow away."
The skeleton pirate also had a skeleton parrot resting on his left shoulder. The Lalemans also added a small plywood boat that Chase had once made in the Boy Scouts, giving the display a look as though the vessel landed on the island.
"We painted it to look like a pirate ship, and then put a (black) sail on it," said Jason. "Then we put an old trunk out there and put a bunch of sand in the bottom so it wouldn't blow away. Then we added some plastic necklaces and beads and things to make it look like a treasure chest."
The Lalemans also spray-painted a large red "X" in the middle of the island as though indicating where the pirate treasure was buried. Slim was holding a treasure map that also showcased a large red "X".
"We had the skeleton digging for a about a month with a shovel," Jason laughed. "His luck with finding treasure was better than those on Oak Island."
The Lalemans even captured Slim's adventures in a video. "We made a little video when there was water down in here," Jessica told.
"We had the pirate standing in the boat (looking through a 'spyglass') that was sailing to the island. We've had a lot of fun with it."
For Christmas, Slim now dons a "Santa" beard, hat, and suit and stands beside a decorated Christmas tree facing the road.
"Jessica got these solar Christmas lights to put in the tree," Jason noted. The Lalemans farm 200 acres 2 1/4 miles south of Minneota. Jason is also a salesman for Royal Tire in Marshall, while Jessica is a paraprofessional at the high school.
Although they have no name for the island, the Lalemans are enjoying the new parcel of land they've acquired. "We have been having fun planning and staging the scenes," said Jason.
For now, we'll just refer to it as Christmas Island.
And instead of Santa's familiar call of "Ho-ho-ho", Slim's pirate call on the island is probably "Yo-ho-ho".