Home of the largest prairie chicken on the planet. Rothsay’s mild weather is ideal for hiking, biking and other outdoor activities! In the winter time come enjoy ice fishing on one of the 10,000 lakes in Rothsay’s backyard.
The area hosted a state plowing contest called Plowville in 1955 with state and national dignitaries attending. In 1972, Rothsay High School’s football team captured the state’s first ever nine-man football state championship with a 64-12 victory over Cotton. Three years later, Rothsay was designated the Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota.
To commemorate that designation Art Fosse designed and engineered construction of Rothsay’s famed prairie chicken monument, termed by some tongue-in-cheekers as a monument to fertility. The monument was dedicated in mid-June of 1976 in connection with Rothsay’s celebration of the nation’s bicentennial observance.
Art’s son, Paul Fosse, recently completed more than two decades of service as mayor of Rothsay, and he did it all on write-in votes through the years, never once having filed for the post of mayor. The newspaper USA Today even took note of that accomplishment.
In 2008 and again in 2009 the magazine U.S. News & World Report honored Rothsay High School by designating it one of the nation’s best high schools, an honor reserved for only three percent of all secondary schools in the nation. In 2009 Otter Tail Power Company in a pilot project chose Rothsay to implement an energy savings program which is still ongoing. (Gary Wigdahl, a former award-winning newspaper editor)
