As the highest point in the Leaf Hills, Inspiration Peak is one of the most scenic areas in Otter Tail County. Minnesota author Sinclair Lewis found the peak so pleasing he wrote:

“From its bald top there can be seen a glorious 20-mile circle of lakes scattered among fields and pastures like sequins fallen on an old paisley shawl.”

Lewis also praised the “enchanted peace and seclusion of this place for contemplation.”

Lewis’s descriptions inspired the name Inspiration Peak as it was designated a Minnesota State Wayside in 1932.

In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Even though his writings were often critical of small town life, his books Main Street, Babbit, Elmer Gantry and It Can’t Happen Here made him a literary icon.

Lewis’s fascination with Otter Tail County went beyond the Leaf Hills. He was a regular guest at the River Inn in Fergus Falls despite his initial misgivings.

“At first I thought with all the churches and lack of drinking establishments, Fergus Falls would be the most boring place on earth. But if you sit back and observe, there are enough odd characters and strange events to fill a notebook.”

Odd characters? In Fergus Falls? What or whom was Lewis referring to?

“At the entrance to the River Inn is a book and souvenir store. The store actually has some books, a feature not always found in small town bookstores! The proprietor is this thin, school masterish looking man of about 50 who grabs me and begins to babble nonstop.”

The babbling man who bent Sinclair Lewis’s ear was Harold Featherstone. In addition to owning the River Inn Book Store, Featherstone was an amateur magician who lived with his elderly aunt Elizabeth. On January 16, 1952 under the delusion that they did not have enough food or fuel to last the winter, Featherstone used the blunt end of an ax to kill his aunt in one of the town’s most notorious events. He was committed to the St. Peter State Hospital where he died two years later.