As the citizens of Vining always say, “The door to Vining is always open and all are welcome!”
This is where you’ll find a bare foot weighing 1,200 lbs. and standing 12 feet tall, a giant metal coffee cup supported by a stream of pouring coffee, an enormous square knot, a larger than life-sized watermelon slice and other huge roadside figures. It’s an outdoor gallery of mammoth metal sculptures along the streets of Vining, created by Ken Nyberg. He grew up without all the “things of today,” life was much more interesting and in many cases downright fun. From a very early age Ken used his imagination to create things with his hands. And one day, several decades later, Ken used his hands to fashion a 1,240-pound iron foot in Vining, Minn. Ken followed that up with many other large, and some smaller, iron sculptures that dot the Midwestern landscape today like so many of the grain elevators he built when he was a construction foreman. Find out more at https://www.nybergsculptures.com/
Vining is also the hometown of NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg. To date, 57 women including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists and foreign nationals have flown in space. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, worked aboard the space station as a flight engineer for Expeditions 36 and 37. While Nyberg lived on the orbiting laboratory for six months, she performed experiments in disciplines that range from technology development, physical sciences, human research, biology and biotechnology to Earth observations. She also engaged students through educational activities in addition to routine vehicle tasks and preparing her crewmates for extravehicular activities, or spacewalks.
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg performs a test for visual acuity, visual field and contrast sensitivity. This is the first use of the fundoscope hardware and new vision testing software used to gather information on intraocular pressure and eye anatomy. (NASA)
