horses per capita than anywhere else in the country, so Babcock added a gazebo to the property and had the place remodeled to look like a Kentucky horse farm, complete with cupolas on the roof, an arched entrance, and of white fencing. The ballroom was sold to Keith and Kim Warner in 1997, then to Scott and Kimberly Aamodt in 2001. The Aamodts added dance lessons with the concept of expanding the Withrow Ballroom to include a future conference center, motel, bar, and restaurant. The ballroom closed on November 1, 2008, a consequence of the great recession, and the building went into foreclosure. A pending sale of the Withrow Ballroom fell through in February of 2009, when prospective owner Molly Behmyer withdrew her application to May township for a conditional use permit, which would have allowed the ballroom to remain open seven days a week. John Rawson of Hugo subsequently formed the non-profit Withrow Historical Society in the hope of acquiring and preserving the Withrow Ballroom. In November 2009 Paul Bergmann bought the ballroom and expanded the facility's events to include a dinner theater and classic car and tractor shows, selling the Ballroom at auction in 2017 to Laura Miron Mendele. Lawrence Xiong purchased the facility from Mendele in December of 2019, who rebranded the ballroom as the Keystone Wedding and Events Center. Many popular musicians have played at the Withrow Ballroom, including the Six Fat Dutchmen, the Lamont Cranston Band, Bobby Z., and Grammy-award winning musicians Yanni and Jonny Lang, in addition to many local bands and comedians, including Kevin Farley. The Withrow Ballroom has hosted the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival and the Minnesota State Polka Festival. It has been the setting for hundreds of fundraisers (including a fundraiser for Zach Sobiech), and a venue for conferences, class reunions, wedding receptions, ceremonies and anniversaries. Geography Withrow is located in the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province in the ecological subsection of the St. Paul–Baldwin Plains, which consists of oak woodland, oak savanna, and prairie. Oak woodland and brushland was a common ecotonal type between tallgrass prairie and the Eastern deciduous forest. When the area was originally settled, vegetation consisted of oak openings and barrens: scattered areas and groves of oaks (mostly bur oak and pin oak) of scrubby form, with some brush and occasional pines, maples, and basswoods. Land cover today mostly consists of cultivated crops, pasture, and