ELBA, Minn. – A caller reported a Facebook post that a body was hanging from the top of the 100-foot lookout tower on a bluff over Elba. Winona County deputies climbed the tower. They found a blanket arranged to look like a body on a railing. They took down the blanket.
Tourist attraction. The tower was built in 1932 to watch for wildfires in the Whitewater River valley. In recent years it has been a tourist attraction. Access is by 632 narrow wooden steps to the tower’s base, then an additional 100-footc limb up to the lookout platform.