The Key on Minnesota Highway 19 near the Marshall airport is gone, but it will never be forgotten.

I have great memories of both the roller rink and the bowling alley at The Key. Its history corresponds to my years of growing up in Marshall.

Ewald Pagel operated The Key from 1975 until the mid 1990s. He reopened the business for a short time after the millennium. An entire generation of pre teens and teenagers enjoyed it as a place to gather with friends.

It’s where I learned to bowl, never scoring more than about 160. The nice thing about bowling is that you never totally lose the ability to knock down pins once you get experience. I rarely bowled as an adult at Marshall Lanes, but when I did I almost always broke 100.

On the rink I became comfortable cruising around in circles on quad skates. My roller skating as a child was a main factor in my decision to rollerblade starting in the 1990s.

For about 15 years I enjoyed going out on my blades. I had a route that started and ended at my parents’ house on Marguerite Avenue. It took me past Legion Field, out to the airport, down Lyon County Road 7, and back along the bike trail.

Ewald’s son, Mike Pagel of Fulda, credits the popularity of youth roller skating and bowling as reasons for the success of The Key.

The Key was always a good, safe place to learn both. It offered an affordable place where groups of kids could have fun.

It wasn’t until about a month ago that I learned details of how The Key got started. I had a conversation before dinner with Ewald’s brother, Duane Pagel, who lives at Boulder Estates with his wife Marian.

We talked about the history of the land that became Marshall’s Ryan Field airport in the late 1940s. A portion of the land was the site of Duane’s Future Farmers of America crop project.

After talking about the airport, we moved on to The Key. Duane helped Ewald build it. They got the alleys from the bowling alley at the Kandi Mall in Willmar, which underwent a complete upgrade.

Prior to being shipped to Willmar the alleys were used in Japan after World War II. Duane told me how bowling became immensely popular in Japan after the war. Some of the establishments had 24-hour schedules, with some people bowling in the middle of the night.

After a few years, the excitement for bowling wore off in Japan. As alleys closed down, some of them were shipped back across the Pacific Ocean to the United States.

In 2026 it would cost much more to build a bowling alley or roller rink. Construction price tags have skyrocketed in recent years. Also there would be questions about costs such as equipment, maintenance and insurance liability.

Even with all that in mind, people still often say that we need at least one more place for children, teenagers, younger adults, and families.

As recreation sites like The Key disappeared, so did almost all of the drive in restaurants, drive in movie theaters, dance halls and arcades.

We don’t have any more car hops, dusk to dawn movie events or dance bands. We only have memories of places like Marshall’s A&W on West Main, Marshall’s Star Lite theater, the Blue Moon ballroom at the Lyon County Fairgrounds or the Tivoli Arcade in the Marshall Square Shopping Center.

To some extent event centers have replaced traditional dance halls. The decline of youth bowling and roller rinks has been accompanied by a much greater emphasis on competitive youth sports at an earlier age.

I’m not sure if highly organized youth sports is good or bad. It depends on what we’d hear from the kids if they gave a completely honest answer. I’d venture to bet that at least a small percentage of the young athletes feel obligated. They don’t want to disappoint their parents.

I know that kids need some time, especially in the summer, for just having fun. Marshall’s new Aquatic Center will help with that. The Marshall Area YMCA, the Marshall-Lyon County Library and other places offer excellent programs for children and teens. It still wouldn’t hurt to have more.

Adults also need places to gather with friends, places that are relaxing and moderately paced. Even in the often hectic world of the 21st century, it’s good to have a few hours at a pool, a bowling alley, a golf club, a movie theater or anywhere that revolves around pure and simple fun.

–Jim Muchlinski is longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent