The Pantown Brewing Company will host an event on Saturday in honor of a big picnic that took place over 100 years ago in St. Cloud. PanStock will feature live music, games, hot dogs, burgers, beer and a cornhole tournament.

On its Facebook page Pantown Brewing says that on July 4th, 1917 the creator of Pantown Automobiles Sam Pandolfo hosted a giant picnic that featured 15,000 pounds of beef and 8,000 loaves of bread. The purpose of the event was to unveil the Pan Car prototype and to encourage folks to invest in Pantown stocks.

The event is scheduled to run from noon until 10 p.m. at the brewery, which is located at 408 37th Av North in St. Cloud. Live music acts scheduled to perform include John Larson, Tim Thole, Nate Ness and Pick It Up Pete.

According to Mnopedia.org, the first Pan automobile was released to the public. Only one year later Pandolfo was sentenced to ten years in prison for mail fraud.

The former insurance salesman and teacher chose St. Cloud as the location for his auto company because it was near Duluth's iron ore mines and because St. Cloud had two major rail lines with two power dams on the Mississippi River.

Ultimately just over 700 cars were produced during the company's existence. In 1919 Pandolfo, along with all of the company's officers, was convicted on seven counts of mail fraud and one count of attempted mail fraud. He would end up serving three years in prison.

The Pan Motor Company mainly produced car parts for other companies until folding in 1922. Pantown Brewing opened in December of 2018.

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