Just a ten minute drive out from the bubble of Winona leads you to the portal of peace. Kinstone in Fountain city, WI is a 30-acre haven with a rich history and collection of stone structures where the main goal is connecting and exchanging energy to and from the land. Kristine Beck is the founder, creator, and director of Kinstone.
“Kinstone is a concatenation of the two words kin and stone and kin. If you look up its definition it’s family or related people and or anything really, it can be your kin. And so I have broadened the definition for myself to be anyone or anything that we connect to, which is pretty much everything in our environment,” Beck said. “It’s family and its connections, and then stone is stone and if you’ve been to Kinstone, or if you’ve not, you will quickly find out if you visit, that there is a lot of big granite stone here, and that’s where the stone part comes from.”
The land was once used as a dairy farm run by her parents. When Beck had the opportunity to purchase a piece of the land after her parents stopped farming in the 1990s, she jumped on it.
“In the early days of Kinstone, we had a permaculture school here and there were a lot of people involved and there were a lot of building projects. The buildings that you see here, the chapel, the dragon’s keep, the sauna, the straw clay cabin. They were built by many, many, many people who took classes here or volunteered work or were paid to do work here,” Beck said. “There was a very rich community of hands-on people assisting with getting structures created here. Now that we’re sort of in more of a less building mode there aren’t as many people regularly on the land doing work to further the mission of the land, as far as creating things. Now the community has extended to people who feel a call to be here on the property, on this land, to experience this energy and to help other people access their own transformational journeys”
On Oct. 5, Kinstone celebrated their autumn open house joined by Tansy’s Traveling Kitchen FOOD TRUCK, live music from THE BUS BOYS, as well as a member of the Rochester Caledonian Pipe Band playing a Bagpiper in the Stone Circle. The main event however was Beck’s talk and Q&A about the stories of the Stones.
“Kinstone is primarily a place of peace. I think of it as a peaceful place in a world in chaos…people need places where they can experience a little peace, a little shelter from the day to day craziness and so that’s what kinstone is about…More than anything, I want everyone that comes here to embrace that and and further that peace and that exchange of energy.” Beck said. “It’s just what I do. It’s my life and the stewardship of this place is what I do, and whether it’s hard or easy or it’s that’s almost not the question. It’s just what I do and if and how I can maintain that.”
She attended school in Winona at the Cathedral grade school, which is no longer in Winona, then Cotter Highschool and two years of college at both St. Teresa’s then St. Mary’s.
“I’m fourth generation on this land…I’m the one who stewards the place, I created it and make sure it’s taken care of,” Beck said about Kinstone. “I decided to purchase a piece of the land of my home farm. When I had the opportunity to do that after my parents stopped farming in the 1990s I just said, ‘I want some of the land. I’m not sure what I want to do with it, but I want to save it,’ because I just feel very connected to it, and I don’t want it to be lost.”
She purchased 30 acres of land in 90s and didn’t have much of a plan for it at the time.She notes that she feels that the land was waiting to be Kinstone since the area has such a energy and the stones have magnified that energy.
“I feel like I can inspire other people just by doing what I do, not by leading a ritual, not by creating a new program, but just by stewarding Kinstone I’m able to inspire other people,” Beck said. “They come here and are inspired by just the signage, by what they’re seeing, by the paths, by nature, by the prairie, by the pollinators that are here and the birds, and then other things. And so to me, that’s what makes it worth it; when people come here and are they find themselves transformed and inspired to do better and be better.”
They are open throughout the summer months of May 1 to the autumn months October 31. At the end of October, depending if November’s long term weather forecast is reasonable, Beck notes they may stay open, but with reduced hours in November. Those things and other updates on Kinstone are noted on their website, www.kinstonecircle.com, or on their Facebook page, Kinstone Circle, or their Instagram page, @kinstonecircle.
“It’s amazing how many people don’t know kinstone exists, even though they’ve lived here forever, or it’s been in the news. It’s been in the newspapers, and yet you can walk down fountain city and every third person has not heard of it, and yet it’s a fountain city address, or same thing in Winona. There’s a number of people I know in Winona that they’ll come up here and they’ll say, we just heard about this place. And so it’s it’s helpful. Word of mouth is really a great way to get people to know that it’s here, but it’s really hard to describe. So I could sit and describe to your audience exactly what Kinstone is in my idea and that there’s all these great stones and stone circles and these things, but you could describe it as eloquently as you can, and it’s not enough. You have to experience it to really understand what’s here. So I recommend people try to figure out how to get here to experience it.”
