Olaf's utility-grade wind turbine directly powers up to one-third of the campus. During 1887 the Manitou Messenger was founded as a campus magazine and has since evolved into the college's student newspaper. Herman Amberg Preus, President of the Norwegian Synod, laid this foundation stone of the St. Olaf School on July 4, 1877. Olaf's School, opened on Januat its first site under the leadership of its first president, Thorbjorn Mohn, a graduate of Luther College. The three men succeeded in receiving around $10,000 in pledges, and thus went on to form a corporation and to buy a plot of land and four buildings (old Northfield schoolhouses) for accommodations for the school.
Together they petitioned their parishes and others to raise money in order to buy a plot of land on which to build this new institution. The catalyst for founding St. Olaf was the Reverend Bernt Julius Muus, and he sought out the help of the Rev. With nearly all the immigrants being Lutheran Christians, they desired a non-secular post-secondary institution in the Lutheran tradition that offered classes in all subjects in both Norwegian and English. Many Norwegian immigrants arrived in Rice County, Minnesota, and the surrounding area in the late 19th century. Herman Amberg Preus, (1825–1894), a key figure in organizing the Norwegian Synod.