Photo courtesy of Seth Varner Nebraska resident and travel writer Seth Varner poses for photo near the downtown Marshall sign during a visit last week.

MARSHALL — Area communities have gotten a chance to shine over the past couple of weeks as a Nebraska man posted hundreds of social media photos documenting southwest Minnesota cities.

Seth Varner said his stops at local landmarks and businesses are part of a bigger project — to visit and document every one of Minnesota’s 856 incorporated communities.

“There’s a lot of fun things in these towns,” Varner said Monday.

Sharing the unique features of small communities has become part of Varner’s work as a travel and history writer.

Varner visited cities in Lyon County and several neighboring counties last week. He was in Marshall on Feb. 25.

“It was a fun visit overall,” he said.

Varner documented local landmarks from the Civil War monument outside the Lyon County courthouse, to Southwest Minnesota State University. He even stopped to eat at the Brau Brothers brewery.

“They had the best Reuben sandwich I ever had in my life,” Varner said. That meant a lot coming from a Nebraskan, he said.

“Reubens were invented here,” he said.

Minnesota is the sixth state in Varner’s Wandermore project. He started out by visiting every city in his home state of Nebraska as a college student. Varner went on to do the same thing in Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and North Dakota. He has also researched and published travel books for each state.

“The project kind of became my life, more or less,” he said.

The Wandermore project had a couple of different inspirations, Varner said.

“The whole thing started back in April of 2020,” he said. Varner was a college freshman, and found himself having to go home to Wahoo, Nebraska during the COVID pandemic.

“I was like, I want to make something out of a nothing summer,” he said.

At the same time, Varner also remembered the fun of going on road trips to small towns, as his dad did genealogy research. He decided to take his own road trip.

“I wanted to go visit every town in the state,” he said.

Varner recruited a friend to go with him around Nebraska, and he kept his mother up to date on their travels with a Facebook page.

“It kind of blew up,” Varner said of the page.

Later, people suggested that Varner should turn his trip photos into a coffee-table book.

“So at 20 years old, I’m saying, ‘I’m going to wing this. I’ll try to publish a book,'” Varner said.

The project was a success, and Varner tried heading out to other states.

Varner’s travels are partly funded through donations, and he said donors’ names will appear in the upcoming Minnesota book.

Trying to plan how to visit more than 800 Minnesota cities was a little intimidating, Varner said. But by now, he has a system.

“I start with a Rand McNally map,” to find all the cities, Varner said.

He also split the state up into chunks that he could visit within a week’s travel time. In January, he put out his planned itinerary for southwest Minnesota on social media.

“I asked people for suggestions for things to see and do,” Varner said.

Varner covered a lot of ground in the first segment of the Wandermore in Minnesota project, visiting 74 communities in eight days. At the same time, he’s also writing short histories of each city for his Facebook posts and future book.

“I use 10 to 15 sources for each community,” from plat books to city centennial history books, he said.

Varner said he’s met a lot of people while working on the Wandermore project. There have even been times when he’s been “pulled over” by a local resident curious why he’s taking so many photos around town.

People also share their memories on Varner’s Facebook posts.

“I’ve gotten so many stories from people,” he said. Some are from former residents looking back at their hometowns. “I know the posts have really touched a lot of people’s lives.”

Varner said his goal will be to finish the Wandermore in Minnesota book this year, although there isn’t a publication date set yet. People interested in being notified when the book is published can sign up for reminders at Varner’s website, wandermorepublishing.com.

Varner said his travels have made him appreciate being from a small town, and want to encourage small-town tourism.

“There is something to do in every community,” he said.