NEW ULM — Dr. Ann Vogel followed her dad in rounds all the time and worked in the clinic and lab when she was younger. As a child, her father packed the kids into the car while he did house calls. Despite always living in New Ulm’s city limits, she kept eight ducks, six chickens, and a rabbit in the yard.

“My dad finally said, this isn’t legal, and my mom was so tired of it; she thought it was smelly,” Vogel recalls.

Vogel had a magical childhood. Every Saturday throughout high school she would visit the poor farm, which her best friend’s parents ran. She and her friend each kept expensive horses there — Lady, her friend’s horse, cost $25 and Star, Vogel’s horse, cost $50.

“We rode those horses into the ground. When I think of what we did I don’t know why we’re still alive,” Vogel said. “We did bareback, Roman riding, and in the winter we would take a great big rope and hold on to the end and go riding through the plowed fields. It was a great way to spend my life. I had enough fun in my childhood to last three lifetimes.”

Ann also had a dog that lasted one night, but she does not have any pets now. The closest she got to the farm in her adulthood is joining the Farm-City Hub Club.

Vogel attended St. Paul’s Elementary School, and after graduating New Ulm High School she went to the University of Minnesota. From there, she went on to Philadelphia, where she attended the only remaining women’s medical college in the whole country.

“I obtained a bachelor’s in science in zoology, with premed focus from the University of Minnesota. I got into vet school because I didn’t want all my eggs in one basket, but I really wanted to go to med school. Only I wasn’t sure I would last out there in Philadelphia. It was so cold. When it’s cold out there so close to the ocean, it feels like your bone marrow is freezing up,” said Vogel.

She was going to do residency afterwards, but her mother passed away. Instead, she did a rotating internship at Hennepin County Hospital, and when she came home, she practiced with her father and his partner, Dr. Milton Kaiser.

“I was able to enter that practice and continue my education and go to any conference I wanted. So, I came home and was fortunate enough to practice 9 years with my father before he died,” said Vogel.

She applied for the Bush Clinical Fellowship and was successful in her application, practicing for 11 months between the Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Minnesota high risk OB. The fellowship was geared in addressing what she was seeing in New Ulm at the time.

“I love to take advantage of privileges that fall in my pathway. I went on to Itasca Freshwater Biology Station where I had so much fun. My path took me to medical school, and then I happened to find the American River Touring Association and the Wilderness Society they advertised two parties per year in these pristine places, each tour with a medical professional so people would want to go on the tours. And they gave me the trips, so I went on 6 or 8 trips,” said Vogel.

She traveled down the Colorado River, saw the Grand Canyon, went on a raft trip through Tara river in [former] Yugoslavia, went to the Northern Rockies on horseback, and took al passionate about long-term care a trip with her cousin to the Blue Ridge mountain area. Here, the sawmill river was in flood stage, and she had to carry all her stuff on her back.

“I almost drowned in that river but that is another story,” said Vogel. “I went to the Okefenokee Swamp where they had bull alligators that you’d be paddling along, and you’d think it was a log — so those were exciting trips.”

She only travels now to see family and practices freelancing by helping to give second opinions for patients and is very passionate about long-term care.

“I worked at the open door health clinic for people who were under insured or had no insurance. I was on the first board of American Medical Directors Association they formed to have medical directors in charge of skilled nursing homes. I went on and got a masters in zoology and microbiology and I never married. Maybe I was just lucky. Or maybe the good Lord said there were other things I should be doing,” said Dr. Vogel.

When she travels now, it’s to see extended family, her eight grand nieces and nephews. The latest sprout on her family tree arrived nine months ago and she just had a visit back, which made her glad.

“A New Ulm folk tale has been in my head for about two decades, and I’m hoping by this year a soft-covered book about it will be available. It’s called The Goose Town Heinzelmännchen Family and is about the oldest living citizens of New Ulm,” said Vogel. “I love kids to dip their toes into the land of the imaginary — never lose the fact that the world can be magical.”