From a one-person office in 1995 to a thriving team of 200+ in 2025, every client, project, and employee-owner has played a pivotal role in shaping Alliant’s success.
To celebrate this journey, we’re taking a closer look at some of our milestone projects that brought us here. Join us for our blog series, “The First Thirty Years: Clients, Projects, Employee-Owners,” where we will highlight our biggest accomplishments and the people behind them.
The Mississippi Jewel
A conversation with John Dillingham (Founder and CEO), Clark Wicklund (Vice President), and Mark Rausch (Principal).
The Opportunity
The Mississippi Jewel is a golf course-based residential development located in Lake City, Minnesota. The ambitious project’s journey began in 1997 when Alliant, only three employees strong at the time, won the contract after John Dillingham met with the developer. The project marked a major milestone for our firm, bringing on Clark Wicklund, who joined Alliant that summer, drawn by the opportunity of working on such an exciting project. It also helped solidify Mark Rausch’s commitment to Alliant as an intern.
First Alliant Headshots (left to right) John Dillingham, Clark Wicklund, Mark Rausch
The Story
John: At the time, we were a very small team. The Mississippi Jewel was massive—around 1,000 acres, and a Hale Irwin-designed golf course—it felt like we were biting off more than we could chew, but we did it, and we were successful. The Jewel set the tone for how we wanted to be as a firm, always taking on bold challenges. On Clark’s first day, he was already diving into stormwater management on this huge project, with a trout stream running through it!
Clark: Yes, that was my introduction to Alliant. My background is hydraulics, hydrology, and land development, but this project was certainly beyond my experience level at that time. However, there’s always a way to figure things out. The site was bordered by Miller Creek to the south and Gilbert to the north. I remember visiting Miller Creek—the area we planned to discharge stormwater—and seeing trout swimming under the bridge. I knew enough to know that was not a good thing. So, we worked with the area’s DNR hydrologist and ultimately developed a system for the entire project. Zero discharge for anything equal to or less than a five-year rain event, which at the time was not common. But it was necessary to protect the stream’s temperatures. The system was accepted and permitted, and the trout are still there today.
John: Part of the process involved writing an AUAR, which was the environmental documentation for the site. It took about two years to complete and secure approval from the City. By that point, Mark Rausch had joined the team.
Mark: I was fresh out of school when I started working on the Mississippi Jewel. I remember staking key locations of the golf course in the dense woods. We marked the future greens, which led to some adjustments in the course layout. Aerial photography was relatively new, but I remember the developer would pay to have the site flown.
John: With a piloted plane. That was cutting edge back then!
Mark: Yep. I liked being out there because you only know so much by looking at LiDAR, which was new too. We created topographic maps because we couldn’t survey the whole site due to its size, which allowed us to identify key locations and natural features.
John: Those were the days! When we were so small that one day you’d be in the field gathering data, and the next you’d be in the office drawing up what you had seen the day before.
Clark: The Mississippi Jewel was certainly a high-profile project for Alliant. Even though it wasn’t in the Metro, its scale—and Hale Irwin’s involvement—certainly raised our profile. It gave us a major project to reference when we started having discussions with national home builders. And it introduced us to clients and partners that we still have to this day.
John: For sure. For years after, whenever we met with a homebuilder, we spoke about the Jewel; it’s always part of our story. People were impressed by this small firm coming in and getting this big project approved and delivering excellent engineering. It was a massive undertaking, and we were a small company of young engineers. I had just started Alliant, and we were doing grading projects like McDonald’s and Kwik Trip, and that was great—but this opened the door to the projects I really wanted Alliant to do. Walking this big, beautiful site, with Lake Pepin less than a mile away, I thought “these are the kind of projects I want Alliant to take on.” And it wasn’t just the land development, we also realigned a Wabasha County highway—which ultimately led us to start working on Design-Builds.
Clark: Beyond the work itself, this project taught us the value of partnerships and collaboration. It was clear that the success of every individual was dependent on the success of the project.
Mark: For sure. This project proved that point. It was so dynamic, always changing. Seeing it from start to finish, with all the different people involved, was impactful. I appreciated every person who worked on it: from partners to employees—every employee at Alliant at the time had a part in this project.
Clark: That foundation of trust and integrity with our partners and clients began with the Mississippi Jewel and continues to this day.
Rendering of the Mississippi Jewel
We’ve come a long way, and the stories keep getting better. Up next is TH 212, a Design-Build project that marked a bold new chapter for Alliant.