Minnesota on my Mind
We pulled up stakes at Birch Grove NF campground outside of Washburn, WI and headed west towards Minnesota (MN). After about 90 minutes or so of driving and looking for a brief breakfast repaste, we spy the Perkins Family Restaurant in Superior, WI about two blocks from the MN State line and a suburb of the Duluth, MN metropolis.
Over breakfast we scan the MN highway map and decide to head directly west thru the mid section of MN...but this was not to be. We finish up our meal and start our trek thru Duluth and suddenly find ourselves on Highway 61 heading north along the Lake Superior shoreline, not at all in the desired direction of a mid State, westerly drive thru MN, but as it turned out (by happenstance) we were following the most interesting and scenic westerly route thru MN, although somewhat northerly. I guess go north to go west, OK we're in.
We just kinda went with the flow and as we head north out of Duluth our goal was to go west, but, what the hell, let's see where this highway leads. It was an easy choice as the main road leading out of Duluth kind of leads you in a smooth way northward and that was fine for us, easy is the way of the day says I.
Also, Debbie liked this direction as we were following Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album and, to quote, "where you want this killin' done?... Howard pointed his gun and said, out there, on Highway 61".
Happy to report there were no guns or even pointing a gun from yours truly and no killings occured out there on Highway 61, but a beautiful drive it was.
Like Michigan, the Lake Superior shoreline of MN is absolutely crushed in August with vacationers. Having experienced this situation over the past month we immediately went in search for a nice campsite more inland and off of the jam packed shoreline and boy did we find a good one!
We cruise a few miles west of the shoreline and discover a quiet MN State Forest (SF) campground in Finland, MN. This area was settled primarily by, you guessed it, immigrants from Finland and other Scandanavian countries to work as lumbermen and the present day population couldn't be more proud. There are Finnish flags everywhere and Scandanavian Heritage Centers, Museums and City Parks displaying restored wooden sauna buildings from 1900, etc. It is really cool.
Now around here in northeastern MN and the Mesabi Range back in the late 1800's, the boys of the Merritt family out of Duluth explored the shit out of this land. Most people nowadays would call it exploring, but these boys called it land lookin'. They would simply pack their bags and go lookin' for forests of good pine lumber to harvest in this desolate and barren landscape...it was also a bit chilly too. Folks up here say you need a thermometer 6' tall with zero degrees at the top to get a sense of how cold it can get up here.
And they gave it one helluva good land lookin.
Their interests were mostly around pine lumber, they could spy a yonder pine tree and at a glance could calculate the board footage of lumber said tree could deliver, they were that good. These boys would ID a nice grove of pine timber out in the middle of nowhere and claim it as theirs, file the necessary paperwork with the State and use this for barter and trade with other interested parties. They were very good at this! The proceeds from these subsequent land trades would finance their further 'land lookin' in search of the coveted dream...iron ore.
But dear ole Leonidas Merritt, their father, always counseled his 7 sons to forever be on the look out for iron ore whilst out land lookin.
As most children do, they didn't believe their sage father Leonides, but, they kept their eyes open for iron ore while searching for pine timberlands and what an iron ore find they discovered! Pure hematite, and no kidding, this stuff weighs about 350 pounds per cubic foot, about 70 percent pure iron requiring minimal processing, and perfectly suited for what Andrew Carnegie and the steel barrons down in Pittsburgh, and other southerly cities around the Great Lakes, needed to fuel their blast furnaces for decades to come. In those days this country was thirsty for more steel to build skycrapers, bridges, automobiles and all that we have since come to love.
The iron discovered by Leonides and his 7 sons fueled the industrial age in this Nation...and just think, it all started with a little land lookin'...damn straight!
I purchased a couple of books that focus on the Iron Ore age in this area and they were fascinating! One book is titled "The Soudan Mine" and it explores the discovery, development and eventual closing of the largest hematite iron ore mine on the Mesabi Range. Based on the story I decided to take a tour of the Soudan Mine which achieved State Park status in the mid 1960's after it was "donated" to the State from US Steel, the last owner of the mine.
The State of MN, and most other States, have a unique twist to their tax code as it relates to resources. The land owner is taxed based on the amount of resource currently on or under the property, not on what is being harvested or mined in any particular year. So US Steel was being taxed annually on the amount of ore yet to be mined on their holding and it was immense. As the type of ore coming from Soudan was no longer required for making steel (other cheaper forms of iron ore are used these days) and faced with big tax bills good ole USS decided to "donate" the land to the State!
Now we're starting to move westerly along US Highway 2, a highway corridor we will be following all the way to eastern Montana. Driving thru the old Mesabi Range iron ore mining towns of Ely, Tower, Hibbing, Virginia, Chisolm and others it reminds you of a boom and bust cycle that exists in every mining region we've visited. Some mines have stayed relevant (profitable!) and their towns are busy while other mines have slowly faded away and their towns...well, you get the picture.
While following our Highway 2 Corridor we miss a turn off and didn't notice it for a few miles. We've kind of given up using Google maps/directions for the most part and rely more on paper maps. But, here's the deal, you've got to pay attention! I think from relying on Google directions for many years you just become accustomed to having someone tell you when to make your turn, pretty sad I know, but true.
After missing our turn off we continue on without a clue thru Eveleth, MN and notice a roadway sign directing motorists to take the next right if they'd like to visit the USA Hockey Hall of Fame. Sign us up! I decel the LD, engage some light braking and tool on in. Also sharing the parking lot with the HOF is the Mesabi Curling Arena where a lot of the major curling events are held each year.
You all know I'm not a big HOF guy but I am a huge hockey fan and a strong supporter of USA Hockey, so this was a great stop for sure, very well done. And, here's the kicker, we would have totally missed it if we had taken the turn off we missed! Had no clue this place was here or even existed.
Getting back on the road we continue westerly in hopes of reaching Grand Rapids, MN for the nite. The missed turn and the time spent at the HOF added to the length of the day but we soon settled into a private RV park on Trout Lake just a few miles east of Grand Rapids. MN being very flat and straight without much (any!) traffic the drive was really pretty easy.
I notice our neighbor is a young dude with all of the lake toys (Fishin' boat, jet ski, paddle board, canoe and kayak) along with his motorcycle and big ass p/u truck. Seemed to be single, didn't see a gal or any kids hanging around. Didn't speak with him, nodded hello but didn't get a return so no big deal, carry on, some folks just like to be left alone and I'm OK with that!
Settle into bed around 11 PM or so and round midnite as I'm just nodding off (you know when you're half awake and half asleep?) I hear this neighbor screaming 'what the f*** are you doing here?...get the f out of here'. I'm thinking we're gonna have a fight next door for sure. Then I hear a big crash out front of our site and all goes quiet for a few minutes. Next I hear a single gunshot from a distance further away from the RV park and now I'm concerned.
All quiets down and I stay on alert for another hour or so and turn in. Debbie's got her headphones on thru all of this and misses most of it.
The next morning I'm out front, neighbor is gone and I see a park employee talking to our neighbor on the other side of us. They were discussing the bear visit last nite! The commotion last nite was over a huge black bear that had entered the RV park, rummaged thru the neighbors lake toys alerting him, hence the yelling. The bear left his site and came in front of our RV where he up ended a half full, 10 yard dumpster.
That must've been one strong hombre of a bear as a half full 10 yarder weighs in around 3500 pounds!
I mention to the park employee that I was sure I heard a gunshot sometime after the yelling and this concerned him very much. He wanted to make sure it did not come from within his park as he is nervous about tenants firing off gunshots within the park, no matter the reason. I told him it sounded like it came from offsite, towards that direction as I pointed north and he says, 'oh, I know who that is, he's my neighbor on his own property, Vietnam vet, is always packing heat and doesn't sleep too much during the nite!'.
Park employee also called in the State Dept of Natural Resources (DNR) to file a report. Since this bear has had contacts with humans they will set a trap for it and once captured relocated to a preserve where hunters are allowed. It's sad, but this bear will look for human contact again and to protect the public the only choice is to euthanize it. Most States will euthanize on the spot.
Continuing our crawl westerly along Highway 2 our quest is to locate the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Apparently this precise location was a matter of opinion shared by many folks in the know back as long as recorder history shows. Seems as every explorer went further into the "land of 10'000 lakes" a new lake was found to be connected to the river and then another and another...there was seemingly no beginning to this great river!
Finally in 1887 by passage of a Resolution in the State house, Itasca Lake was officially declared the headwater of the Mississippi River. Whew, had to research this all dear readers, didn't want to show up at the wrong place!
Itasca Lake State Park is the oldest in the State's inventory and very nice. Having been developed back in the early 1900's it has that old school campground vibe to it, very mature trees and undergrowth, old log building construction and spacious campsites where you can stretch out. Their bicycle paths are also the finest we've seen in any State Park visited and we rode them every day in order to see a good chunk of this huge Park.
We are now off to North Dakota, the Peace Garden State, following the US Highway 2 corridor.
We had a very enjoyable time in MN. The region north of Duluth alongside Lake Superior was stunningly beautiful and the rich history of the Mesabi Iron Range was interesting to read about and then witness first hand. The people of MN that we met were all very friendly and interested in our trip. Sitting at our campsite in Itasca Lake our neighbor comes over and gives us a hand crocheted pot holder that his wife had made...stuff like that, very cool place!
Also, and this is no trivial matter, MN had the BEST cell coverage of any place we've been too! I don't know what it is, (maybe 'cause it's flat here?) but we did not have a single moment of no cell contact our ENTIRE time in this State! And we were in some very remote areas too, well done MN!
OK, as I write this we are in North Dakota and looking over our planned Lewis and Clark Trail itinerary. We will post up in a few to let you know how that is going.
Until next time all, thanks for checking in with us,
Peace out, Debbie and Howard
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