Hello Everyone! When many of you will be reading this, Shadow Catcher and I will be celebrating the 4 year anniversary of this project. We set out together on November 11th, 2017 from our home base in Washington D.C. to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. At the time, the plan was to spend a month in each of the 48 contiguous states, which, if done in one long stretch, would have put an end date right around now. I learned very quickly that a month isn’t very long when it comes to really getting to know a state and while I still try and move right along, six weeks seems like a more realistic timeframe. My dreams of financial success with this project have been all but a complete bust, so I have had to stop and go back to guiding to replenish my coffers. Thankfully, it’s a job I love and it’s fairly easy to put away money in a short time and keep going. And of course who could have predicted a global pandemic, which grounded us for 15 months at home? That time was a blessing as I got to spend it with my folks and watching young Mason every day on his journey from 2 to 3 years old. On the plus side, I’ve seen and done so much, learned more than I ever thought possible and met many truly wonderful people along the way. It’s been everything I hoped it would be and infinitely more and I’m grateful every day for this project, this journey, and all of you who have chosen to share in it. Like any journey, it’s had its ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. As I wind up my time in Minnesota, my 16th of 48 states, that would leave me 1/3 of the way there. I don’t know if I’ll finish this project, but I’m definitely planning to keep going for the near future. Thank you all for coming along for the ride.
It’s been a very busy week blazing across the prairies of Southwest Minnesota. With daylight savings time ending and snow in the forecast, it is definitely time to start making an exit plan, but I didn’t want to miss out on a whole region. I’ve definitely driven more this week than I usually do and I’ve seen some pretty amazing places but it’s also been pretty fast and furious. That being said, I’ve driven past some fascinating things this week that either gave me pause or a good chuckle. When I drove through Brainerd again this week, I passed by the Warriors Early Childhood Learning Center. Their school team name is the Warriors, but to an outsider I thought this was pretty funny. I also drove past the towns of Nimrod, Sleepy Eye and Weetown – all of which made me smile. I saw a Sasquatch Reporting Station in Starbuck and a street called Oink Joint Rd. The Starbuck High School mascot is the Bucks, the Fergus Falls (county seat of Otter Tail County) is the Otters and of course in Pelican Rapids they went with… the Vikings! It was wonderful to see Amish buggies driving on the roads and tumbleweed tumbling down dusty city streets. It was a wonderful week of clear sunny days and I tried to make the most of it. Here’s what I got into:
When last I wrote I was headed clear across the state of Minnesota back to the western border. Along the way I stopped in the cute little town of Wadena to take some photos and have a wander. I ended up popping into the Little Round Still Distillery and talking with the nice folks there for a while. They gave me a lesson on Minnesota’s complicated liquor laws and it sounded like there is a lot to overcome when starting a brewery or distillery in the state. I ended up buying a 375ml bottle of their Gunflint whiskey which was quite good and the biggest bottle they could legally sell me. From Wadena, I headed on to the even smaller town of New York Mills to check out the Regional Cultural Center there. For a small town, this center is pretty well known and has a wonderful gallery and shop and hosts classes, workshops and events. There was a nice display of “wet felting” wall hangings by Kristen Anderson in the gallery when I was there which were beautiful and told an interesting story. There were also some other smaller pieces from previous exhibits upstairs. I was there for longer than I thought I would be but really enjoyed it. From there I headed on to Perham where I jumped on the Otter Trail Scenic Byway. This beautiful loop road took me through small towns and past some amazing prairie scenery as I made my way around Otter Tail County. I stopped in Pelican Rapids to take a photo of the world’s largest pelican and pulled into Phelps Mill right as the sun was setting to get some great photos of this historic mill now owned by the county. It was a great place to end my day and then I headed on to Fergus Falls for the night. I went downtown and found it pleasant but empty without a single bar or restaurant around. I really find it strange and sad when towns roll up their sidewalks after dark like that. I headed out of town and stopped for a quick beer at their brewery which was actually really tasty but way overpriced. I was sad that my only option for dinner at 8pm was Applebee’s which was on the low side of mediocre. For a town of 13,000 people I had expected a little more, but it was still a nice place to spend the night and it would redeem itself the following day.
The next morning I started my day at the Otter Tail County Historic Society Museum which was really phenomenal. They’ve done a wonderful job of displaying their extensive collection in a pretty small space. I loved learning about the natural history of the area and the Native Americans who have called the region home. They had a wonderfully restored old classroom, an awesome mail sled and a lot of old farming equipment. The highlight was the walk down “Main Street” past some of the old businesses which used to be in town and which has been recreated inside the museum. One of the businesses on display was a saloon and the write-up explained that while Germans liked the saloons and wanted them in their towns, the Scandinavians tended to frown on them. Hence the quiet streets of Fergus Falls the night before. I really enjoyed this museum and was thrilled to find it open in November.
My next stop was the old State Mental Hospital which had operated in Fergus Falls in some capacity from 1890 until 2007. When it opened as a mental institution, it was designed on the Kirkbride Plan which called for a refined setting, fresh air and exercise, and hard work. That meant that it was an absolutely beautiful building and I had some idea of what the inside looked like based on the one I visited in Traverse City in Michigan. Leaving Fergus Falls, I was off on a slow meander south through the prairies, stopping in small towns along the way and checking out some beautiful rural churches. I loved the tiny town of Farwell (population 59) which had some great old buildings in it. I passed through Starbuck, but couldn’t find an overpriced coffee anywhere in town. They did have a plaque for having made the world’s largest lefse (a Scandinavian potato tortilla), and a checkpoint for Sasquatch sightings. I stopped and did a little fishing at Glacial Lakes State Park and then headed on to Montevideo. I have been to its namesake town in Uruguay which is one of my favorite cities in the world and I really enjoyed seeing the Minnesota town’s statue of Jose Artigas – Uruguay’s Father of Independence – in the middle of town. It made me sad, though, when I heard the local pronunciation of the town name as Monty (like Python) Video (like Blockbuster). It really sucks some of the romance out of it, doesn’t it? Regardless I had a couple of beers at their local Talking Water Brewing Company and a pizza from Jake’s which was right next door and brought my pie to the brewery when it was ready. Then I had a couple of beers at a bar called Groats where the main talk was about deer season which started the next day (for rifle hunters).
I got an early jump on the day on Saturday and drove down State Highway 75, the King of Roads Scenic Byway, which runs down the west coast of the state. While I enjoyed the farmland scenery as I drove, I pretty much made a beeline for Pipestone National Monument. This National Park Unit protects a sacred Native American quarry from which a very unique stone is removed to create ceremonial pipe bowls. Apparently it was always considered a neutral ground and many tribes and bands would come to get the stone and the pipes were traded far and wide. This pipestone is like a very hard red clay, but can be shaped using woodworking tools like files, saws and sandpaper. The best part of the whole place was meeting the two Native American artists who were at the Visitor Center shaping pipe bowls. One of them was just cutting out the rough outline and gave me a piece to file down and see how easy it was to work with. The other was working on finer detail and told me he had several pipes in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Both were fascinating to speak with and were producing beautiful finished products which were sadly considerably out of my price range. The quarry itself was also interesting and Native Americans still come and quarry the pipestone all the time there. There was also a beautiful waterfall along the trail. I was there for a while and then headed to downtown Pipestone to check out some of the cool old stone buildings in town and the world’s biggest peace pipe.
Leaving Pipestone I headed back north to the town of Walnut Grove, the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the setting of the TV show Little House on the Prairie (though it was filmed in Tucson, Arizona). The town really is right on Plum Creek and there are a small handful of things in town which remain from when Laura was a child. The museum was sadly closed for the season, but I had a nice wander around town and a nice lunch in the park there. Then I headed on out of town and up to the Jeffers Petroglyphs – the largest panel of chipped stone Native artwork in the Midwest. While the Visitor Center was closed (per usual), the trail and petroglyphs were open to visit. There are over 4,000 different petroglyphs out there and some of them were really cool. It was a nice time to be there too as the sun was going down and I had the whole place to myself. It was a long day and I pulled into Redwood Falls after dark and called it an early night.
Sunday morning I headed out early to Ramsey Park (which is bigger than the town itself) to see the beautiful waterfall there. While I walked down to the falls to take some photos, I started draining my van’s oil and when I got back I finished changing it nice and quickly and dropped off the old oil at the O’Reilly Auto Parts on my way out of town for recycling. Easy Peazy and all set for my long drive home. From Redwood Falls I drove out to the Lower Sioux Agency which was established to mediate any issues between the Dakota People and European settlers in the area. When the Dakota signed the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux in 1851, they had been promised annuities of cash, food and supplies and the Agency was also the contact point for distribution of those items. In 1862, the cash arrived late and the agent refused to distribute the food and supplies until it arrived. The Dakota people insisted that it had been a bad year of failed crops and poor hunting and they were starving, but when the agent still refused he was killed and the Agency was burned. This started the Dakota War of 1862 which resulted in almost 700 deaths, many of whom were civilians. It was a sad and tragic set of events in Minnesota, Dakota and American history and would result in the largest mass execution in the history of America and the expulsion of the Dakota People from Minnesota. From the Lower Sioux Agency, I headed on to Fort Ridgely, a fort built in peacetime which became a center of the Dakota War. Then I needed a beer and headed on to New Ulm and the A. Schell Brewing Co. which has been brewing beer in Southern Minnesota since 1860, making it one of the older breweries in the country (and the 2nd oldest family owned brewery behind Pennsylvania’s Yeungling). I enjoyed a tour of the old brewery and found all of their beers to be quite good. I was hoping for some good German food in this “most German town in Minnesota” but was out of luck on a Sunday night.
I did get some on Monday, though, so all was forgiven. I spent the morning on Monday exploring the town and taking photos. There are some wonderful old buildings there which I enjoyed photographing, and a Glockenspiel which played for a small group of four of us right at noon. There were definitely German influences in town, but you had to look a little closer to find them, unlike Frankenmuth in Michigan or New Glarus in Wisconsin. All-in-all, I enjoyed my time in New Ulm. I headed out of town after lunch and stopped in Minneopa State Park where I was surprised to find a herd of bison roaming the park. I’ve spent a lot of time with bison in my life, mostly in Yellowstone, and these were far from the road so I didn’t stick around too long, but they definitely made me smile. There was also a really beautiful waterfall in the park which I enjoyed photographing. The smaller upper falls definitely made for some nice photos. Then I headed on to Mankato to see where the Dakota War of 1862 ended with the execution by hanging of 38 Dakota warriors. I had thought very deeply about this short but costly conflict over those few days and I know that there was right and wrong on both sides. The agency should have distributed what food it had, knowing that people were hungry and in need. The Dakota killed hundreds of innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict and the army retaliated in kind. It was a horrible episode. At the site of the hanging I was pleased to find Reconciliation Park and a very well-balanced memorial there. My favorite part was a poem called Reconcile by Katherine Hughes which read:
Remember the innocent dead.
Both Dakota and White.
Victims of events they could not control.
Remember the guilty dead.
Both White and Dakota.
Whom reason abandoned.
Regret the times and attitudes
That brought dishonor to our cultures.
Respect the deeds and kindnesses
That brought honor to both cultures.
Hope for the future
When memories remain,
Balanced by forgiveness.
This was all very heavy, but I was happy to have the opportunity to learn about it in the places where it happened and walk the ground there. I could feel the sorrow inside of me. I spent the rest of my day at the gym and the library pondering what I had learned and seen and then called it a very early night.
Yesterday I was up early and hit the gym before I hit the road. I made a short stop off at the Treaty Site in Traverse du Sioux and then headed on to the small town of Henderson. Henderson is a cute little town which had some photo-worthy scenes and a wonderful mural to one of Minnesota’s most famous musical artists: Prince. From there I headed on up the road to Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store which is quite a place. It is definitely a classic roadside attraction with all kinds of things to look at. I’m not really into candy, but I did get some cheese curds, some fresh-picked apples and a nice apple pie. Then I headed on to Minneapolis and spent the rest of the day at the library. I haven’t gotten much work done this week so I wanted to get some photos edited and get a jump on this newsletter.
This morning I went to the gym and came back to the library to finish this post and get it published. From here I’m off to have lunch with my very good friend, Rich, who I’ve known for over 20 years at this point. Then my hope is to spend the afternoon at the State Capitol in St. Paul and maybe take in some live music this evening.
I’m staying in the Twin Cities for a few more days as I have friends I want to catch up with and things I want to see here. When I leave this weekend, I am headed down the Mississippi River to check out some of the historic river towns along the way which I’m really looking forward to. Some of them are among the most historic and authentic along the whole of the river. It will also be awesome to follow the Great River Road out of Minnesota. I’ll cross back into Wisconsin at La Crosse and be off and running towards home for the holidays. I do plan to stop and see some people along the way and check out a very small handful of things I missed earlier in the summer. I may still be in Minnesota when I write this post next week, but maybe not. You’ll just have to check back and find out. Thank you so much for reading. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey. I wish you a wonderful week.
-Mike