New Ulm is a mid-sized city which sits at the confluence of the Minnesota and Cottonwood Rivers in southern Minnesota. Founded by German-Americans, the town gets its name from the German city of Ulm in Bavaria. While not as over-the-top as Frankenmuth in Michigan, New Ulm has many German features to it and the longer you stick around the more you will see. I really enjoyed the Glockenspiel and the Hermann Monument and found several of the churches in town to be truly spectacular. The Historic Society Museum is housed in the eye-catching old post office, and even the fire hydrants brought a smile to my face. On the outskirts of town is the old A. Schell Brewery, which is definitely worth a stop. Founded in 1860, it’s Minnesota’s oldest brewery and one of the oldest in the country. Unlike most of the town, it was spared during the Dakota War of 1862 which devastated New Ulm. I had a wonderful German meal at the Ulmer Cafe and talked to some welcoming locals while I was in town. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful New Ulm, Minnesota’s Most German City.
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.
