Legendary Minnesota

Rain and wind challenged our week in the Northwoods. Marlene was laid up because of her injury from crossing the Mississippi River. The swelling is down, but she is still icing and resting it. The rain and cold winds were also not encouraging for getting out and about. So, this week's blog will be more about this area and what I have learned from the Northwoods of Minnesota.

Welcome to Bemidji,MN

As we explored Bemidji, I discovered that the lore and popular culture are filled with legends, caricatures, and mythology. But when I looked beneath them, I found a beach full of stunning grains of truth! Welcome to Bemidji, the heart of Minnesota's Northwoods and the home to Paul Bunyan and Babe, The Headwaters of The Mississippi, fascinating Indian Culture, and a unique geology.

 

Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 lakes. These lakes rest in depressions formed when the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago from a bedrock laid down 1.1 billion years ago. That bedrock of volcanic and sedimentary rock has been kneaded, folded, and eroded by the same forces that created the rest of North America. But starting a little over a million years ago, a series of glacial periods scraped and redeposited moraines, forming huge lakes rivaling the waters of the present-day Great Lakes. They also carved broad valleys and rolling hills. Today, this Land is collectively called the Northwoods because they are home to lakes teeming with Walleye and Muskie, woodlands filled with hundreds of species of birds, beaver, the occasional bear, and the rare moose who wander down from the north. For the last 3,000 years, humans have been moving through the area, leaving indelible marks on the Land.

 

The Anishinaabe People began migrating from Eastern Canada 500 years ago as they followed the Great Lakes waters. They became known as the Ojibwe to the French and Chippewa to the English. Other groups emerged out of this migration, including the Algonquin and Potawatomie. The Mississauga returned to the Great Lakes. These groups share a common root language, shared beliefs, and a history of care for the Land and waters of the region.

 

They started at Turtle Island in present-day Montreal. Their second Stopping point was the concave falls, known today as Niagara Falls. They then moved on to the narrow straits of present-day Detroit, where the tribe divided with bands moving in different directions. The Ojibwe continued West and settled along the North Shore of present-day Lake Superior, where we ended our week. This great migration is remembered in the oral traditions of each of the tribes and speaks of a people moving forward under the guidance and protection of the Great Spirit, Gitchi, for whom they named Lake Superior, Gitchigami (Longfellow renamed it Gitchigumi in his poem). The Chippewa are still present on the Land and waters but have yielded much of their influence to the French Voyageurs who came into the area in the 1600s, the British Explorers and trappers who followed them in the early 1700s, and the northern European farmers, shopkeepers and developers who began arriving in the mid to late 1800s.

 

Lake Itasca at the Source of the Mississippi

These shopkeepers found a land dotted with lakes surrounded by marshes and bogs. In places, the water flowed into small rivers. In 1832, the Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an Ojibwe guide, and a survey crew set out to explore the Upper Mississippi. Their expedition was supported by the US Department of War to find and make permanent peace with the Native people in the area. European Explorers had been searching for the Headwaters of the Mississippi since it was "discovered" by DeSoto in 1541. Schoolcraft and his crew navigated the River to a lake the Guide called Bemidji. But the River appeared and disappeared in the marsh. The Guide led him to a lake South of Bemidji, which his Guide called Elk Lake. As they surveyed the area, they discovered the first sustainable flow of water that he declared the Headwaters of the Mississippi. He renamed the lake Itasca, from the Latin meaning "true source". While this declaration has faced many challenges over the years, most cartographers believe that Schoolcraft was correct.

 

The Mississippi River

In the 1930s, FDR’s CCC came to Lake Itasca and channeled the swamp at the lake's north end, forming a visible Mississippi River, creating a State Park, and placing large rocks across the stream where it forms at the shore of the lake. Their work has become the Headwaters of the Mississippi, where thousands of people have walked across the Mississippi. But the present layout is deceptive. Land and water are not distinct elements; they are integrated ecosystems of water, land, flora, fauna, and human beings that require respect and stewardship to survive the human footprint.

 

Chief Bemidji

In the 1880s, lumber mills began to arrive, and the logging industry took root to supply lumber for the cities springing up all along the Mississippi River to the South. The loggers discovered an Ojibwe man living by Lake Bemidji. The name means a lake with rivers on both ends. The man was Shaynowishkung (He Who Rattles). He hunted in the area as a child and dreamed of returning one day. After losing his wife, he moved his children to a lodge on the south side of the lake. For ten years, he watched whites move into the area. He did his best to befriend them, helping them to see the lake and surrounding forest through his eyes. He believed they could all live in harmony if they respected the Land, the water, and the people. But the arrival of the Great Northern Railroad spelled the end of his time on the lake; the European settlers called him Chief Bemidji after the lake, and the city that grew along the shores became known as Bemidji. Many remembered him for the rattles that he wore to shake off negativity within and around him. But the Railroad needed the lake to ship lumber downriver, and the Chief was forcibly removed to the Leech Lake Reservation, where he died of pneumonia a few years later. But the people of Bemidji had not forgotten their "Chief," and he was returned and buried in the Land he loved.

 

Bemidji Visitor Center

As logging became the primary way of life in the Northwoods, people began telling stories that reflected who they were and what they believed. Legends of a giant lumberjack named Paul Bunyan and his faithful companion, Babe the Blue Ox. These stories began in the bunkhouses of logging camps across Southern Canada and the Northern US. His size and deeds varied with the imaginations of the men telling the stories and their desire to entertain. Some stories told of his creating the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe across a desert and forming Lake Bemidji with his footprint. (The lake is shaped like a boot print in the mud.) This was our second encounter with statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe. The first was in the Redwoods of Northern California. As legends or folklore, these stories tell us about the people who created them. They believed in the human ability to shape their world. They saw the forest as a subject to be explored and used rather than as an object of awe and respect. These outsized stories speak of an outsized culture sweeping through the Northwoods on steel rails and swinging sharpened steel axes.

 

The Beach at Diamond Point Park

Our last day in Bemidji started out cold and wet, but the Sun finally came out after lunch. We took the opportunity to do some much-delayed exploring around the city. Our first stop was Diamond Point Park behind Bemidji State University on the shores of the lake. We enjoyed a fun hour seeing some familiar birds dressed in their Springtime finery that we never see in Texas. We watched squirrels and chipmunks play under the trees. We spotted two new species, the Yellow-throated Vireo and the Blackpoll Warbler. I also watched either a Beaver or an Otter swimming along the shore, but only popping up briefly before moving on. We then moved down to downtown, where we paid homage to Chief Bemidji's Statue and walked through the Chippewa Trading Post with their re-purposed Muffler Man Statue, now dressed like an Ojibwe Warrior. It was a fun way to end our stay in Bemidji.

 

Paul Bunyan and Babe

Re-purposed Muffler Man

Rocks from all Fifty States and Canadian Provinces

Common Mergansers in Breeding Color

Shore of Lake Bemidji

Tennessee Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Where's that bug?

Eastern Gray Squirrel Hiding

Female Common Merganser

Eastern Gray Squirrel with Ear Tufts

American Crow

Playful Buddies

Chipmunk

Pair of Golden Eye in Breeding Color

Spotted Sandpiper

Female Goldeneye

Chipmunk Portrait

Artwork in Downtown Bemidji

A Last Goodbye to Paul and Babe

 

Burlington Bay Camground

The next day, we packed up on another cold, wet morning and made our first southward drive since we had left the Rio Grande Valley on March 1^st. We drove through the Chippewa National Forest. We crossed a marshy Mississippi River and countless small lakes and bogs. We arrived in Duluth, MN, and started up the North Shore of Lake Superior. I am grateful that this was the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend because this is a trendy destination to begin the Summer. The temps had warmed somewhat, and the Sun was shining. We set up Koko and settled in for one day of lousy weather before exploring The North Shore and all its wonders.

 

Burlington Bay

Two Harbors Lighthouse Point

 

Thank you, Bemidji!

Reflecting on our second week in Minnesota, I can appreciate all the legends surrounding this beautiful countryside. We are seeing it during a wet and cool spring. But a few months earlier would have been a different story. The lakes freeze with 1-2 feet of ice each year. The clerk at the Trading Post told us that people who live on the north side of Lake Bemidji commute across the frozen lake in the winter. The bitter cold, driven by high winds, makes life a challenge. Yet people have been living here for at least 3,000 years. The Land is as unforgiving as it is bountiful. But, to survive and thrive requires resilience and courage that inspires awe in this Southerner. These people live among legendary creatures in a land of folklore and campfire stories. I look forward to further exploration of the Northwoods along the North Shore. This is truly a special place, and Bemidji has earned the Sun's rays that fill the sky over the city!

 

I am glad you are along for the ride. I look forward to sharing more of our adventures.

 

Travel well, my friends!

 

Bob

At Elk Lake