We left Friday around 11:00 heading for St. Louis and a visit with Tootsie (Jerry’s aunt), and Jim and Gaye. Jim and Gaye are the cousins we have traveled with for a number of years and we always enjoy their company. Our plans were to stay Friday and Saturday nights with them; however, we ended up staying longer waiting for a FedEx package to arrive that was supposed to be there on Friday! The package arrived Monday afternoon so we spent Tuesday and Wednesday on our return trip to Bubba. Since we would be traveling through Chillicothe during the week, it meant we would have to postpone our visit to the historical society until another time.
After an uneventful but long drive, we arrived in Minneapolis around noon and located the Mall of America. It was so big that I decided not even to go in but, instead, to visit one of our favorite outdoor supply stores called REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc). There, we bought two new ponchos for those rainy hikes we seem to always be taking! We reached Camping World around 4:00 and moved Bubba to one of their campsites for the night. We did some more shopping while there buying, among other things, two new bright red fold-up Dahon bicycles. We were so excited!
On August 3, we left the Twin Cities behind, taking Highway 10 out of Minneapolis to Wadena, then turning north on Highway 71 to Itasca State Park. Here, we would find the headwaters of the Mississippi River, flowing out of Lake Itasca. That afternoon, we took the 10-mile Wilderness Drive through the park to acclimate to the area.
Friday was an overcast day with temperatures hovering around 75. There were light sporadic rain sprinkles but not enough to slow us down. We began the morning with a trip to the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Museum, an outdoor pavilion with a number of displays and exhibits about the history of the Mississippi and the many attempts, throughout America’s early years, to locate the headwaters. The Mississippi has a huge watershed, draining 41% of the continental U.S. Interestingly, although the river touches 10 states on its path to the Gulf, 30% of the entire length of the Mississippi is in Minnesota. And for its first 63 miles, from Lake Itasca to Bemidji, it flows northward before it turns eastward, then south. One of our favorite exhibits in the museum included a quote from the late Charles Kuralt in The Magic of Rivers:
“I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers. Most of what I love about the country is the gift of the rivers . . . America is a great story and there is a river on every page of it.”
We followed the short trail from the museum to the headwaters, where the Mississippi River begins its 2,552-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico. What a strange feeling to see what a tiny, beautiful and clear stream the Mississippi is at its beginning! You truly can walk across it. The Mississippi possesses such a mystique, evidenced by the number of people who were there to see it and touch it. The trail leading to and from the headwaters was lush with ferns and other beautiful vegetation. And there were huge trees – a sight to behold.
We had lunch in the restaurant in Douglas Lodge, a wonderful old log structure built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930’s. The restaurant’s specialty was a native wild rice and beef dish so we ordered it. It was okay but not a repeater.
We later visited the Jacob Brower Visitor Center where we learned more about the park. Itasca State Park was established in 1891to preserve remnant stands of virgin pine and to protect the basin around the Mississippi’s source. Before the park’s status could become official, 44% of the timber had been logged. Mary Gibbs’ father was the first park superintendent. However, upon his sudden death, Mary was named superintendent at only 24 years of age. She loved the park and is famous for standing up to armed loggers who were determined to harvest all the virgin timber. Mary is a real heroine in the state and to me.
The park covers 32,690 acres and features wonderful hiking trails, paved biking trails, tours of Lake Itasca by boat, two campgrounds, a swimming beach, lake canoeing, and a 10-mile Wilderness Drive. It is Minnesota’s oldest state park and feels more like a national park because of its size and variety of activities.
Friday afternoon, we negotiated the sale of our home in Little Rock by phone. So, Saturday morning, we had to drive into Park Rapids, the nearest town to the Itasca State Park, to receive and send faxes to our realtor to seal the deal. For lunch, we spotted the MinneSODA Ice Cream Fountain and couldn’t resist going in. It is an original, dating back to the 1940’s, complete with Coke memorabilia, a real juke box that still plays 45’s, and soda jerks. We loved it! It brought back many wonderful memories, for both of us, of innocent days spent wiling away time with friends in Smalltown, America.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking and riding our new bikes to work off the ice cream. We hiked Dr. Roberts’ Nature Trail, the Deer Park Trail, and the Alton Heights Trail, a total of about five miles. On Dr. Roberts’ Trail, we passed the first cabin built by the CCC when they were constructing the park and trails. We couldn’t believe the size of the logs used to build the cabin – they were so large that it took only four per side. Unbelieveable!
The Alton Heights Trail led to a fire tower that included 100 steps to the top. The wind was blowing and it was scary but the view was beautiful. I’m glad I did it but I don’t want to do it again anytime soon!
As we left Lake Itasca and the park, we found ourselves in awe of the beauty surrounding us. We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful, and free, country. However, one cannot help but be saddened by thought of what we will never see . . . what our forefathers destroyed in the name of progress. Less than 10% of the original virgin timber that once stood in Minnesota is still in existence. Museums display photographs from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s of miles and miles of huge logs being floated through the lakes and down the rivers to build and expand our cities and towns. Both Jerry and I find ourselves repeating the same question . . . Can you imagine what this country must have looked like 400 years ago? Oh, how I wish I could have seen it! Thank goodness, a few people like Mary Gibbs had the guts to fight for what little remains.
Happy trails to you . . . til we meet again.
