Thursday, September 18, 2014

BEMIDJI, MINNESOTA

SEPT 16th

If any of you watched the TV show, Fargo, it took place in Bemidji.  The main character, Billy Bob Thornton, won for best actor.  It was based on a true storey.  It was a strange show, but we kept watching and liked it. The town didn't really look like the show, but oh well.

This is also the birthplace of Paul Bunyan. Legend has it that it took 5 storks to deliver Paul to his parents.   He is said to have dug and built Niagara Falls for a shower bath and he dug Lake Superior as a watering trough for Babe, his  Blue Ox.  Babe stomped around so much, his hoof  prints filled up with water and formed the 10,000 lakes.  Love the legends. he was a big deal when I was a kid. 


This is his gun


This fireplace is in the visitor center at the statue.  It has a stone in it from all 50 states in the union


There is also a lot of public art.  I love  traveling around and seeing all the sculptures. Of course, they are always some geocaches around them. We have been doing a lot of geocaching along our  travels. 

This is a  metal sculpture of an Indian in full dress.  Denny is looking for the cache, but I  found  it. 


The sport of curling is big in MN. This guy has a beer keg for his head.  Notice the broom in his right hand and  the  red thing is whatever they throw down the field.  As you can probably tell, I   really don't know much about curling.  The cache was in his  foot 


The main reason we went to Bemidji was to go to Itasca State park to see the headwaters of the Mississippi.  The source is Lake Itasca.  Even with all our travels, we thought this State Park is the most beautiful, well maintained park we have ever seen.   The headwaters are only 12' across.

Lake in background. The stones are the beginning of the Mississippi

The same stones,  looking down  at the headwaters

Denny walking across the headwaters.


Starting to flow on its winding way  down to the Gulf  of  Mexico.  If you put a can in the headwaters, they say it takes 90 days to get to there.  The river is 2552 miles long. 


It was my birthday. We had dinner in this old inn at the park, built in 1905.  Beautiful, fun day to celebrate my birthday


Beautiful Lake Itasca



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