Thursday, August 28, 2014
Today, we departed Bemidji and headed south on US Highway 71 to Granite Falls. We had a leisurely drive through the Minnesota “North Woods” past Wildflowers, Aspens, Pines, Larch, Birch, abundant hardwoods, and numerous glacial lakes, then through the Long Prairie area, past large agricultural fields. We saw several more pairs of Trumpeter Swans in the north woods, along with many small lakes and marshes, with wading birds. Long Prairie was the site of the 1845 Sioux/Ojibwe/Wennebago Indian Agency. Unfortunately, these peoples were fierce rivals and somebody had to go. This opened vast lands to be grabbed by white settlers, so now we have lots of Scandinavian descendents here. We had a picnic lunch at Menahga, (means “blueberry bush” in Chippewa). At Wadena, the town has over 100 murals depicting “1000 years of Minnesota History”. Quite a puzzle!
In the prairie, we saw lots of corn, oats, wheat, barley, soybeans, alfalfa,  and sugar beets. Also, dairy farms are quit prevalent, along with game farms that provide for bird and deer hunting. We also took a short-cut and drove through an Amish Farm Community, an interesting contrast to their large-farm neighbors. The agribusiness farms in this area average several thousand acres. Fall is definitely approaching, as the leaves are beginning to show their fall colors.
In our Minnesota travels, we encountered the three-way continental divide (Laurentian Divide) of the north. We have encountered it previous travels here but never completely understood it’s significance. The roadside marker reads as follows:

A drop of rain water falling here in the Giants Range, a rare three-way continental divide, may flow either north into the icy Hudson Bay, east into the Atlantic Ocean, or south into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

From the north slope of these very old granite ridges, streams flow into the Red River of the North, through Lake Winnipeg, and into Hudson Bay in northern Canada.

Creeks and rivers on the south slope flow into the St. Louis River, enter Lake Superior at Duluth, and eventually reach the north Atlantic through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

On a western spur of Giants Range the great watershed of the immense Mississippi River system gathers the flow from a maze of streams and swamps as the legendary river begins its winding course from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico, more than 2,500 miles away.

Lying as it does near the center of the North American continent, Minnesota marks the transition between eastern woodlands and western prairies and between northern coniferous forests and rich grain-growing land of the mid-nation.  It is a land of dramatic differences, tied to the world through three great waterways that originate in these rocks and streams.

We’re spending four days, over Labor Day weekend, at the Prairie’s Edge Casio and Resort, owned by the Upper Sioux Tribe, in Granite Falls, Minnesota. The area has lots of attractions and the Casino maintains a nice RV park and offers entertainment, and some scrumptious dining opportunities.
Granite Falls is situated on the Minnesota River, with an extensive outcropping of volcanic granite along it’s banks, and it can be seen all over the area. It’s the county seat of Yellow Medicine County, named for the yellow root of a medicinal plant used by the Native American Dakota people. The Minnesota River takes it’s rise just south of the Laurentian Divide (North Divide) and flows through here, on down to it’s confluence with the Mississippi River.
Wishing you all a relaxing Labor Day!
Bob (AND Terry)