Minnesota - Day 14 - to Bemidji

Bemidji KOA, Bemidji
Wednesday, 14 September 2022

Visiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River is something I've looked forward to for a long time.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember I spent quite a bit of time trying to follow the Great River Road in the states bordered by the Mississippi.  So today was the day for getting to its source.

today's route

This morning's drive was about an hour and a half (per Google) from the campground to Lake Itasca State Park, where the Mississippi begins its journey.

We first crossed Pelican River and then came to Detroit Lakes, pop. 8,569.

Farther along, a Mennonite Church had volunteered as the litter crew for the roadway.   And later, the litter crew was something called the Father Project.  I looked that up and learned it's a program of Goodwill/Easter Seals that helps fathers overcome "the barriers that prevent them from supporting their children economically and emotionally."  Sounds like a worthy goal.

We passed Height of Land Lake, and I don't know where that odd name came from but I can tell you the lake is only 21' deep, though it covers quite a large area.

At one point a sign told me I was on the Lake Country Scenic Byway.  There were certainly lakes in this area and, unlike in many other parts of the state, these all had their names on signs by the road.

It actually took us just over an hour and a half to get to the Headwaters Visitor Center, which goes to show I can match Google's estimates when the speed limit is as low as I usually drive.

There were a number of exhibits in the area of the visitor center, but I'm going to start with the river itself.  The park makes the source of the river very accessible for just about everybody.

That's Lake Itasca in the background,
the source for the river.

Here's where the lake flows over some stones
and begins its journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

I wanted to show how much water is flowing even at this early stage.

This video is short, but I wanted to show the beginning of the river's trip.

I took this photo from a bridge as I came into the park -
that's the Mississippi River not far from its source.

These next exhibits talk about the river's landscape, and what gravity does to its flow.

see below for information about the watershed

What's in a name?

Apparently, this guy Schoolcraft was the first to think of asking the local Native tribes for help in locating the source of the river.  They, of course, had known for a very long time, but it hadn't occurred to the clever white people to ask them.

You may remember I photographed this sign in other states along the river's course.

The visitor center had a large landscape showing the course of the river, its tributaries, and the states it touched.  Below is a piece of that landscape, followed by parts of the signs for each state.

There were a lot of other exhibits in and around the visitor center, like several about the world's great rivers, and another about the controversy over whether the Missouri is a tributary to the Mississippi or the other way around.  (Actually, I vote for the other way around, but we're here now.)

When I left the visitor center, Google told me I had a 38-minute drive ahead to Bemidji.  And I would have, except Google also told me a road was 6 miles longer than it actually was, so I passed the turn that looked right but wasn't where Google said it would be, drove for miles further out into the country, and finally turned around and went back to the road that had looked right and actually was right.  Six miles is an awful big mistake for Google to make in a 25-mile drive.

My first stop in Bemidji was their recycle dropoff center, and nobody said boo about my out-of-state license plates, so I got rid of everything except those 2 trash bags of #1 non-bottle plastics.  It was an incredible relief because I hadn't been able to find any place to dump mixed paper especially and I had a lot of it.  And a lot of glass, because most places are glad to take plastic bottles and aluminum cans but nothing else.  But now, all gone.  Leaving a sense of lightness.

Then I went on into town to see the famous statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox.

But when I pulled into the parking lot, the first thing I saw was much more impressive.

I kept looking for a sign to explain what this figure was representing but couldn't find one.  It's still a very impressive work of art.  I guess it's about 9' tall.

The city was doing construction at this park - something about the drainage, I think - so a lot of it was taped off, including part of this playground.  But it took me a minute to realize those footprints weren't what one might expect.

And here's what was making the foot/hoof prints (presumably).  Completely hokey but somehow belonging here.  Paul Bunyan is 18' tall and was created in 1937.  Babe, from 1939, is 10' tall.

I walked Dexter around a bit and then, after a stop at the grocery store, we went on to tonight's campground.