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Split Rock Lighthouse
On Tuesday afternoon, August 7, we continued up MN 61 to Split Rock Lighthouse, which is both a Minnesota Historical Society site and a Minnesota state park. The light house is on a rocky cliff over Lake Superior, and is restored to its 1920s appearance. It provided a light using a Fresnel lens and a foghorn to help ships avoid the area. We toured the light house, the fog signal building and the restored keeper's house. One of the tour guides turned on the fog horn briefly, which was quite loud. He said the real thing would have been ten times as loud!
When the light house was completed in 1910, the area was quite remote and supplies were brought to a dock below the light house and brought up by a winch system and later a train. We did take a hike down to the lake were the dock had once been, and the boys played on the shore. Nick stepped into some shallow puddles of water on the rocks on shore, which were much warmer than the lake itself.
Posted at 12:26PM Aug 20, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
North West Company Fur Post visit
We left Bloomington, Minnesota on Monday August 6 and headed north to Pine City. I would have gone north on I-35W and eventually hit I-35 where I-35W and I-35E come together, but with the bridge collapse the week before, I took I-494 east to I-35E and then headed north.
So, what's in Pine City? The North West Company Fur Post, a re-enactment of an 1804 Ojibwe encampment and nearby fur trading post. Our guide, Winona, an Ojibwe squaw, showed us the encampment and explained how her group moved to six different places in a circle over the course of a year. After this, she took us to the fur company wintering camp, where she showed us the various living quarters and store. We discussed the roles of the different workers, intermarriage between the fur traders and Ojibwe, and Winona demonstrated starting a fire from a flint and steel. Nick was quite enthralled (as many 9-year-olds are) with starting the fire, and he bought himself a fire starting kit at the gift shop.
While some Minnesota Historical Society historic sites are not at locations of actual historic sites, this site actually was a fur trading site in the early 19th century.
I hadn't visited this site before, and I thought it was quite nice and informative.
Posted at 11:16AM Aug 15, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
