Monday Aug 20, 2007
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.
Wednesday Aug 15, 2007
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.
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