Minnesota
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(Minnesota Notes)
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Fox Lake - Fred is on the dock fishing |
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Mississippi Headwaters (Note) |
We rode our bikes 5.5 miles to here |
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Mississippi River |
Sculptures in Bemidji |
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Mississippi flowing out of Lake Bemidji - Bemidji is the first city on the Mississippi |
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23 inch Northern Pike |
Aerial Lift bridge in Duluth, MN (Note) |
Lighthouses for ship entry |
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Minnesota Twins Metrodome |
Robinson, Killebrew, Carew |
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Fall colors - beautiful!! |
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Largest fully-enclosed retail and entertainment complex in US |
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Roller coaster |
Carousel |
Lego space station |
Minnesota is a state that is known for its many lakes. Their license plates say it is the land of 10,000 lakes. There are 65 towns that have 'lake' in the name; that does not include many towns that have names that mean lake or water in the Chippewa and Dakota Indian languages. There are other towns with water related names, 13 'falls', 10 'rivers', 5 'rapids', and a smattering of 'isles', 'bays', and 'beaches'. Even the state name itself means 'sky colored water' in the Dakota language. A waterfall near Minneapolis called "Minnehaha" inspired "The Song of Hiawatha" even though Longfellow never actually visited the waterfall. The many lakes were formed by the Wisconsin Glacier began to melt 12,000 years ago. This melting created Lake Agassiz, the largest known glacial lake in North America. At its largest the lake covered over 110,000 acres. It covered parts of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. The multitude of lakes in the area were created as the glacier melted and Lake Agassiz began to drain to the east into Hudson Bay. (Return)
This is a picture of a video that shows an indian carving a wooden lure to use in ice fishing. He then made a little tent on the ice, over his fishing hole. He then put the lure into the water and began to move it up and down. When a fish came into view, he threw a short spear into the water and pulled out the huge lake trout shown in the second picture. (Return)
The Mississippi River begins it's journey to the Gulf Of Mexico right here as the water flows out of Lake Itasca. What is so interesting about this point is that the beginning of the Mississippi changed several times as explorers came into the area. One explorer would find a lake and claim that he had found the beginning. A while later, another explorer would find that a steam or river flowed into that lake and he would go upstream to find another lake and claim that that lake was the beginning. Finally Lake Itasca was discovered and it is the 'real' headwaters of the Mississippi River. One of the confusing reasons Lake Itasca was not originally accepted as the headwaters is that the river runs north out of the lake. Later the river runs east and then finally south.(Return)Aerial Lift Bridge Facts
The bridge's center span weighs 1,000 tons. It is raised and lowered with concrete counterweights of 500 tons apiece.
The cables that lift the bridge are 1 7/8 inch thick; they are so heavy, they need to be counterbalanced along with the center span.Four 100-horsepower motors lift and lower the bridge -- two minutes up and two minutes down.
An average of 5,500 lifts are made each shipping season. (Return)