 Minnesota: Midwest vacation state
My real reason for being On-The-Road-Again in Minnesota was to see Miami University (Ohio) play the University of Minnesota in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metradome. Before 45,000 people, Miami lost the game in the second overtime on a missed 33 yard field-goal. Miami had trailed the Golden Gophers by 16 points midway through the fourth quarter before Quarterback Dan Raudabaugh entered the game and threw for two touchdowns and Trevor Cook kicked a field-goal to tie the game in the final seconds, thus making this game a very disappointing loss.
Pushing aside disappointment, Minnesota is a state that gets its name from the Dakota Indian word “Minisota” which means sky tinted water. The state has more than 15,000 lakes over 10 acres in size. With a population of about five million people, Minnesota serves as a vacation state for the Midwest, particularly for fishermen who want to stock up on walleye, blue gill and crappies, bass, trout, musky and pike, and other fresh water fish. Lake Superior to the north provides a thriving environment for lake trout, steelhead and salmon. Ice fishing in January and February is a fun adventure because of power augers, portable, heated shelters and fish finders that work through the ice.
Minnesota’s first state industry was fur trapping, followed by lumbering, iron ore mining and flour milling. Agriculture, of course, has been an important industry throughout Minnesota’s history.
The flour milling industry continues to live in Minnesota through The Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis. This Mill City Museum was built inside the limestone remains of the old Washburn A Mill (which became part of General Mills), one of the largest in the world in its day. The old mill exploded from the ignition of airborne flour dust and only some sections of the walls remain up-right. There was a demonstration of a flour dust explosion by one of the museum’s employees which graphically illustrated the power of such explosions.
The museum features plenty of exhibits to keep the children occupied. There are water exhibits illustrating the operation of water wheels and canal locks. There are baking exhibits where visitors can try their skill at bread making and bake or taste other flour-based products.
The highlight of my visit to The Mill City Museum was the flour mill exhibits as seen from a freight elevator. Believe it or not, we were seated on a freight elevator that traveled between seven floors to view various exhibits on each floor.
We did not leave our seats on the elevator, the doors opened and the lights came on revealing an exhibit on each floor; for example, there was an exhibit of an old time mill office and exhibits of various milling operations. On the eighth floor we exited the elevator to a breath-taking panoramic view of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River.
There was a very unique and entertaining film of the History of Minneapolis shown at various times throughout the day in The Mill City Museum. This museum is definitely worth seeing while in Minneapolis.
It should be noted that Minnesota is the birthplace of some famous people. Author Sinclair Lewis is from Sauk Centre and F. Scott Fitzgerald is from St. Paul. I went to visit Sauk Centre, Minn. because I wanted to see the original Main Street. Lewis wrote several books on the culture of American society in the 1920s that eventually brought him a Nobel Prize in literature. Main Street was one of his more popular books.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby among his more popular books. Another world renowned figure to come out of Minnesota is aviator Charles Lindberg, who is from Little Falls, and Garrison Keillor, the writer and master of ceremonies for the radio show, Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul is another famous personality from Minnesota and one of my favorites.
For those who like to shop, The Mall of America in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb, is the place to go. Besides having over 520 specialty stores, anchored by Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Sears, there is an amusement park under-roof consisting of over 30 rides plus games to test one’s skills.
There are lots of restaurants and attractions; such as, the center fountain with its water cannons and animated targets and its light show and the North Woods Stage which presents family entertainment. And, to help the weary traveler and shopper get around and avoid the aggravations of traffic and parking, there is a Light-Rail Train system that runs between the MOA and downtown Minneapolis.
Probably the biggest tourist draw currently in the state is the collapse of the I-35W Bridge, which crossed the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. Like many others, I went down to the river to see the wreckage of this bridge. There were hundreds of people viewing the collapsed bridge from the 10th Avenue Bridge which runs parallel and very close to the I-35W Bridge.
The clean up work was underway and much of the concrete pavement had been removed from the steel sub-structure. The on-lookers were very quiet and a sense of reverence prevailed as folks re-lived this tragedy in their hearts and minds.
It looked to me like the bridge had been pulled to the south by the collapse of the southern-most span which broke the center span free and dropped it into the river unattached to any other structure. For me, the determining factor here was that the steel and concrete supports all were leaning south when they collapsed. We all will be very interested in the final report on this very tragic failure, and how the causes of this failure can be applied to existing bridge maintenance and future bridge construction.
For your information, here are some email addresses for this big, wonderful state. Fishing, exploreminnesota.com and info@dnr.state.mn.us, Restaurants, resorts, motels, www.destination.com. Mall of America, www.mallofamerica.com.
(Dave Tickel, a 1951 graduate of Middletown High School, is travel editor for MiddletownNow.com)
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