Once we picked up the mail, Kae wanted to revisit a place called Knife Island where we had stopped overnight a few weeks back. It is the site of some very special types of slate and an old 1880 quarry. Known as Deetz’s Quarry and Slateville, it is now a pleasant RV park owned by Marcie Stolberg and her children, John and Tekla. They honor the history and uniqueness of the site plus Marcie was generous enough to allow Kae to have some slate for her sculptures. Then we headed for a stay at Barnum and a visit to the Moose Lake State Park and the Geologic Museum. Agate is the State Rock here and this museum does a great job of explaining and displaying this amazing stone. We’ll just let Cokie’s photos speak:
I must say the Mississippi River is really getting magnificently huge but it is still very picturesque as was the river front area in St. Paul where we had stopped.
The reason for going right back into a major city was a chance to see the exhibition of artifacts from Pompeii at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. What an incredible treat for my gals. Kae said seeing Pompeii had been on her 'top ten' list for most of her life and this was about as close as she figures she will ever get. The bummer is no photography allowed so we will have to let a scan of the brochure try to convey some of the beauty and chaos of that moment nearly 2,000 years ago.
Cokie and Kae spotted some artful Dinosaurs around the streets of the city and took some shots of them. They were a promotion for a display of fossils at the museum and were so fun!
The Ladies also discovered that right next to the museum is the city’s District Energy of St. Paul power and heat generation plant. This is Municipal Government at its best and is so cool on several levels. Firstly, it has been around, in the same location, starting as a coal fired plant, since the1890’s, making it quite historical. Secondly, it has kept up with the changing needs of a growing city and has ‘morfed’ from power generation only to steam heating also. Then the best: in keeping with the needs for a cleaner world it converted from coal burning to 80% urban wood waste burning, all gathered from the immediate cities! How cool is that? And my best friend Snoopy is the spokesdog!!
The William O’Brien State Park, down on the St. Croix River, is near several lovely, historic towns like Marine on St. Croix, Stillwater and Bayport. These are very touristy and very fun spots. I like them because when the Ladies are in the stores I get to hang out in the driver’s seat of the Pod and people just love to come over and talk to me. They will ask me if I ‘know how to drive that thing’ or if I ‘have a driver’s license’ and things like that. I love to see them smile and it is fun for all of us.
It was our intention to travel down to LaCrosse, WI to catch a glimpse of the Mississippi at over three miles across but the weather changed our minds for us. We stopped at nice visitors’ center at Prescott to try for a picture of the confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi Rivers. We had heard that the color contrast between the two is remarkable. It was a cloudy day and Cokie wasn’t too certain there would be the right light to take the picture. She was right but we tried anyway.
We then bought this postcard because it shows the contrast much better. The St. Croix is the blue river on the left and the Big Muddy is obvious! Photo by David Morrison
Since we had been out of cell service and TV reception for a while we had no idea that there had been a terrible storm at LaCrosse; 12 inches of rain in 24 hours and that it might best not to go and try to sightsee that day. We had an executive meeting and unanimously decided to skip that town and head due west. Yup, that’s west not east. You see we got this crazy notion to backtrack into South Dakota and go see the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell. Kae has been hearing about this really wonderful building from her Sister, Jeannie, for about 5 decades so we thought it might be about time. We also had missed Kansas City and the Nelson-Atkins Museum a few months back. We therefore jetted across the southern part of Minnesota in record time, taking those requisite barns and interesting stuff pictures (still no seatbelt for me for all those quick stops and u-turns!). Here’s some more for you to see.
We hit some pretty wild thunderstorms on the road west but we also stopped at a couple of special places: Pipestone National Monument and the pretty little city of Pipestone. The Monument is the sacred site of a special type of red claystone, treasured by all Plains Indian Nations and traded from coast to coast. The Indians are the only people allowed to quarry this sacred stone as they have used it for centuries for making ceremonial pipes, hence the name pipestone. The entire site is still honored as a form of peace park by all Nations as no one has ever been allowed to carry weapons or ‘make war’ on any other while within its boundaries. The creation myths of many Nations hold that this claystone is made from the blood and bodies of their Ancestors. The First Nations people still come to the site to pray, leave offerings and to carefully extract the pipestone. Aside from the beauty of this sacredness, the entire area is naturally beautiful. From the cliffs of colorful quartzsite, the thin line of the finer pipestone, the special quartzsite outcroppings with names like “Old Stone Face” and “The Oracle” to the flowers, trees, stream, waterfall, little lake and winding paths, they all make this a magical place as well as a sacred place. We were so pleased that it had come under the protection of the National Park Service back in 1930’s so that it will be preserved for the future generations to cherish.
The Oracle
Old Stoneface
Tobacco offering
Prayer offerings
We drove through the town of Pipestone just to photograph the large number of nationally designated historic buildings. They were generally built in the 1880’s and 90’s and are unique because they are made from the local colorful quartzsite. It was quarried and shaped or dressed by hand by local masons. The deep, rich wine color contrasting with the lighter, almost yellow tone makes the main street quite different from any other main streets we have seen so far; very pretty. 
We also found this really unique sculpture of a mule, commemorating the animals who struggled to haul the slabs from the quartzsite quarries to the masons. It was reported that he is made from the metal lids of the coffins reserved for the miners.
Well that wraps up Minnesota. This has been an interesting state full of amazing contrasts in geology, landscapes, lakes and weather. We have all enjoyed it. Our next blog will be an eclectic mix of arts and whatnots, so stay tuned and get ready!
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