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We began this occasional column early last year as follows: “As the only direct route, Grand Marais residents soon begin to memorize things on Highway 61. And we wonder.” What have we wondered about, and what have we learned? Stay tuned.
The Encampment Forest Association near Two Harbors has a 100- year history of conservation and relaxation. And we lost a great place in Wunderbar’s demise after three fun years.
Cant Road is likely named after a federal Judge who served in Duluth for many years. Caspers Hill Road is likely named after two Kasper brothers who bought land on Caspers Hill around 1905. We revisited Highway 61 with Dylan’s album, and we learned there is a science of Geodetics, crucial to all mapping and complete with markers we can hunt.
We visited Stacy Drouillard’s Chippewa City and the Old Road, and we discovered pieces of our history with the Metis and Lakotas. We learned a reliable story about how Devil Track Lake was named. We revisited James Baldwin in Begin Again and white privilege, and from the sublime to the mundane, golf and the virus including “Dog Leg Left.” We have since learned that there are many unregistered Little Free Libraries in Cook County. With several food shelves along the North Shore, we can both read and eat most economically. Would that we had enough housing, too. I hear there are plans for that but do not know the details.
We discovered paths to walk around Grand Marais and reported on some of what we saw using this slower method of transport. We investigated the Superior Hiking Trail and nominated “The Happy Wanderer” as the official Trail hiking song. No action there yet, but we look forward to the return of Kay Costello’s 8th Avenue West bench along with spring buds popping.
Leaves were peeped, and office supplies located, as were the Safe Harbors under the Corps of Engineers. While near those harbors, we learned about the Corps’ history and role in flood plain management and navigation, not only on our Great Lake but also on the other lakes in the Arrowhead. State parks and Scientific and Natural Areas were discovered. (But I still cannot find anything about the origins of the word “Tettegouche,” only its surprise pronunciation.)
We noted that Visit Cook County came up with our staying One Moose Apart, complete with favors and T-shirts. The Smithsonian is collecting materials about how our people adapted to the corona virus. As a result, some of our One Moose Apart things may end up as part of the Smithsonian’s exhibit on the virus.
Borrowing from Daniel Webster in the Dartmouth College case, “she is a small county, sir, but we love her.”
Most of all, during this life in the time of Corona, we reclined, and thought, and wrote. Writing is subtly rewarding, and I have it on good authority that there are at least two regular readers of this column besides Brian the Editor. We hope for more such evidence. Suspicious readers may believe that a column like this is a product of a lack of other column ideas. That is a slander if spoken, or libel if written, and defamatory either way. We will continue to explore places and place names and anything else (even remotely) tied to Highway 61, supported by the dictionary of Minnesota Place Names from the Minnesota Historical Society. If you have any information on the stone cairns found all around the North Shore, I would love to hear from you.
If you liked wondering about our turf or want to share a topic you have explored (or would like this column to explore), please tell the editor or the author, and you will see some more. ccnh@boreal.org.
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without an appointment by the Chief Justice. He enjoyed officiating at a well-masked wedding this year where the “congregation” was in Grand Marais, Norway, and White Bear Lake. Copyright Stephen C. Aldrich and News-Herald, 2021.
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