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The Superior National Forest sits on approximately three million acres in Minnesota’s Arrowhead and was established in 1909. One assumes a sign announcing The Forest that is on Highway 61 and just West of Tofte, Minnesota was erected shortly thereafter.
The large, four-sided, oblong sign says, “Superior National Forest” in two different fonts. Beneath that sign is another, separate, tiny, rectangular other sign that says, in a third font, “US Department of Agriculture”.
These signs are nice enough and largely ignored. They sit on federal land, just East of the Temperance River Park. There’s a dumb, super-short, horse-shoe road that is good for turning around, I guess. I’ve heard this “road” described as a turnaround, turnout, and a mistake.
Anyway, through an anonymous source, it’s come to my attention that recently a third sign was added. In yellow letters and a fourth font it read: “Smokey the Bear’s Tomb”.
Many believe Smokey the bear died in 1976 and was buried in Capitan, New Mexico, near the Smokey the Bear restaurant. But others call the Capitan burial site a conspiracy and believe that these federal signs, in the eastern most part of Schroeder, Minnesota, is the true resting place of “Hotfoot”, the black bear cub who was badly burned in 1950, and later renamed Smokey.
The roadside attractions in New Mexico are real. But so, too, is the North Shore lore claiming Smokey. The rumors that Smokey’s resting place is really, truly in Schroeder, Minnesota have been around for decades. But that’s all they were: rumors. On the other hand, what else could lie beneath that large mound?
And then there was a sign. Not a metaphorical sign, not a sign from above, but an actual, physical, terse sign. The sign was a simple, Forest-Service-brown cedar with yellow letters and read: Smokey the Bear’s Tomb. The sign sure looked like the work of the Forest Service. On the other hand, it could be a worthy counterfeit.
Was the sign a quiet, understated acknowledgement from the Forest Service that this mound and turnabout is, in fact, Smokey’s final resting place? Or was the sign the work of a mischievous vandal trying to lure gullible tourists to the area? No one can say for certain but keen-eyed observers noticed the additional sign for the better part of August 2022. And then one day in September, the sign wasn’t there anymore. Some have even suggested that the sign was just a dream, but someone snapped a picture of it so no, the sign was as real as these words.
The sign itself is a mystery. But I suppose, so too, is life. The rumors that the real Smokey the Bear is buried in Schroeder, Minnesota persist. If you wander into the coffee shops in the vicinity and listen closely to the old-timers, you might hear the rumors shared, with a twinkle in the eye, to this day.
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