MINNESOTA A State For All Seasons

Travel America, July, 2001 by Shirley Slater, Harry Basch

Tourist trails lead to big-city excitement and northwoods splendor

We fell in love with Minnesota first because of the hilarious St. Olaf stories told on TV's "Golden Girls" by charming actress Betty White, but that love grew stronger every time we went to the Gopher State.

On our first visit we made the scenic drive up Highway 61 along the shore of Lake Superior from Duluth to Grand Portage. Then we roamed the lake-dotted Voyageurs Country from the colorful frontier town of Ely, home of the International Wolf Center and jumping-off point for expeditions in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, close to the Canadian border.

Voyageurs National Park, 11 miles east of International Falls, is Minnesota's only national park. During a guided excursion on one of its 30 lakes, we spotted a variety of wildlife, from eagles and beavers to otters and moose. To the west, Lake of the Woods (with 65,000 miles of shoreline and 14,582 islands) straddles the Canadian border at Minnesota's northern-most tip, offering some of the best walleye, northern pike, and muskie fishing in the world. In Baudette the gigantic Willie the Walleye (9,500 lbs.) greets visitors. North of town, Zippel Bay State Park offers a three-mile-long beach on the big lake.

A couple of years later we had a chance to explore the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, including the massive Mall of America in Bloomington. Besides 500-some stores, the nation's largest shopping/entertainment center has nightclubs, theme restaurants, a miniature golf course, walk-through aquarium, LEGO Imagination Center, and the seven-acre Camp Snoopy amusement park--complete with thrill rides--all under one roof. Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Sears department stores anchor each corner of the mall; specialty shops line its four connecting "avenues."

In downtown Minneapolis we enjoyed strolling along Nicollet Mall, a one-mile pedestrian thoroughfare that contains more shopping in a four-block radius than any other city in the country. The historic Warehouse District abounds with art galleries, antique stores, gift shops, and coffeehouses. Cultural magnets include the Walker Art Center, a world-class contemporary art museum; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, with a collection spanning centuries; and lively theaters, like the famed Guthrie.

Across the Mississippi River in St. Paul are the State Capitol, Science Museum of Minnesota, Minnesota Children's Museum, and a thriving theater scene. We recommend touring the 1891 James J. Hill House, one of several Victorian mansions that line Summit Avenue. Fort Snelling, on a bluff above the Mississippi, features costumed guides who demonstrate 19th century crafts and military drills. Riverboat cruises operate between downtown St. Paul and the fort and from Bloom Island in Minneapolis.

Leaving the Twin Cities, wend your way south along the Mississippi River Valley through the town of Red Wing, where Red Wing classic stoneware pottery is still produced, and past Lake Pepin, birthplace of water skiing and the location for the Grumpy Old Men films starting Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, shot in the town of Faribault. In nearby Rochester, free tours of the famed Mayo Clinic are available.

On our most recent trip to Minnesota, we set out from Duluth into the great Mesabi Iron Range, pausing on a rainy Saturday morning to see the only service station ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a well-worn structure in yellow and green at the junction of highways 45 and 33 in the town of Cloquet.

We continued north on U.S. 53 to Virginia to the Italian Bakery, where we picked up a loaf of its famous potica, a rich rolled walnut pastry. Then we drove a few miles to see the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth and on to Hibbing, the birthplace of the Greyhound Bus Company and singer Bob Dylan.

Vermilion Lake is possibly the prettiest of Minnesota's 15,000 lakes and well worth the drive north of Virginia. Near the town of Tower is Fortune Bay Resort & Casino, the most luxurious resort on the lake. Operated by the Chippewa Indians, the resort offers a marina, indoor pool, fitness center, and musical entertainment, not to mention bingo, slots, and table games. Besides 115 guest rooms, there are 34 campsites in Fortune Bay's RV park.

From Hibbing, a 40-mile drive west on U.S. 169 took us to Grand Rapids, birthplace and childhood home of Frances Ethel Milne "Baby" Gumm, later known as Judy Garland. The Itasca Heritage Center in the heart of town features a museum dedicated to the Gumm family, especially Judy.

The town of Bemidji, where we spent a delightful two days in the wooded park of the local KOA campground, is associated indelibly with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, the oversized icons of the lumbering days erected by the side of the road in 1937, one of the most photographed sights in the state.

Less well known is a Paul Bunyan statue in Akeley that lowers a giant hand for a visitor to sit in and feel like Lily Tomlin's little girl dwarfed by a giant rocking chair. En route to Akeley we stopped to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca State Park, almost small enough to leap across.