As I was preparing to head out, a friend suggested that if I had time, to go check out the headwaters to the Mississippi River. Wow. That sounds like a good idea. Did a couple of searches to find out where they are and set the course. It turned out to be a 3 hour ride to get there, but it was worth it. Minnesota’s countryside is beautiful, but really different from Wisconsin. It’s flatter. It has a lot of low lying wetland and very large farms. Farmers are growing a lot of corn out there. There are corn elevators every where and more rail infrastructure than I imagined. But then if you need to move that much corn you need all that infrastructure. I also noticed large swaths of field planted with soybeans as well.
The headwaters are located on the northern end of Lake Itasca. I arrived at Itasca State Park and registered. I headed up toward the headwaters and stopped a a vista overlooking the lake. I continued on and found the “Pioneer” cemetery where some of the early settlers from the 19th and early 20th century were laid to rest.
I continued north to the headwaters. Such a humble beginning to the Mighty Mississippi or in Ojibwe or Algonqin, “Misi-zibi” or Great River. A fun fact is that it drains more than 1.5 million square miles of the United States. The Ojibwe some times render the name as “Father of Waters.”
I thought about staying in the park for the night, but gave up on that idea when I saw the forecast for more rain. I headed out and landed in Fargo. The trip to Fargo I did on state roads rather than the interstate. It was way less stressful. Not much traffic out there. Now I know why they call the Black Hills, the Black Hills. The soil is black.
I did the Walmart parking lot thing. Thank you Walmart. It was wild night of wind driven rain and thunderstorms.
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