A workers camp is packed with probably 100 trailers, RVs and converted school buses; the visitor’s campground is equally packed.  We are parked in alfalfa field among row upon row of vehicles of every type.  Kids are running everywhere.  Teenage boys are “cruising” the grounds on tractors.  Who knew just how much interest there is in steam tractors?  Expected attendance is 200,000.

We are at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag.  It all started 60 years ago with a threshing demonstration using a Garr-Scott steam traction engine and has evolved into a celebration of all things steam driven.  It isn’t a static display.  Stuff runs, belches smoke, toots, and works hard, occasionally breaks down, and is magnificent to watch.  Yesterday’s parade of restored vintage equipment lasted over 1 1/2 hrs.  Early gas and kerosene equipment is here as well.  The tractors are huge.  The metal lugged wheels tower over head-high.

It was amazing to stand along “Main Street” as 10s of these vehicles moved around like regular traffic.  Coal dust and grease smeared faces are a badge of honor around here.  Bib overalls are the clothing of choice for all ages, both genders.  I don’t think the original inventor envisioned overalls over a tube top?!  Anyway, everybody really gets into it all.

We rode the steam engine train. 

Watched real STEAM shovels playing in their “sand box”. 

There is a real steam driven steam roller.  The carousel is powered by a steam engine.

There is some live horsepower here too.  Ten (10) horses, working as 5 teams of two hitched to a rotary hitch, powered a threshing machine.  It seemed no small feat to get them all working in unison.   Percheron pull wagons for rides and a Main street trolley car.  A ferrier demonstrated shoeing including a full pedicure.  He trimmed hooves and filed them for a perfect fit to the new shoes.  I never knew that the horseshoe nails came through the hoof.  He clipped off the ends to look like little rhinestones on the hooves.

The Spark Show

Only at a steam engine place could you have this nighttime closing event.  They fire the boilers with coal then throw in sawdust.  They pour on the power and sparks fly out of the head of the engine boiler and high into the air out of the stack.  Kent has the T-shirt that says it all.  “Steam Threshers Nightlife” over a picture of an engine spewing sparks.

It is a fun event that is held every Labor Day weekend.  I highly recommend seeing it at least once.

Bemidji, MN.  They take their Paul Bunyan lore seriously. They even have some of his fingernail clippings on display at the visitor center.  I talked on the Paul Bunyan sized phone!  It is worth a walk around downtown to see the sidewalk art and shops.

We walked across the Headwaters of the Mississippi River…about ankle deep.

Where the Mississippi River begins

It is amazing to think that this little steam here at Itasca Lake becomes that wide, mighty river.  We kayaked on waters that in just 90 days will be spilling into the Gulf.  What a cool thought.

Itasca Park also protects some of the last remnants of old growth red and white pine that once covered a huge swath across the northern US and Canada.  Preachers Grove includes trees over 300 years old.  They are not as big as the great Sequoias but the sharp smell of pine and the lattice of boughs reaching for the skies are awesome.  It’s impossible to image what it must have looked like when the loggers first arrived.

Hot, humid days kept us off the trails.  Maybe we will make it back one day and get out into the forest a bit more.

We checked out Rainy Lake, International Falls, and Ranier.  They are small towns up around the North side of Voyageurs and along the Canadian border.  It is all pretty developed with lots of Lodges and many private homes around the lake.  The water route of the Voyageurs is really the protected area for this National Park so that leaves the lakeshores open to private ownership.  It didn’t really feel like a Park.

We saw three fun (huge) statues:

Smoky

Vic the Voyageur

Giant Walleye