Hinckley, MN to Fargo, ND (Hwy 61 north to Finlayson, MN; Hwy 18 west to Brainerd, MN; Hwy 210 to Motley, MN; Hwy 10 to Fargo)
The beautiful drive through north-central United States continues as I meander across central Minnesota. This is no longer dairy country but an outdoor paradise of wilderness, lakes and rivers. The lack of agriculture is probably attributed to the preponderance of water everywhere. Not only lakes, ponds and streams but generally any space that looks flat is appears to be a marsh. Fall is further advanced here with many trees dropping their leaves but a hint of color still remains.
My road intersects with Interstate 35 at the small town of Hinckley, a rather non-descript community with a tragic past.
Hinckley, MN
Hinckley was founded in 1869 the middle of a huge white pine forest in central Minnesota as a railroad stop and quickly grew to be a center for the area as the railroad grew both west and north and the logging industry flourished. In 1894 a town of 1,500 people saw 10 trains a day pass through. A photograph from that year shows a bustling city.
Then, on September 1, 1894, all changed in two short hours…
Fires had been burning in the surrounding forest all summer long as a result of a prolonged drought. Given that the area was sparsely settled, most burned themselves out with minimal damage. On the afternoon of September 1 conditions combined to create the perfect firestorm. Temperatures within the firestorm rose to such temperatures that kegs of nails melted into a single mass and wheels of railroad cars melted and fused with rails of the railroad track. The fire only lasted about four hours but in that time destroyed four towns, including Hinckley and burned over 400 square miles of forest. The history of the fire is told in the Hinckley Fire Museum, housed in the train depot built the year after the fire.
The three distinct parts of the depot include the Freight Room on the left (now used to show a video about the fire), the Reception Area (first floor) and Depot Agent’s Apartment (second floor) in the idle and on the right the Beanery (the restaurant). The Beanery now houses a collection of artifacts detailing the history of the fire.
The fire erupted around Hinckley with little notice. Two trains were headed to Hinckley, one from Duluth to the north and the other from West Superior to the east. By the time the trains reached Hinckley the railyard to the south was on fire. The two trains linked up and loaded everyone in sight who wanted to leave, waiting until the last possible moment as fire overtook the town. Over five hundred people jammed the two small trains as the small combined trains steamed north, just ahead of the fire, trying to cross the Kettle Falls Bridge before it burned.
A watchman at the bridge waved the train on and just minutes after the train passed the bridge fell into the river. Unfortunately many did not make that final train and ultimately at least 418 people perished in the fire. It is probable that more died but the bodies were never recovered. The museum contains many relics from the fire, telling the tale of those who died and those who survived.
South of Hinckley the small town of Mission Creek was totally destroyed but a group of residents survived by huddling in the middle of an open potato field as the flames raced around them. A small child, Jenny Johnson, survived by hiding until a pile of soaked blankets, clutching her china doll.
The State of Minnesota coordinated relief efforts immediately after the fire and provided a “Hinckley Relief House” for $95 to survivors, paid for by relief funds. The rebuilding effort began immediately as hundreds of these small 16×24 feet houses were built in the burn area to house returning residents.
About a mile east of the train depot is the Hinckley cemetery, marked by a stark gray granite obelisk erected by the Minnesota state legislature in 1899, jutting into the sky like a burnt pine.
Just behind the memorial lies hallowed ground. The bodies of 248 men, women and children were burned beyond recognition and were never able to be identified. They were buried in four long trenches north of the monument; today the somber rows are surrounded by a low chain frame, pierced by the shadow of the obelisk…
Back at the museum the rest of the building preserves the way of life after the fire. The Deport Agent ran the operations of the railroad at the station. His office overlooked the railyard to the west.
The second floor of the depot served as a home for the agent and his family. The apartment is furnished with pieces original to the era. The apartment consisted of five rooms: kitchen, family room, formal parlor (used only when guests were present) and two bedrooms.
Many Scandinavians had settled in the area and the loom in the corner of the family room was a typical fixture in their homes.
The formal parlor centers on a square oak table, a piece of “Fire Relief furniture, furniture that was donated to survivors from around the nation.
The two bedrooms included one for the parents and one for the children.
All of the rooms in the apartment opened off a central foyer at the top of the stairs.
The road from Hinckley heads west through the Minnesota forest and lake country to Brainerd. Water is everywhere, lakes and streams as well as extensive marshlands. The colors of fall decorate the views.
Central Minnesota
The town of Brainerd is at the heart of “Cabin Country”, which is how the weather forecasters out of Minneapolis-St. Paul refer to the lake country. Logging and railroads are still important here but wilderness recreation is also a major contributor to the local economy. The tourist season is over and most campgrounds are closed for the season but once again we score a great spot at a city campground in Brainerd. Showers and bathrooms are closed but all I really want for the Lunch Box is electricity and that’s still on. The view from the Lunch Box is across the lake just northwest of downtown Brainerd.
Brainerd itself is a bustling place, serving as the commercial center of lakes country. It sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River with sister city Baxter on the west bank. Most of the newer commercial area is in Baxter. Not particularly picturesque, there are a couple of “stand-out” sites along the main drag. The first is a rather unique water tower, kind of looking like a flashlight on end and referred to as “Paul Bunyan’s flashlight” in a nod to the legend of the Minnesota woods. It’s a stretch…
The other example of “Minnesota humor” stands outside the Minnesota School of Diving. Babe, the Blue Ox, (Paul Bunyan’s trusty companion) is outfitted in diving gear, ready to take on Minnesota lake country!
Heading northwest of Brainerd towards Detroit Lakes the landscape opens up a bit in another rendition of Midwest dairy country. Again acres of field corn and hay have been carved out of the forests.
Just south of Detroit Lakes I start to see evidence of something other than dairy farms in the local agriculture picture. Immense sheds devoted to the raising of turkeys just outside of the small town of Frazee. Like any self-respecting small town it you don’t have a legitimate draw for tourists, you create one and for a couple of miles along the highway are signs advertising the “World’s Largest Turkey”. A quick detour through Frazee locates two turkeys, one a “pretender to the throne” and the other the clear winner. At the main corner in downtown Frazee a turkey decorates the local gas station.
Perched on a slight rise west of the gas station sits the winner, perched above the street at the entrance to the local Lion’s Park.
My curiosity satisfied I jump back on Hwy 10 and head towards Morehead at the western border of Minnesota, just across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota. I have clearly entered the Red River Valley as the land has flattened out and fields stretch towards the horizon with trees now clustered along creeks and rivers.
Followers of the Lunch Box will remember that we explored the northern Red River Valley on the way out when I stayed in Grand Forks, nearly 100 miles to the north. Just as in that area, here there are towns on either side of the Red River, Fargo on the west bank in North Dakota and Morehead to the east in Minnesota. Also like Grand Forks, this area has been devastated by periodic flooding over the years. Morehead on the east bank is the smaller of the two and our last stop in Minnesota. The center piece of Morehead is the Hjemkomst Center, a museum and community center perched on the east bank of the Red River. The center’s unique design is visible from all over the area due to two tall structures. The first is the center itself, a low brick building with a distinctive “tent-like” roof that rises to the sky which accommodates the sails of the Viking boat contained within; and the second is the distinctive reproduction of a Norwegian stave church.
The Hjemkomst Center
The museum portion of the Hjemkomst Center houses a number of rotating displays about the history of the Fargo-Morehead area but the centerpiece is clearly the result of the personal passion of two men: Bob Asp and Guy Paulson.
Bob Asp led a community effort to bring his desire to build an authentic reproduction of a Viking ship as a memorial to the Norwegian ancestry of local immigrants. He designed the Hjemkomst after an actual Viking ship, the Gokstad, a ship in virtually perfect condition found by archaeologists outside of Gokstad, Norway, in 1880. Construction of the Hjemkomst began in 1973 in the Hawley Shipyards in Minnesota and the ship was first placed in the waters of Lake Superior in Duluth in 1980. The voyage to Norway actually began in 1980 as the Hjemkomst sailed through the Great Lakes and left from New York harbor on the trip to Norway. The ship weathered a major storm in the Atlantic but completed the six week trip with great fanfare with a formal welcome in the harbor of Bergen, Norway in mid-July 1982. The Viking ship did not sail back to Minnesota, but was transported via cargo ship. The size of the Hjemkomst, combined with the confined area that it is displayed in, prevented a photo of the entire ship so here it is in two parts take from a second floor viewing platform.
I sat on the floor to try and get a picture looking up the main mast to the tented ceiling…
The other main attraction of the Hjemkomst Center is outside. Beginning in 1997 a local man whose hobby was woodworking began the project of his lifetime. Over the next five and a half years Guy Paulson built a replica by hand of the Hopperstad Stave Church located in Vik, Norway, believed to have been constructed in 1140 A.D.
The level of detail is incredible, down to a small “leper’s window” built into the side of the chapel. In medieval times sick people were not allowed inside the church, but could come to this small window on the side of the chapel and still received the Lord’s blessing.
Two extraordinary men created two extraordinary legacies for their community…
Leaving the Hjemkomst Center I look across the Red River to downtown Fargo rising above a new flood wall under construction.
Next up: The Plains of North Dakota
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