This weekend is Labor Day Weekend here in the USA and the hotel was full up last night. They were turningpeople away at the restaurant advising them they’d have a 2 hour wait! However, everyone was sleeping in this morning because when we went down for breakfast the restaurant was nearly empty. I was aiming for something abit lighter this morning so I thought I’d go for a short stack of pancakes with blueberries, thinking I’d get a nice moderately sized breakfast. Doh! Silly me! The pancakes were as big as the plate and thick, and I’d not expected the side of bacon that came with them!
We set off in plenty of time to get to our booked tour at the Lake Vermillion-Soudan Mine. We were booked for the 10am tour and had been advised to arrive 30 minutes early. The mine was the oldest and deepest mine in Minnesota and produced high quality ore until its closure in 1962.
There were plenty of people lining up for the tour and we all watched a short movie first about the mine’s history. Our tour guide was a retired miner and he was really excellent! He was informative and really funny and passionate aboout preserving the story of mining here in Minnesota. We were all provided with hard hats before being packed in tight in the elevator cages before heading down the elevator shafts into the mine – 1/2 a mile to bottom level – Level 27! It was a noisy, bumpy ride and my ears popped as we went down.
At the bottom we climbed into rail cars for the ride out along the long corridors leading to the working chamber at the end of the line. We had to climb up a marrow , spiral staircase to get there and then our guide answered lots of questions about life in the mine. He showed us what it was like for the miners in the earliest days working by the light of a single candle, but first he turned off the lights completely and entertained us with the working songs sung by the different nationalities of miners that worked here, Finns, Germans and Italians. He had a great singing voice and it echoed around the utterly dark chamber – just magic! However, I was glad when we finally caught the train back to the elevator shaft – it was really cold down there!
After the tour ended we walked around the mine buildings up at the surface, seeing the Engine room where the operator controlled the massive engine that drives the shafts up and down.
We’d spent a couple of hours at Soudan so it was nearly midday before we hit the road again. From Soudan we drove North-West and after 30 minutes stopped at a wayside next to Pelican lake in the town of Orr to have our coffee. There were lots of people fishing today, enjoying the holiday weekend.
Another hour along the road and we made a brief stop so I could ride the Leapin’ Walleye ! It’s actually a road side avertisement for Kabetogama Lake but I coulnd’t resist the chance for another silly photo op!
About 50 minutes laster we were pulling into the entrance to Voyageurs National Park, which is named ‘Voyageurs’ after the French-Canadian fur traders believed to be the first non-natives to travel through the region on a regular basis. An area of more than 30 lakes and more than 900 islands, Voyageurs spans a watery stretch of the U.S.-Canada border. A third of this national park’s area is water, most of it in four large lakes—Rainy, Kabetogama, Namakan, and Sand Point—linked by narrow waterways. We stopped int he visitor centre so I could buy a pin for my collection and wandered out along the lakeside. As we drove through here we passed more boat trailers than I’ve ever seen anywhere, everyone was out on the lakes today!
Driving back along the road towards International Falls ( where we’d be spending the night) we passed a Big Voyageur Statue , he was wearing the distinctive costume of the early fur trappers and he made Neil look like a midget 🙂
Our last “Big Thing” for the day was the biggest Smokey Bear Statue in the USA! Smokey was invented in 1944 as part of a campaign to help prevent forect fires, and he’s still doing good service today. We see him often in our drives around the USA but we’ve never seen him this big!
For dinner we walked up the road to the “Chocolate Moose”, which describes itself as ” an icon in the Borderland of International Falls, Minnesota! “. It was definitely the most hicksville place we’ve eaten this trip – the girl in charge of finding tables for people asked us “are you people waiting to be sat?” !!! Neil didnt have much luck with his beer choices but once the waitress had whipped out the back to find out “if we have any chardonnay..” she returned with a glass filled to the brim It wasnt fancy but there was plenty of it. My steak was ok, but I don’t think we’ll be rushing back to International Falls to the Chocolate Moose again!
