August 7-8, 2017
We chose a two-night stay in Bemidji to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. A bonus was the statues of folk hero Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe.
The statues were built in 1937 for a winter carnival to honor the area’s history of logging and lumberjacking. Paul is 18 feet tall and weighs 5,000 pounds. Babe was mobile for the first two years and then was set permanently beside Paul.
Lake Bemidji
Headwaters of the Mississippi: Itasca State Park
The word Itasca was coined by Henry Schoolcraft, the explorer credited with discovering the headwaters in 1832. He combined parts of the Latin words for true (verITAS) and head (CAput) to form Itasca. The park itself is the second oldest in the U.S. and features the headwaters, several lakes, and magnificent red pine trees.
Yes, we both waded across the Mississippi without getting our knees wet!
The illustration above shows the reach of the Mississippi system. It drains 31 states and two provinces. It is over two miles wide when at the Gulf of Mexico. And, a raindrop falling into Lake Itasca will take 90 days to reach the Gulf.
The Park has a scenic drive through woods and along lakes.
A walk toward one of the lakes revealed trees we surmised were damaged by high winds.
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