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Downriver

A Travel Log for Leon’s Mississippi River Canoe Voyage; a six month solo trek from Minnesota to New Orleans.

Lobo Minnesota from Downriver: A Mississippi River Canoe Voyage Chapter 4

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In the 1930s, a giant wolf became infamous for slaughtering deer in the Lake Itasca area. Here’s the story of the man who ended the wolf’s bloody career….

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Diving for clams on Mississippi River

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The Natives viewed clams as a food source. Today, some people still harvest clams, but for different uses. Along the Mississippi, clams were the basis for a thriving pearl button industry.

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Downriver: Lake Winnibigoshish Chapter 5

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The widest spot on the Mississippi is Lake Winnibigoshish.

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Downriver Chapter 11: Vision Quest?

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Sometimes an experience will bring up memories that have lain dormant for years. Maybe it was of something that didn’t seem particularly important at the time it was happening. Possibly the new experience is like a key word on a computer that opens up an apparently unrelated, or unsuspected file.
Or maybe that first memory wasn’t complete, without something to trigger it.

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Downriver Chapter 10: Amos Owen, Dakota Holy Man

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Redwing, MN has a large marina, beautifully restored old homes and a great local museum. From the marina, I wandered up to the Goodhue County Museum on the hill. In the early 1850s, settlers came to Redwing to farm in Goodhue County. Land was selling for $15 per acre, and the cash crop was wheat. A few bumper crop years…

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Downriver: Prescott, Wisconsin Chapter 9

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The beauty of the morning seemed to be an apology for the storm the night before. As I leafed through my journal, looking for dampness, I had to smile at the previous day’s entry. It would have to be extensively re-written!

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Downriver: Little Falls to the Twin Cities Chapter 8

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Once you get through the lock at St.Paul, the Mississippi changes character and becomes a commercial river.

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Downriver: Chapter 7 Bill Byers the Logger

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    From Cass Lake to Grand Rapids, Mike and I paddled through the land of Paul Bunyon, the legendary logger, on the river that was the highway of the Minnesota timber industry until the 1940s. The world’s largest animated man, according to theme park hype, is this display of Paul Bunyon in Brainerd. Local legends are part of the…

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Downriver: Cass Lake and the Ricers Chapter 6

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The Chippewa Indians have always thought the wild rice beds are a gift from God. Today, wild rice is still important to the Indian people.

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Downriver: Chapter 3 Lake Itasca to Bemidgi

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Lake Itasca to Bemidgi We started paddling the next morning from Wanagan  through a canoeist’s paradise. The Upper Mississippi is a canoeist’s paradise! (traveltips.usatoday.com photo) The scenery ranged from pine forests that infused the air with a sweet, pine woods smell, to marshes full of cattails with stalks higher than our heads. The wetlands were full of waterfowl.  It seemed…

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