Downriver Chapter 10: Amos Owen, Dakota Holy Man
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…
Downriver: Prescott, Wisconsin Chapter 9
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!
Downriver: Little Falls to the Twin Cities Chapter 8
Once you get through the lock at St.Paul, the Mississippi changes character and becomes a commercial river.
Downriver: Chapter 7 Bill Byers the Logger
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. Local legends are part of the fun of traveling the Mississippi, and Paul Bunyon…
Downriver: Cass Lake and the Ricers Chapter 6
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.
Downriver: Chapter 3 Lake Itasca to Bemidgi
Lake Itasca to Bemidgi We started paddling the next morning from Wanagan through a canoeist’s paradise. 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…
Downriver: A Mississippi River Canoe Voyage, Chapter 2
Leon’s 1980 end-to-end voyage of the Mississippi River gets started at Lake Itasca, Minnesota.
About Leon Pantenburg
Leon Pantenburg is a wilderness enthusiast, and doesn’t claim to be a survival expert or expertise as a survivalist. As a newspaperman for four decades, covering search and rescue, sheriffs’ departments and outdoor emergencies, Leon learned many people died unnecessarily or escaped miraculously from outdoor emergency situations when simple, common…
