Iron Man

My sister and brother in law are moving there soon, so I will be going down there occasionally to visit them. While down there I would like to hunt the mashkode gookoosh, the wild pig. I’d also like to meet up with Kiska on my way down there, if that would all work out. I think that would be just fun. Of course St. Louis is on the way there too, so I would have to meet up with Captain Spiffydoodle on the way too. He is the captain, afterall.

I’ve been there several times. It was always to go to the Great Rendezvous at Old Fort William. It’s a wonderful place, and the people that run it there are wonderful too. There is Suzie Stupendek, who is the major Domo there. Gilles Belot, who voluteers with the others in the canoe shed and so many others I couldn’t think of naming them all here.

There is a Smithy, a tin shop, wood shop, barns, a big period correct kitchen, gun makers shop, canoe shop, and the works. I got a personal tour by Jim of the merc unit stationed there known as the Des Murons. I was able to see the powder magazine building, and some of the real artifacts that are hidden away from the general public.

I always went up early so I could climb Mt. McKay, and go to the amythest mines. I found out that if I want to be fancy, I can start a fire with the amythest and my striker steel instead of using mere flint.

The Rendezvous there is in the first week of July every year. We always stayed up late and burnt an old worn out canoe by the warf.

The first time I went there I got caught off guard by how late it stays light, and how early the sun rises again. I stayed up with the canoe shed bunch for what were a couple of hours past dark, which is normal for me, and I will still have a decent sleep. It was nice out so a bunch of us slept under the stars down by the warf. How was I to know that it was already past 1:30 am? And how was I to know that it would start getting light again at about 3? That next day I was a complete zombie. What makes this amazing is that I’m only about four hours south of there. The day length thing must get exponential as you get farther north.

It nearly flooded on us one other time we went there.

This is near to where I live. I’m about 25 miles into the woods north of this place. Whenever we say the phrase “heading for town”, this is what we mean. I went to junior high and high school in “Duluth-town.”

The town is unique in many ways: It is three mile wide at its widest point, and 29 miles long. It is mostly along the edge of the hill. It’s cloudy alot there, but out at my place it can be very sunny while they have fog, cold and overcast. Often all you have to do is go over the hill and you’ll get to nice weather. The three miles wide thing makes it easy for people to escape and go fishing, hiking, biking, and cross country skiing, snowmobiling, and ice fishing in the winter. There are also many large wooded areas right in the heart of the city too – some of them over a mile square. Deer walk freely through residential neighborhoods, and I have seen an occasional moose while driving through town. Once in a while bears come into town and roam the streets.

People here are way friendly, and don’t be surprised if you get into a five minute or more long conversation with a complete stranger while waiting in a checkout line or something.

It is a large enough town to be classified as a city, and has pretty much all you need (although sometimes for some things, you have to take a trip down to the Cities). Yet, the place is small enough not to be too pretentious.

The place had its beginings as a fur post of the North West Fur Company, and was called Fort St. Louis (a history we share with Superior, WI). This fort was later abandoned and a smaller fur post was built up the river at the base of Jay Cook Falls Park at Fond du Lac. After the Civil War people used to come up every week on stage coaches up the road that was finally built during the war (it was the first road up to northern Minnesota – prior to that the rivers were the roads). Fifteen years later there were 114,000 people living there with lumber companies, and newly formed iron mining and manufacturing companies. Even so, it has still remained wild lands a mere 20 odd miles north of the city.