Day 48-- MINN-EH-SOTA! (Up north)

Our campsite in Bemidji ,MN just outside town . It just
opened yesterday so only a few campers.

Did you,  (especially those in Michigan) that Bemidji MN is further north than Houghton and Hancock Michigan?  Forty Seven degrees North and 27 minutes.  The frost did not stay in the ground very long as it heated up quickly without the snow cover. Lake Bemidji had no ice on April 30th like it usualy does. Interesting, no?

First, a picture I took driving from North Dakota to Minnesota today and then some comment about those towns.

Named after a lumber baron, (Shevlin) as it was a lumbering camp first. Shevlin was the home of the Minnesota’s Logging Championships held during a festival known as Sawdust Dayz. The competition pitted both amateur and professional loggers against one another in logging events that included log toss, log rolling, axe throw, bow saw, speed cutting, stock saw, standing block chop, two man bucking saw, power saw and the Jack and Jill Crosscut competition. Part of the Sawdust Dayz celebration included parades, bed races, the nickel pick, a variety of kids games, horseshoe competition, and a battle of area fire departments. Sawdust Dayz began in 1987 a project of SCIP (Shevlin Community Improvement Project).

Then there is Solway a little further down the road. Solway is a city in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 96 at the 2010 census.  Solway serves as a bedroom community for nearby Bemidji. Not much to say other than that.

Now for Bemidji. It was smaller than I thought at less than 20,000.   Jane Russell and Pete Fenson were both born here. Jane Russell the actress you have heard of, but Pete is not a household word unless you watched the 2006 winter Olympics as he was the USA curling captain. The Chippewa tribe makes its home here surrounding the National Forest of the same name. Its name derives from the Ojibwe Buh-mid-ji-ga-maug  meaning "a lake with crossing waters". 

So why windbreaks?

One type of wind break with three rows.

A new windbreak, Some are over 100 years old.

 Windbreaks provide a variety of benefits to people. By reducing the force of the wind, they cut fuel costs in homes and farm 
buildings. They also protect livestock. Studies have shown that livestock gain more weight when protected from the full fury of the winter winds. Windbreaks also protect fruit trees from the abrasive soil particles that are carried by strong winds. 
Crops do better when sheltered from hot, drying winds, increasing yields by up to one-fourth. A properly designed windbreak can direct the placement of snow, reducing the need to plow roads.

One windbreak  with mixed trees deciduous and evergreen

Tomorrow we will begin to explore this lake filled region. The  "Land of 10,000 Lakes " is not taken lightly.