MN: mispronouncing words since the 1850s

New Prague, named after the old Prague, but pronounced in a Minnesotan way (prayg) is where we'll bike from St. Peter next Thursday. We might encounter some hills, I think. The first European settler arrived in 1856, and it sounds like the city was essentially formed around a cooperative dairy.

Most of the information I could find about this city ("a tradition of progress") centered on a fun-sounding festival held there each fall. One of my most favorite law school friends, who is also a really good lawyer, lives in New Prague. I'm hoping to see him and his family when we roll into town.

We will officially wrap up the ride next Friday in Welch, MN, an incorporated town with a cute old train station next to a bike trail that once was a train track along the Cannon River. This is the one place of the 5-day bike ride that I've been to before. It was in this area that I once had a huge bald eagle sweep down really close to my head while I was biking.

Welch has a ski hill, which is where I think we actually end the ride. In checking to see what else I could learn about Welch, I learned that a movie, Here on Earth, was filmed there. It sounds horrible.

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I always wondered where the jump shot originated.

St. Peter, "where history and progress meet," was the intended capital of Minnesota, before someone sneakily got St. Paul designated for that distinction. 

Among the notable residents is the inventor of the jump shot. And an interesting "tidbit" (in the words of the city) is that Jesse James' gang spent the night in St. Peter before robbing the bank in Northfield.

My riding friend Matt went to college in St. Peter and seems to be of the strong opinion that a very good hamburger can be found there. This is the city to which I will ride from Redwood Falls one week from today. I will test Matt's theory.

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"The Scenic City" & "the Little Yellowstone of MN"

A week from now, I will be getting back on my bike for day 2: Marshall to Redwood Falls.

Redwood Falls (motto: The Scenic City) just last month celebrated its sesquicentennial, but it was inhabited by the Dakota long before 1864. In 1851, the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux created a reservation along the Minnesota River, including the area that now is Redwood Falls, supposedly to help compensate the Dakota who had lost access to hunting and fishing lands due to white settlement but also to obligate them to continue to provide furs to the white settlers. The Lower Sioux Agency, by pretty much every account, was particularly corrupt. As a result, this area was the site of the first organized attack of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

Charles Eastman (either the son or grandson of painter Seth Eastman, depending on what you read) was born in this area. He was raised by his Dakota family, but then went east and got a medical degree before serving native communities and explaining to white people, in popular books, native traditions.

Redwood Falls is home to the largest municipal park in Minnesota, although we will be camping at a park more in the center of town. Apparently, the big park, formerly a state park named after Governor Ramsey, is known as "the little Yellowstone of Minnesota." This cracks me up. Is there a Yellowstone of Minnesota, and this is smaller than that?

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The Motto-less Marshall

One week from today, I will ride my bike from Pipestone, MN to Marshall, MN. I'm interested in visiting this area, since this is near where my husband lived in the last part of his teens, attending a high school with a massive graduating class of 11 students.

This is what I've learned this a.m.: Marshall was founded in 1872. A township with a post office had been established in the area two years earlier. Before that, the area was occasionally used as a campground for groups of Dakota, who hunted and traveled throughout the region. Marshall became an incorporated city in 1901. Located on the Redwood River, Marshall is the home of Schwan Food Company.

Photos from the MN Historical Society show James J. Hill addressing a crowd in Marshall, and the band that welcomed the railroad baron. (Some day in the winter I'll do a post about Hill, who is pretty fascinating.)

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"I think you can figure out where to put it."

Bike shop guy (Bsg) at cash register: Just the chamois cream?

Me: Yeah. I hope it will resolve an issue I'm having.

Bsg: I love this stuff, it's great. Are you riding with chamois shorts?

Me: Regular padded bike shorts.

Bsg: Don't forget to condition the pad. Put this on the pad of the shorts after washing them. Before you ride.

Me: Oh. Okay. That's good to know. Put it on the pad. And you put it on your skin, too, right?

Bsg: Yeah, you put a bunch on the pad and a bunch on... your skin.... there are instructions, but I don't think I need to tell you what else to do!!! I think you can figure out where to put it!!! Good luck, I think you'll be very happy. I love that stuff!

* * * * * * * 

One week until we go to the start of the ride!

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A deer? A fox?

A coyote.

After some quick deliberations at the roughly 40-mile mark of today's 71-mile bike ride, Matt and I realized that what we saw was not a small deer (my first thought) or a rather large fox (his first reaction), but a coyote.

Today we met at Fort Snelling, rode up the Mississippi to the Coon Rapids Dam, and turned west to go to Elm Creek Park in some western suburb (Brooklyn Park? I have no idea.) We saw the coyote on the way back to the dam. Our plans to ride across the top of the dam were thwarted by ongoing construction. Once we got to North Minneapolis, we rode through Northeast, to the U, through St. Paul and back to the fort.

Wide ranging conversations from TRAM planning, the cons of amputation to alleviate toe pain, biking short styles and fit, religious tolerance, ice fishing, Fourth of July menus, the Boundary Waters, and gratitude for being able to be out on our bikes...

This was my longest ride in a month, and not much more than the distance I will ride each of the five days of the TRAM. I'm kind of tired, and think the fifth day of the TRAM might be tough.

Today's photos are of/near the dam. The NPS says:

"The Coon Rapids dam was built in 1913 by the Northern Mississippi Power Company. It took 1,000 men just a little over 1 year to complete the entire dam system. During construction, a small town grew up on the Anoka County side of the river, complete with barracks, hospitals, fire stations and even dance halls."

1913? Of course there were dance halls.

"Home of the Red Stone Pipe"

A week from Sunday, I will be on a bus to Pipestone, MN, the city with this unusual motto.

I've never been there. This is what I've learned:

» Founded in 1876.
» Incorporated as a village in 1881, with train service nine years later on four different rail lines.
» Named after the red stone quarried by Native Americans to make pipe bowls.
» Leader in wind technology; nearly 800 wind generator towers.
» Despite the fact that I'm packing a swimsuit, the city has a total area of 4.18 square miles, all of it land.
» Quarry site (depicted in this sketch from the 1800s) was the first site in the U.S. to be declared a national monument by Congress.
» Despite all of the recognition of its historical and cultural significance, Pipestone was formerly home to a Native American Boarding School, which were known for their repression of Native American culture and contribution to the genocide and ethnocide of Native Americans.
» It is really close to South Dakota.

I think there's gotta be water nearby.

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