Up North
Today I have a few vintage slides from the great State of Minnesota (I truly love Minnesota!).
First up is this fun picture of a man atop a giant walleye near Lake Kabetogama (from June 1953), which is located waaaaay up in the northernmost part of the State, part of Voyageurs National Park. Kabetogama is a big lake, 8 or 9 miles long and roughly 2 miles across. 25,000 acres of water, and over 200 islands! I've fished there with my family several times (years ago)... thank goodness my brother was navigating, because I would still be out on the lake (as a skeleton). I got completely lost! No, we didn't have a compass.
I wanted to see if the walleye statue was still there... it is, but it's a newer version. The photo is from the fun "Roadside Architecture" site, which tells us that the original statue was built in 1949, designed by a man named Duane Beyers.
About 10 miles west of Kabetogama is the small town of International Falls (home of a giant Smokey the Bear statue and the Bronko Nagurski Museum). From there you can cross into Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada, through this magnificent portal (photo from June, 1963) into a magical land! I've been here too, but it didn't look nearly as charming as this.
Just for yucks I looked for other images of the same sign, and found four vintage postcards, in no particular order. I don't have much to say about them, except that I love old postcards!
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Lake Kabetogama and Fort Frances, Ontario!
6 comments:
Where's Smokey the Bear? Here's Smokey the Bear:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2132
Love the crown on the "Welcome to Canada" sign. And who doesn't love old postcards? ;)
Hey! Just look at that lazy boarder security! Them hosers can just walk right over if they wanted to. Someone needs to put up a wall!
DARN Photobucket! Hey Major, every once in a while these pics open up in the Photobucket format. So is there any way to avert this disaster? The advertizing is just SO off the charts obnoxious.
Major-
I'm too lazy today for thorough car ID-ing, but in the June, 1963 image, we have a light green, 1950 Pontiac. I think that's a black, 1941 Ford not exactly parallel to the curb. Ant the pick 'em up truck angling to our left is a 1948-1950 Ford, probably an F2 or F3 model. In the last image, we see a bright red, 1962 Chevrolet.
And the only thing better than the walleye statue, itself, is the design encouraging folks to 'climb aboard' for a rollicking good time - and wonderful photo keepsake. (Where was Eastman Kodak in all of this-?)
Thanks, Major.
@ MCK-
A trick I've found in dealing with Photobucket is once the image initially populates, use your back key in the browser; then click on the image again. You may have to perform this incantation a couple of times, but you can always achieve a Photobucket-free image at some point.
K. Martinez, I am proud to say that I have stood right next to that giant Smokey statue!
Monkey Cage Kurt, isn’t it funny? It barely looks like a border at all. Hard to believe.
Monkey Cage Kurt, Photobucket has changed the way they operate, much to my dismay. I’ve contacted them about it, and their reply is (in essence) “Too damn bad, that’s the way it is now”. So I guess my only option is to find a new photo host. Any suggestions would be welcome!
Nanook, for being “too lazy”, I think you did pretty good! Love that Pontiac. I had my photo taken on that walleye statue, but would have to dig through my mom’s zillions of snapshots to find it.
I am sorry to everyone for Photobucket being such a pain these days; it might take me a while, but I DO think it is time for me to make a change. They are more concerned with advertisinig themselves than providing good service for paying customers like me.
so charming. I love it!! :-)
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