5 MN Road Trips: Paul Bunyan; Town With Dog As Mayor; Ghost Towns

MINNESOTA — Summer is slipping away. But there’s still time before school starts and activities pick up to take a road trip.

Here are five to consider:

Get In On ‘The Great Get-Together’

The Minnesota State Fair, which runs Aug. 22-Sept. 2, is billed as “The Great Minnesota Get-Together,” a time for Minnesotans to celebrate each other.

If you don’t want to fight a crowd — about 2 million visitors a year take it in — try heading to the fairgrounds, located halfway between Minneapolis and St. Paul, on opening day, a Thursday according to attendance data analyzed by Minnesota Public Radio.

The annual tradition began in 1854 as a territorial fair highlighting agriculture and encouraging farming. It became the Minnesota State Fair in 1859, a year after Minnesota was granted statehood.

You don’t have to be a farmer or involved in agriculture to enjoy the modern iterations of the state fair, which preserves the family-friendly tradition but offers something for everyone. For example, take a ride on the Great Big Wheel, one of the tallest Ferris wheels in North America, and other carnival rides; check out the whimsy of a llama costume contest; take in a concert at the grandstand or free band shells; ogle art made from Minnesota crops; visit the Miracle of Birth to see and pet baby animals; visit a haunted house or adventure park; or play games, check out tractors.

And don’t forget to eat. Fair food, often served on a stick, is practically a religious experience, especially the chocolate chip cookies — though they’re piled high in a bucket rather than threaded on a stick.

Follow Paul Bunyan’s Giant Footsteps

Road trippers can know in their hearts that glaciers that scoured the landscape over 10,000 years ago created Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes (the actual count of lakes more than 10 acres is 11,842) and still entertain the fantasy the lakes were created by the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan’s footsteps.

The Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway is a 54-mile loop that winds through Cass and Crow Wing counties, passing through 14 jurisdictions, including Pequot Lakes, Breezy Point, Crosslake, Manhattan Beach and Pine River. The route along the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, which are popular fishing and boating waters,
features miles of walking and biking trails, wildlife management area, parks and gardens. There are plenty of places along the way to eat, shop and stay, from resorts to campgrounds.

Here’s a small sampling of Paul Bunyan things to see along the way:

A statue of Paul Bunyan’s blue ox, Babe, is a whimsical welcome to visitors at the Pequot Lakes Historical Society museum, whose collection traces the history of the area and the families who settled it.

Also in Pequot Lakes, see a 13-foot-tall statue of the lumberjack sculpted by Josh Porter in 2008. The water tower in Pequot Lakes is painted to look like Paul’s fishing bobber.

Pine River touts itself as the birthplace of Paul Bunyan. A big pair of Paul Bunyan’s boots planted in the visitor center was swept away in a 2010 tornado, but baby Paul’s booties are found inside, guarded by Babe.

A talking Paul Bunyan in Brainerd has been saying hello and answering questions from travelers since 1954, since 2002 at Paul Bunyan Land, a 23-acre site with 40 rides and attractions, a petting barn and Pioneer Village, which has more than 40 buildings filled with antiques from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Of course, Babe is by Paul’s side.

Chase Minnesota Waterfalls

Minnesota is known for its thousands of lakes, but also its waterfalls. One of the best places to stop is at Grand Portage State Park, which the state’s highest waterfalls at 120 feet and is located along the Canada-U.S. border.

Judge C.R. Magney State Park in Grand Marais, located on Lake Superior’s North Shore, is home to the Devil’s Kettle waterfall, which has a mysterious split. While you’re there, be sure to visit Silver Bay and The Cascades of the Baptism River at Tettegouche State Park. Temperance River State Park, also in Silver Bay, is another great place to chase waterfalls, too.

Closer to the Twin Cities, check out the two waterfalls — and the bison — at Minneopa State Park in Mankato, or the Hidden Falls at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park.

If you want to do a waterfall loop, consider a loop that starts Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. Stops along the way include seven other waterfalls, which include Vermillion Falls in Crane Lake Township, Hidden Falls in St. Paul; Caron Falls in Faribault; Minnemishinona Falls in St. Paul; Minneopa Falls in Mankota;

The Explore Minnesota tourism website has more ideas for road trips centered around waterfalls.

This Village’s Mayor Is A Dog

Dorset, a tiny unincorporated village of only 22, punches far above its weight with its food scene. The self-proclaimed “Restaurant Capital of the World,” has four to choose from along its block long main drag — actually, its only drag.

Visitors are pulled away from the 49-mile, paved multiple-use Heartland State Trail. One of the first rail-to-trail projects in the country, it is located entirely on a level abandoned railroad grade. Snowmobilers can take a sharply rolling 4-mile segment north of Walker, but bicyclists can follow level road shoulders along Steamboat NW and Cove Lane.

Both the 27-mile segment that connects Park Rapids and Walker has a parallel natural surface trail for horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking. The Heartland State Trail also connects with the Paul Bunyan State Trail system and other regional trail systems.

But back to the food in Dorset, located a mile and a half off the Park Rapids to Walker route. It’s a sleepy town that previously claimed to be the “land of clover,” “the big white potato and the dairy cow,” and also claimed to have the shortest highway in Minnesota running through its downtown” and other marketing hyperbole. Dorset was known as “the smallest town in the United States with a bank” until 1986, when the slogan was ditched in favor of the current moniker after the first Taste of Dorset festival in 1987.

Dorset makes national news with its “mayoral” contests held in conjunction with Taste of Dorset (Sunday, Aug. 4, this year) It costs a buck to vote, t, with this year’s candidates including a 15-year-old boy, a college-age woman and a dog. Dorset’s current mayor is a dog. Past mayors have included toddlers.

Visit A Minnesota Ghost Town

Located about 80 miles south of Minneapolis, the unincorporated town of Wasioja was settled in 1854 and got a post office in 1856 that remained in operation until 1911. It’s essentially a ghost town now, though at one early in its history Wasioja had about 1,000 people. Today, fewer than 100 people live there.

Now, about all that’s left of Wasioja is contained in the Wasioja Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Seven structures that document the rise and fall of the community are preserved, including the Wasioja Baptist Church, the Wasioja School, the stone Andrew Doig House, a Civil War recruiting station, the ruins of a seminary that opened in 1860 and, n the outskirts of town, the limestone quarries that, along with agriculture, logging and milling, drove the once thriving town’s economy.

More Minnesota Rod Trips

• Explore The North Shore
• Take A Haunted Road Trip
• Go Big (As In Quirky) Or Go Home
• Spend The Weekend In Red Wing

Thinking about traveling out of state? Check out more Patch road trips.