International Falls, MN

Can’t get much further north in the USA and certainly the furthest north we will get on this tour !

Our last stop in Minnesota sees us in International Falls and we are literally on the border between the USA and Canada here. Our goal in these parts has been to visit another National Park – Voyageurs.

We got off to a reasonably early start as we had a tour booked at Soudan (sounds like the country Sudan) Underground Mine on the south shore of Lake Vermilion, in the Vermilion Range. Our friend at the Ely mine yesterday had filled us in on how the Vermilion Range was instrumental in all the mines in the area. The Soudan mine is known as Minnesota’s oldest, deepest, and richest iron mine, and now hosts the Soudan Underground Laboratory – when, in the 1980s, scientists from the University of Minnesota began to develop the Soudan Mine as a site for sensitive physics experiments because of the very low rate of cosmic rays in the deep underground site.

The tour was very good – always good when you get a knowledgeable and passionate tour guide ! First we descended the 1/2 mile down the shaft lift – squeezed in shoulder to shoulder – to the lowest level – level 27 – which was the last prepared before the mine closure in 1962. Then it was onto a train which took us 1 1/2 miles to the area where the mining took place. The guide did a good job of bringing the changing conditions of the workers to life – from the conditions at the start of the underground work in 1892 through to its closure. At one point he turned off all the lights and it was totally black ! He then lit a candle – the only light source available in 1892 – and it was amazing how much light it actually created !

After a short walk around the mining area, it was back on the train to the lift and back to earth ! We then walked around more of the site to look at the “Engine room” – where the lift driver operated the lines for the shaft lift – and the “Crushing room” and “Loading dock” where the final product boarded the train bound for the ships on the Great Lakes to transport it all over the world.

With our tour finishing late morning, we set off for Voyageurs National Park – via a few other stops along the way. I felt a bit conspicuous driving along today – it’s the Labor Day holiday long weekend and “in the land of 10,000 lakes” I think we were the only car/truck which was not towing a boat or carrying a canoe on top – or both !!

We stopped at a small park at a place called Pretty Lake and had our coffee break. There was small jetty below us with 3 guys earnestly tending their fishing poles whilst boats buzzed back and forth along the lake further out.

Our next stop turned out to be a no show – the World’s Biggest Chair just wasn’t there – so we moved along to Lake Kabetogama to – no, not the “World’s Largest …” but – to ride the Leapin’ Walleye ! 🤣🤣

Our main goal for the day however was not far away – Voyageurs National Park. The park actually has 3 main areas however we were headed for the most westerly section at Rainy Lake. This is where all the boats with trailers we had seen were obviously headed ! We managed to snag a parking spot at the Visitors Center but the area generally was just wall to wall pickup trucks with empty trailers attached – and they were in the lake !

We wandered around the dock area a bit and watched some of the boats come and go then looked around the Visitor Centre. Unfortunately at this time of year most of the “organised” tours on the lake – boats or canoes – are very limited in there availability and so we had to give this option a miss.

The park is named for French Canadian voyageurs who paddled birchbark canoes for fur trading companies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The voyageurs were famous for stamina—paddling up to 16 hours a day—and roisterous songs. They were big too !

International Falls is located directly across the river from Canada. It is really the closest town of any size to Voyageurs National Park – located 11 miles west of the park. International Falls is nicknamed the “Icebox of the Nation,” with an average of 109.4 days per year with a high temperature below 32 °F (0 °C). Can’t say it seems to have much else to recommend it except –

A huge Smokey Bear statue stands 26 feet tall and was unveiled in 1954, a little more than ten years after the original Bear was invented in World War II as a cartoon character — to protect the nation’s lumber resources from careless campfires.

And one even Adrienne missed – International Falls pays homage to the NFL “greatest football player of all time” – well according to International Falls. Bronko Nagurski moved from Canada to International Falls as a child and died here in 1990, age 81. He played for the Chicago Bears between 1930 and 1943 and was an inaugural Hall of Fame inductee in 1963. However, due to his strength and size, during this time – in his spare time presumably – he was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time World Heavyweight Champion !

With that, it was just about time for dinner and having checked in to America’s Best Value Inn we walked almost next door to the “Chocolate Moose” for dinner – not a lot of options in International Falls ! But the buffalo wings were pretty good and my Blackened Sockeye Salmon pretty good, Adrienne’s steak just okay. We just hope all the guys with the trucks and boat trailers in the carpark want an early night for fishing tomorrow 🙄 😂

Our travels tomorrow see the last of Minnesota …

Today’s Tour Trivia – Minnesota’s waters flow outward in three directions: north to Hudson Bay in Canada, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico