Tuesday, December 1, 2015

TUESDAY TRAVELS

Two solemn young men at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.


I can nearly hear it now.

"Go stand on that wet rock in the middle of that creek. 
And don't fall in!"

Ah, yes, got to get that picture for posterity.

Dad was beaming.

Mom was nervous to the point of panic.

The scene is Lake Itasca, in northern Minnesota, generally believed to be the origin of the Mississippi River.

From here it grows and flows 2,340 miles (3,770 kilometers) to the Gulf of Mexico.

Wikipedia states: The channel of the Mississippi as it emerges from the lake was bulldozed in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps to create a more "pleasant experience" for visitors. The project included the draining of the surrounding swamp, the digging of a new channel, and the installation of a man-made rock rapids. Wading across the rapids in bare feet is a popular recreational activity for summer tourists.

So there were my brother and I enjoying our "pleasant experience".

10 comments:

  1. I wonder how many thousands of studies and millions of dollars would be spent today in order to drain a swamp and create a pleasant experience? Probably just one that would say, "Not a very good idea." Those swamps have a purpose.

    Great photo, how do you save all these old pictures?

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  2. This is a neat post. I assume you have a scanner.

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  3. You guys look like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Great picture.

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  4. The looks on your faces causes me to wonder how much you "enjoyed" that experience.
    What a neat old photo!

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  5. So that's how you ended up in Mexico!

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  6. Of all the sorts of their dreams our parents want us to fulfill, this seems one of the less onerous.

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  7. I guess you can say you once stood in the middle of the Mississippi River!

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