United Methodist Church Thief River Falls Minnesota

One of the most unique buildings in Thief River Falls is the United Methodist Church. It is pictured in most of the literature promoting Thief River Falls. I thought it would be interesting to show it from a different angle with snow late in December.

Big Honkin Christmas ball on Mail box.

While walking through the Christmas isle at Menard's we came across the biggest Christmas balls I have ever seen. The first thought was to put one on the mailbox. The next thought was how funny it would be if the snow plow hit this.

St.Hilaire Cut Across

St Hilair starting point.

A well traveled road in North Western Minnesota is Co. Hwy #3 / Center St W. It is well known to local people as the cut across or the St. Hilaire Cut Across. The county highway number changes to Co. Hwy #21 once you cross into polk county.
This whole area of Minnesota is laid out in a grid like pattern of mile squares with roads going due north and due south about every mile. Rivers, bridges and trails cause some roads to deviate from this but for the most part it is a grid and the "Cut Across" is no different. The reason I guess it is called the cut across is because it cuts across from the St Hilaire, Thief River Falls area to East Grand Forks and Grand Forks North Dakota. In the Winter this can be a difficult road. There are some open areas where the wind can pick up snow and make it difficult to see the road. The only town on this lonely stretch of hwy is Sherack. Sherack is just a group of houses and grain elevators with out a gas station or store front. There are some stories about a ghost who hitch hikes between Sherack and East Grand. I will leave the ghost stories for another post. See http://www.strangeusa.com/ViewLocation.aspx?locationid=5696

From Sherrack you can see the lights of East Grand Forks at night.











The railroad tracks you cross before you cross Highway 75.









The Highway sign you see before turning south on Frontage Road 220 to go to East Grand Forks.

Thank You Andrew Freeman for my block heater

US patent #2487326 was developed by an electrical engineer from North Dakota named Andrew Freeman. This simple device has made life much better for us who live in areas where the temps do not just get below freezing but BELOW ZERO. We take it for granted and I have heard silly arguments that, if the car or truck is maintained you don't need a block heater. This may be true, but a warm block means warm oil flowing around vital engine parts. Cold starts are dry starts with nasty blue smoke blowing out the tail pipe. The best advice I have seen on block heaters comes from metrompg.com and lists many different kinds of block heaters and heating systems for the fozen northern car or truck. Link:http://metrompg.com/posts/block-heater.htm. See also: http://adams.areavoices.com/2010/12/01/block-heaters-a-true-piece-of-north-dakota-heritage/ and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Freeman

Deck the Christmas mailbox with balls.

Last Sunday when I drove out of my driveway I noticed that the county had replaced my mail box that they had smashed with their snow plow. I was very surprised because I think I went six or more months the last time it was smashed before it was replaced. Good thing I use a P.O. box.
I decided to celebrate by dressing it up with garland and Christmas balls. It was dark, cold and windy so I had some difficulty doing this in the dark with cold fingers. The idea is to see how long this will last before snow comes and the plow comes along and blindly smashes my newly decorated mail box. I wonder if the county uses any of the federal stimulus monies to replace snowplow smashed mailboxes? In any case I am glad to see my local government working for me and replacing my poor smashed mail box.

Marshall County Minnesota

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3832829

Marshall county is home and if you live here you must like quiet and remote areas. Farming is the main vocation and Hunting is the main sport. There are not any lakes to speak of except a small recreation area near Florian. No stop lights in the whole county as far as I know, not even the county seat Warren. Population around 10,000 and the square miles around 1675 square miles that stretches from the border of North Dakota and the Red River to Beltrami County. The most imposing building in the county if you don't include grain elevators is the Marshall county court house pictured here.

A few days ago I was looking for an old blue print a customer wanted when my boss suggested to clean out storage area because it was becoming difficult to find any of the prints we were looking for because of the ancient prints that were not being used anymore. So I did and what did I find? I found a 1955 print of Gatzke School by Wells & Denbrook.

I was enrolled in Gatzke from first to third grade and this print caught my attention, so I asked to keep it. The school building is no longer a school and is being used for some type of garage today. It is interesting to probably be the only person to have the only print of a school that has settled into the forgotten dust of recent history. Who cares people say, well there were quite a few childhood memories that played out in Gatzke's school yard and are still in the memories of persons my age, with its wood plank see-saws and heavy iron pipe and chain swings with steel and wood seats. I looked at the details of the print and it had the layout of what would become the Gym and lunch room. I remember Mrs Ione Peterson the lunch lady who served us lunch and the gym became a lunch room with tables that each day had to be put out, cleaned up and then put back after we had eaten.

Note: Grygla,Gatzke,Skime school district 447 was formed on August 29, 1969.

Moylan Township Marshall County Minnesota

Moylan Township was organized in 1902 and was named for Patrick Moylan an Irish settler who later moved to either Oregon or Washington*. While traveling in this area of Minnesota you will see many township halls like this. This townhall is located on the corner of Marshall Co. Rd. 2 and and State Hwy 219.

*Taken from: Minnesota Place Names: a Geographical Encyclopedia. by Warren Upham

Snowplow Collateral Damage

For almost every year that I have lived here my mailbox has been the victim of the snowplow. So as a good citizen of the north I am going to complain about it.

What makes this story funny is the fact that I do not pay for the replacement. I paid part of the cost when I first moved here to have the post and box put up, but now it is the county who smashes my mail box and then buys and installs a new one every so many months.

Just like clock work the snow comes late evening and then early morning the snowplow arrives to give my good old mail box a punch in the jaw. It is made to swivel, so it just smashes the tin and spins the box around like a punching bag. I guess the counties logic is they just have to replace the box and not the post. The problem is for me and my mail, thus the postal box I rent in town. It didn't take long to figure out that this system of smash the mail box and replace it wasn't going to work for me. Now everyday I will back out of my drive way and look at my sad mail box and wonder when the county will get around to fixing it.

Waiting on the government to fix something is for another post, but here is the story of the previous mail box. The last mail box was black in color and was smashed mid winter and was fixed this fall. I was surprised to See this grey one with out a flag, a month or two later it was also murdered by the big orange snow plow growling down the highway in the wee hours of the early morning. I wonder if the snowplow operator knows when he hits a mailbox? If he does, does he feel like a teenage Vandal with a baseball bat?