Neptune Bridge, Red Lake River Minnesota

In the eastern part of Pennington county where Pennington County highway 27 crosses the Red Lake River is Neptune Bridge. At that Bridge is the eastern most access to the Red Lake River for boats. The access is improved with rock and concrete. When the river is high and the current is swift it can be difficult to put a boat in. The fishing west of the bridge can be good if you know where the holes are. Fishing can be a challenge on the Red Lake River and most people complain that all they catch are Northern Pike. Crappie fishing used to be very good but has changed over the past few years and it isn't as often you catch a crappie. There are some nice walleye in the river but they are more difficult to catch. East of the bridge is the Red Lake the Reservation. The Reservation is closed to the public.

The interesting part about fishing under this bridge is how the barn swallows have managed to stick their mud nests to a flat smooth surface underneath the bridge. Beakful by beakful theses little birds make up to a thousand trips to build one nest made of mud balls and grass. Reading up on these common birds I learned that they can and sometimes do mate while in flight. Listening to the current lap and echo under the bridge along with the fluttering and chattering barn swallow was relaxing. This area of the river is definitely one of the best places to go if you want to get away from people and cast a fishing line.

Open Lines on KTRF Radio

KTRF Radio Station

One of the more interesting radio shows on KTRF, sponsored by Budget Electronics is Open Lines. It can be heard most week days in the late morning before noon. Many of the guests and subjects are local with Mark Allen hosting and Marty Collins, owner of Budget Electronics a regular guest, Some of the subjects talked about can be local, national or world subjects. No one really knows where the conversation will go especially when guests call in. There really isn't a call screener or producer to limit who calls in, so almost anything can be said. Above is a screen shot of TRFradio.com's web site where you can click on and listen to past Open Lines shows.

Wildfire in Greenbush

The local news WDAZ-TV thinks Greenbush is too small to mention so they say repeatedly west of Roseau Minnesota, like anyone knows were Roseau is more than Greenbush. With the wind and the warm dry conditions a fire was a real danger. The Roseau River Wild Life Management Area is where the fire is concentrated. This area is a tinder box of brush, dry grass and cattails.

Angus Minnesota

Angus is nothing more now than a collection of houses, large grain elevators, a church and the township hall. I never really thought about Angus, until I took county highway 23 heading west to go to Grand Forks. I took this route because there are not any speed traps except one and that is the bump off of the BNSF railroad that runs next to US Highway 75. This bump has now been fixed but at that time you could do the Dukes of Hazzard across Highway 75.

The post office shown below was on the north west corner of County 23 and Highway 75 but was recently demolished. If you are someone who likes the iconic look of tall grain elevators rising out of the flat plain of the prairie then you will like the short drive through Angus. BNSF Elevator Directory lists some of them as belonging to Angus Coop Elevator.

The Chippewa Treaty at the Old Crossing of Red Lake River.

From the 1840's to the 1870's thousands of two wheel ox carts came and went from St. Paul Minnesota to the Red River Colony (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). They carried badly needed trade goods through forested and swampy areas of north western Minnesota. The route used between St. Paul and Winnipeg became known as the "Woods Trail" because of the forested area south of Detroit Lakes. Locally the trail is called the Pembina Trail. The more westerly trail along the Red River of the North was dangerous because of attacks by the Dakota Sioux, so ox cart drivers began using the Woods Trail which was in an area controled by the Ojibwe then known as the Chippewa. In 1863, the lands in Northwestern Minnesota belonging to the Ojibwe were ceded to the United States at Hout, Minnesota.

The Red Lake Band and the Pembina Band of Ojibwe signed away their ownership to over 5,000,000 acres of very fertile lands of the Red River Valley land extending 30 miles on each side of the Red River of the North. This was the sixth session of land in Minnesota by the Ojibwe and it opened up homesteading after the Civil War primarily as a reward to the displaced veterans who had served the Union Forces. There was also pressure from an influx of immigrants from northern European countries looking for land.

The treaty was misrepresented to the Ojibwe bands with some show of force as a needed route for trade and travel and not as a land grab. Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple stated sometime after the treaty was signed that the treaty was "from beginning to end a fraud...".

Federal Airborne Reaction Twits (F.A.R.T.) screw Minnesotans

The Devils Lake Journal reported in an article titled "clearing air may raise power costs in MN, ND", that a federal program to "cut haze in natural areas like national parks" will raise electric rates even more. The only haze that is polluting this area of Minnesota and North Dakota is from the hot air coming from politicians and bureaucrats.

Kristi Schlosser Carlson, an attorney for Minnkota, said early tests also show the EPA's technology will not work with the lignite coal used in Minnkota's plant. Schlosser Carlson said the cooperative prefers a technology that cleans the air without more big rate increases for members. What the EPA wants would cost a half billion dollars but visibility improvements would not be noticeably. Half a billion dollars from the people of Minnesota and North Dakota who cannot afford it with no visible improvements and no one will say anything because no one want to be accused of being on the side of pollution. Just shut up and pay the bill even if it is a stupid fix that does not work.

Bufo hemiophrys (Canadian Toad)

While mowing the lawn I came across quite a few of these little toads. The Canadian toad also known as the Dakota toad or the Manitoba Toad is remarkable because it survives the cold winters of this area. The cranial boss or bump between the eyes is the only way to distinguish this toad from the American toad. This little guy survives the winter in a burrow below frost line. Many will overwinters communally within small earth mounds, called mima mounds. These mounds sometimes hold several hundred toads over the winter. It would be interesting to find one of these mounds in the fall and spring to see what it looks like. Canadian toads have glands in their skin that puts off a bad tasting liquid that can make animals that try to eat them sick. You will find that this liquid squirts out of them as soon as you try to pick one up.