The St Croix River forms part of the state border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. The St Croix National Scenic Riverway creates a corridor of wilderness next to the urban setting of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This is one of the places that city dwellers come to get away from it all without having to drive …
From National Parks
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
In my continuing quest to visit all 423 (as of 2021) National Park sites, Tom and I headed north to visit the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This 72 mile stretch of the Mississippi River is surrounded by local, state, and the National Parks. We started by heading toward …
Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa
One of the National Park sites we visited on our way back to Ohio was Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. Tom and I have seen most of the Native American mounds in Ohio, but we have also seen them in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. When I was a kid, I thought the mounds were …
Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota
As Tom and I continued our trip back to Ohio, we stopped at Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. We went to Pipestone once before, in 1990 when John was 2. I’m glad to say it hasn’t changed much, although it was interesting how little we remembered about our previous visit. Pipestone National Monument is notable …
Missouri National Recreational River
After Tom and I left Rapid City, we headed southeast to the Missouri National Recreational River. We thought it was a little odd that we had to drive 650 miles to the Missouri National Recreational River Headquarters when we had spent the summer on the Missouri River. The Missouri River is 2,300 miles long but …
Jewel Cave National Monument
After Tom and I visited Wind Cave National Park, we headed for Jewel Cave National Monument. Jewel Cave is 17 miles from Wind Cave and is the same kind of dense cave formation with the same air pressure atmosphere. The two caves may be connected, but no one has found the connection so far. Jewel …
Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota
The reason Tom and I went to the Black Hills was to visit two National Park Sites that we had missed on previous visits. We started with Wind Cave National Park. For some reason, Wind Cave National Park had never been on our radar. But it was the seventh national park, designated by Congress and …
Fort Union Trading Post Questions and Answers
Every park we work at has common questions unique to that park. The Fort Union Trading Post questions (and answers) were also unique to the park. So I thought I would wrap up my posts about Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site by talking about the unique questions and their answers. One of the …
Wonderful Visitors and Owie
During the summer, Tom and I enjoyed all the wonderful visitors to Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. We averaged about 100 people a day from June through August, and then about 50 a day during September. Our highest numbers were during the special events of Rendezvous and Living History Weekend. 100 visitors a …
Library at Fort Union Trading Post
During my time at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site I have been working in the Fort Union Trading Post library. Most National Park sites have a library full of books about the park or related subjects. Tom and I usually spend a lot of time in a park’s library. Fort Union has a …