Pierre the Voyageur used to front a museum just outside of Two Harbors on Highway 61. I don’t remember visiting that place, but you couldn’t miss Pierre. He proudly stood guard outside brandishing a canoe paddle. Well, the paddle has been gone for awhile as has the museum and for several years, poor Pierre stood, lonely, in an asphalt parking lot. The lot was sold to a major retail chain and Pierre needed a home. He found one at the Earthwood Inn down the road. Read about the tricky move: http://www.twoharborsmn.com/event/article/id/21810/

I happened across the crew as they hoisted Pierre from his cement moorings. Poor Pierre. He lost his head with the stress of it all!!

I have been concentrating on social media like Facebook and Twitter and have neglected this blog. Sometimes it seems easier to write in spurts…little microbursts…instead of a longer form post. I then realized that not everyone is on Facebook or Twitter and since I hate leaving people out of the loop, I thought it was high time to write here.

2011 begins with some preliminary research for the sequel to “Tales of the Road-Highway 61.” I’m slowly easing my way into research as time is an issue. I appreciate finding out little nuggets of information from our fans and Lisa Blackstone (who helped edit the TOTR documentary for TPT-2) called my attention to just such a tidbit.

Lisa is producing a documentary for Twin Cities Public Television about an architect named Clarence Johnston who did some amazing work in Minnesota. One of his creations was the magnificent Glensheen Mansion off Highway 61, in Duluth. (Also known as London Road!) Here’s some info on the mansion: http://www.d.umn.edu/glen/

Lisa found out that Chester Congdon, the wealthy lumberman who was the master of Glensheen, donated land for Our Favorite Highway, from Duluth to Two Harbors, that’s twenty miles of shoreline! What an interesting nugget! Believe me, that will be used in the sequel!

Keep following our progress and keep the tidbits coming!!!

This is a photo of what it used to look like in the years after it was closed to traffic for good. It was a seedy, scruffy, romantic ruin. You could almost see John Dillenger’s getaway car careening over it’s narrow lanes.

I was thrilled to hear Inver Grove Heights and county officials worked hard to save it and rehab it into a public pier. So sad that it caught fire. The bridge was going to be in TOTR #2. I hope there is something left to shoot!

The sewer pipe garage before demolition/Oct. 2010

The pipe was put end to end to end to create a proper flow. Some enterprising person recycled these pipes and back in the 1930′s made a garage out of them.

I was interested in shooting the building before its demise for TOTR #2. We got there in the nick of time. Shortly after we did some videotaping, the building was torn down.
Here’s the full story from the local paper:

Meeting this lovely lady was one of the highlights. Ileana Colvill Myers is 93. Sharp as a tack and is the last of the “Split Rock Bunch.” The original lightkeepers and their families at Minnesota’s iconic Split Rock Lighthouse. Her father was a lightkeeper for decades. Ileana grew up at the lighthouse living there from 1922 (before Highway 61 was even built) to 1944. I wanted to videotape her recollections of living at Split Rock and how life changed once the highway came through. Let’s just say Ileana has tales to tell and we visited for hours! She’s now living in Colorado Springs and while I initially thought an interview with Ileana could wait until enough pre-production/research money was raised, when someone like Ileana is still around and willing to talk, well…you just can’t wait!! Ileana (EYE-leena) is kind, funny and a walking history lesson! This is a photo of Ileana and her Dad at the lighthouse. 

We used some of what she had to say during another memorable Summer 2010 event. I was a speaker at Split Rock Lighthouse’s 100th birthday celebration. As part of the festivities, the beacon was lit and it is an amazing sight!!! My camera simply doesn’t do it justice. People packed the grounds of the lighthouse, along the shoreline, along the highway and on Lake Superior to see what often isn’t seen by the general public. Once the beacon was lit, the flashes from cameras looked like a thousand fireflies in the July night. I thought of Ileana and her family and how many times they enjoyed the same sight. 

What an honor to have been asked to participate in festivities surrounding one of Minnesota’s best known (certainly most photographed) landmarks. The plan is to include a much longer story about the lighthouse and the role it played as an anchor along Highway 61 for the “Tales of the Road” sequel. Having first person stories from Ileana Colvill Myers is like stumbling upon a rich vein of gold. 

June included the wrap up to the city of White Bear Lake’s new community wide reading program that featured “Tales of the Road” as the first-ever selection. I was asked to be the White Bear Manitou Days parade Grand Marshal, an honor that also included my husband. He was a bit, um, bemused when he noticed his “second banana” billing on the side of the boat, but got into the event and ended up doing very respectable parade wave!!

“Floating” through the streets of White Bear Lake in a vintage wooden boat is one of those experiences you only do once in a lifetime. Kudos to White Bear city leaders for organizing such an important program that gets the community reading and talking about a specific book. I’m honored it was “Tales.”

My original plan called for staying OFF the road this summer and doing very little highway history. Turns out the sidetrips and detours were the most memorable parts of the whole summer sojourn. Isn’t that the way life goes? 

September 1 finds me back in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society scrolling through microfiched newspapers…digging for nuggets. I’ll keep you up to date on progress!

So, I found myself in Detroit Lakes Minnesota this spring, speaking to an audience of more than one hundred people in a historic high school theater hundreds of miles from Highway 61, and I was amazed at their warm, interested reactions to our work and great ideas for the sequel to “Tales.”

What is it about Highway 61 that sparks all these great memories? The road meanders along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border for the most part and from the northern most tip in Grand Portage to the south end near La Crescent, it cuts through some of the most beautiful terrain in the state. But beyond that, I wonder what else grabs people when they read about Highway 61. Fond memories of days gone by? The allure of a road trip and promise of new adventures along the highway? The excitement of discovering the back-story behind some of the familiar places along the road? Tell me what you think. In the meantime, I’m starting to do some research on one of the most iconic of all sites along Highway 61–Split Rock Lighthouse. Ideas? Let me here ‘em!!

Lee Radzak on the spiral staircase/Split Rock Lighthouse

I was talking with Lee for a story I have done for MPR on the lighthouse’s 100th birthday and all the events going on to celebrate this landmark. Each Friday of the month, May through November, they’ll fire up the beacon. A rare but amazing sight. I’m going to Split Rock in August, August 6th, to talk about “Tales of the Road” and our research into the lighthouse and the role it played with the history of Highway 61. Want to come? Check out our calendar at www.talesoftheroad.net/calendar

Lee and I talked about some possible story lines for the lighthouse for the sequel to TOTR. I do like the tie between tourism, the lighthouse and the highway. There are great stories along almost every mile of Highway 61 and Split Rock Lighthouse is one of them.

Money is always in short supply if you make documentaries or are a budding feature filmmaker. I hope to learn more about raising cash for future projects tomorrow (April 24th) during a class with Erika Johnson of South Shore Productions in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

http://www.southshoreproductions.net/

We were moving so fast trying to get the “Tales of the Road-Highway 61″ book and documentary done that fundraising fell short but all bills were paid as I dipped into personal funds. It happens. I’ve learned a lot from that experience and don’t plan to repeat it. I’m hoping Erika has some new ideas.

On a different subject, we are tweaking our website. This blog will be down for a bit but will be back. I need your ideas for links we can add to the “maps” section of the website. Maybe you’ve seen it. http://www.talesoftheroad.net/maps/index.cfm
I’m looking for new ideas for links/photos for those sites on the map. Drop me a line with your ideas: cathy@palisadeproductions.com

The conference centered on the aging brain. Research shows that exercise and good nutrition are keys to bolstering the brain, but the keynote speaker (Todd Kashdan of George Mason University. http://www.toddkashdan.com/) also focused on how the brain loves novelty. That doesn’t necessarily mean leaping out of planes or bungee jumping, but something as simple as getting out and enjoying new places, people and experiences.

After Todd’s speech, I sat there thinking about the joy (and sheer terror) that TOTR has given me in the seven years since we started the project. It has been a fantastic learning experience and I can’t wait to see what happens next as I continue to head down the highway!

The occasion was the White Bear Lake Area Historical Society’s annual fundraiser and the venue was appropriate because (sadly) it appears the boatworks will soon be lost to history. There have been valiant efforts to save it. The future is unclear. It could make way for condos, or (fingers crossed) it might be the site for a community center/sailing museum.