Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Jefferson Highway Show. This historic highway was formed in 1915 by the Jefferson Highway Association. It runs from Winnipeg, Canada, all the way to New Orleans, Louisiana. Let's go! Welcome everybody. You know it is Great Outdoors Month and also National Rivers Month. And so you know we do this wonderful Jefferson Highway Association podcast here on Big Blend Radio every fourth Thursday and we thought, "We cannot leave June without talking about the Great Outdoors and Rivers Month because the rivers do run along the Jefferson Highway. The Mississippi is one of them, a big one. And Nancy and I have traveled a lot of the Jefferson Highway and not only are there rivers but there are swamps. You can even go to the ocean when you get to the end of the road in New Orleans. If you want you can get down there to that water." So there's a lot to experience on the Jefferson Highway again. It goes from Winnipeg, Minnesota to New Orleans or if you want to go from New Orleans to Winnipeg you can do that too. It's one of our very first vacation routes and it was started in 1915 and that was actually started by the editor of the Better Homes and Garden magazine and everyone came together. And now there's this amazing revival happening and you should be part of it. I don't care if you're a traveler or a destination on this route. You've got to be part of it. So I encourage you to go to jeffersonhighway.org and be part of the Jefferson Highway Association. Today we're going to be talking about Minnesota and we're going to go to Iowa and of course we've got two great guests and we have Roger Bell, the president of the Jefferson Highway Association on the show as always. So welcome back Roger. How are you? I'm good Lisa. It's great to be back. I know it. We're talking the outdoors. You know this is our thing. You know we've been waiting for the show since the podcast started right? You know so now we're very excited because you know the actual highway has so much beauty to behold, whether it's prairie land with wildflowers, farmlands. We've seen pelicans in the middle of Missouri on a little swampy area to just, I mean yes mosquitoes in Minnesota just saying. So bring your bug spray if you're going to go out and enjoy the waterways on the Jefferson Highway. And I think Roger when people used to get out in their old cars in 1915 from that era on. They were car camping in natural areas at one point. So you know we're little babies about things now like we talked about when mosquito may get us. They're babies. Yeah. Well there's no doubt in fact one of our sites here, Otasca was a very prominent destination on the route and we have pictures of campers there, pictures of sociability runs there. So that's part of it and there's just, the outdoors was definitely part of it all and it's still, when you drive the route today, Europe, the diversity is quite amazing. It is. I'm going to bring our guests on the show. We have Connie Cox who's a lead interpretive naturalist, especially for parks and trails from a task a state park and this is part of the Minnesota state parks and Minnesota is gorgeous. I know they were talking about a drought out that way and all I can say is when Nancy and I went through there, especially being from the Southwest like what's right when you talk about y'all, it's green, it's beautiful and you can go to the website MNDNR.gov. Now when you get to parks, the websites get you know a little bit lengthy because they're government websites and all the notes and the links are in the episode notes in the show description. So check that out. But welcome Connie, how are you? I'm doing great and yes, I hate to do Minnesota's horn but yeah, we do have some beautiful state parks here in Minnesota and fortunately we've been getting some rain so our drought is abating a little bit but yeah, yeah, some areas are actually having flooding and some dams are washing out. So we've been getting some significant rain but you know, we needed it and it helps with all our beautiful wildflowers and our forest systems and if your listeners have never been to Minnesota, we have three unique biomes, you can see prairie, you can see hardwood forests and pine forests and here at Itasca State Park up in the Northwest, we have examples of all three of those so we hope your listeners will come out and enjoy the beauty of Itasca. So now you just taught me it's Itasca, so that's important to get that right, so how it's pronounced. What does the name represent Itasca? Oh, okay, I'm going to bring our next guest on and we'll get back to Connie. So Jessica is joining us from Iowa Falls and on our adventure last year, Nancy and I like spur of the moment road trip where we just got on the road and saw, you know, if you go to Jeffersonhighway.org, there's a great map that you can download on your phone and we followed that and then Roger started saying, well, you need to go to Iowa Falls, you must go and we did and then he made me go over the suspension bridge and then halfway through, I wanted to even call him right there and say, Roger, what are you doing to me? You know, I'm scared of heights and he didn't care, but I did do part way. Nancy got further because she always does because she's, you know, my mom and she's, am I allowed to say bad ass on the show, Roger? I did. I just did. She is. Nancy's, Nancy's hardcore. You got my permission. You know, she, you know, she, she survived the wilds of Africa, literally, you know, tracking wildlife. So in lions and stuff with Jo Adamson. So when she's, she's, she's like, why is my daughter not going over this bridge? I'm going, and Roger's going, why aren't you not doing this? I'm like, I'm still a baby. I'm sorry. But he made us go to Iowa Falls and we would have probably missed it. Not from the map. But if Roger didn't demand, we wouldn't have gotten there, but we did. And so we have Jessica Charks joining us and she's the executive director of Empress Boat Club, which this looks like a beautiful boat that takes you around a beautiful river way, a waterway. But actually we want to know about this waterway because I have no clue where I was standing, but there were falls. And I did kind of do the suspension bridge, but I think I'd rather be on the Empress boat. So welcome, Jessica. How are you? I am great and I thank you for having me. And so you know what I'm talking about with that suspension bridge, right? I do. That is our famous swinging bridge. Yeah. Um, how many people do people are you guys locally know how to do that? Right? You're fine. You're fine, right? Yeah. It doesn't really swing anymore. I mean, it definitely has mo movement to it, but when I was young, I grew what was raised in raised here and when I was younger, it definitely had a little more movement and it was not as much fun. Well, then it's pretty, I should say, because I also am afraid of heights. I just, I don't care if it moves or not, even it's just like no, but actually it's beautiful out there. And, um, but it's interesting because it's kind of an in neighborhood to get to it, right? So it's like you wouldn't get this kind of off the beaten path. And it brought you, it was like, you have to, you must, you know, you know, it's really a neat community, my opinion, um, it goes to Iowa and you see, um, uh, obviously the prairies and the farmland and you get up to Iowa Falls and all of a sudden you're, you know, you're crossing a bridge and over the waterway, it's just, uh, has a really neat downtown. Oh, the downtown is gorgeous. They have a popcorn stand, the historic popcorn stand still can serve your popcorn down there. And the theater, the theater, it was at the theater, that beautiful building. Was it the theater? The theater is great there too. Yes. And, uh, we have, uh, and sadly, I, we spent, uh, one day of our, uh, caravan, uh, two years ago there, but sadly we didn't get to go to the, uh, on the Empress. But the pictures you see and if you have not seen, uh, go to the Iowa, uh, public broadcasting site or just go on YouTube and look for it probably, uh, you can, you'll look and see a great piece that they just did about it. And, uh, it is, um, uh, just a few days ago, I saw Jessica great hosts on Facebook of, uh, some pictures from the crews and they were just, they were just awesome. Well, actually if you go to the website empressboatclub.org, do you have a video of the Jefferson highway heritage by way of right on there? Yeah. And you can see. Yeah. You have it right on the website and I'm looking at it now and I'm like, man, that just looks so beautiful and I'm wondering like your, this is the Iowa river. So we've got the Mississippi river, right? I believe, am I getting this right? Let me get my river straight because I was just in the Colorado river a couple of interviews ago. So I think Connie, you're the miss, you're the Mississippi. I am. I am where the Mississippi starts. So Lake Itasca is the origin. You can see that and you can walk across the beginning of the Mississippi river. But Jessica, you're on a different river. I hate. She's on the Iowa. We are and funny thing is we are actually one of the first navigable parts of the Iowa river. Hmm. Cool. Wow. What's, I have, I'm now here, you know, this is the thing that, okay. So here is traveler's naivety that I'm going to hold on to of GPS systems and all of that where we don't actually learn the lay of the land and actually look at where the rivers fall and everything and GPS will go here, go here, go here. Roger is part of the Jefferson highway to get us kind of off of that a little bit. We can use GPS, right? But is not understanding the route and how it all works and where the rivers flow and why and how isn't that kind of part of the whole experience to understand where the Iowa river flows and the Mississippi and all of that. Are you there, Roger? I'm sorry. I'm having a little bit of technical difficulty myself. I'm hearing. I can talk. Okay. I am, yeah, it is really a unique element going up in Iowa. You don't really expect to see go out on a river boat as you're going across Iowa. I know I didn't. You know, I was like, this is really unique. You know, I know that there is not too far from there up north. You've got Clear Lake and, and that's a little bit different, but this is on a river. So it's just beautiful areas are going down there and it's just, you know, it's just really something I really encourage everyone to travel to just highway to spend some time. And the next time I get up there, I know I'm going to try to make the timing and I don't know. Jessica, when is the boat? I know it's season also, when is it normally open? Our cruise season is June through mid October. Oh, okay. Yes. Um, public cruises every Saturday and Sunday at two o'clock and then we have, um, other special events like catered cruises and, and such also, and the history, the boat, how did that get going there? I mean, it's, it's been something it's been going on a few years. I know, but I was just kind of curious about it. Yeah. So the boat club itself is, um, is beautiful. It's a log cabin style event venue that was built in 1936 by some of the local families here and that's just kind of what it was just an event venue for a while. And then we had a, we acquired a boat. I can't remember what year the first boat came here. Um, the empress that we have now was brought to us in 1991 and we've run as a tour boat ever since and when it was given to us, we had to promise that we would stay a nonprofit organization. Oh, cool. So it keeps going. The legacy keeps going. Absolutely. Yeah. And so the Iowa rivers, what you're flowing on, which is a tributary of the Mississippi River that connects back up to where Connie is, right? Um, yes. So we, the Iowa River actually flows into the Cedar River and then it could be pretty much everything's a tributary in Mississippi at some point. Yeah. Yeah. That's why they call it the father of waters, you know, it's like it grabs everything and actually it's really kind of interesting because when you think about it, 40% of United States is water draining in. So, uh, Lisa, you were saying coming from the Southwest, we got water coming in from New Mexico. We've got water coming in from Wyoming and Montana and when you go out east, we got water from North, uh, the Southwest part of New York state and then curving along along, you know, the, of course, the Appalachian mountains is that divide. So when we're, I just talking about and Jessica are talking about water and tributaries, there is a lot of water that flows into the Mississippi. And that's what's cool about the Jefferson highway is it takes you through the heart of the United States and some of the indigenous cultures call the Mississippi the heart waters. And the Jefferson highway is like that. It takes you through the heart of, of the United States and in parts of Canada and you can enjoy the beauty of all of these tributaries that add into the Mississippi. That's amazing because the tributaries are, it's confusing too is traveling. So I was saying where, you know, we have GPS and everything, we kind of lose sight of what we're running into, you know, we were in, I don't know where we were. And all of a sudden we are seeing the Colorado river and I'm like, y'all know, Colorado river goes from the Rocky Mountains to Mexico and it, you know, no, and it's like the little Colorado and the other kind of, and Nancy now going, what is going on here? You know, so it's, we've got to sometimes, I think, yes, use all the mapping. But I believe sometimes look at that actual general map of the country. What do you think, Connie, as a naturalist and someone who understands trails to get our bearings of what we're looking at? I totally agree myself. Any other naturalists at work here, we say, you know, GPS is great, but it's not perfect. The Itasca State Park is located mostly in Clearwater County. And if you go on a lot of these mapping systems, they don't even have some, a lot of our roads on their mapping system. It shows your little blue dot, you know, in your car going in green space. And swirling around and twirling around, yeah, yeah, literally. And so we always say, you know, get a paper map, you know, gazeteers are great because you can page through and you can see those tributaries. You can see those roads, but not only that, you can find those unique places. So like when Roger was saying, you know, I didn't know there was a cruise boat down in Iowa, you know, the Empress Boat Club. And those paper maps help you to discover the treasures. And I kind of go back to that, the Jefferson Highway, you know, that's why people, that's when cars were first coming out. It's hard for us to think of that, you know, prior people were riding around in horse and buggies and wagons. And when the cars first came out, then they started creating the good paper maps to go with it to help you navigate. But you can see the topography, you can find these rivers, you can find these unique towns, you can find these features. And not only does it help you when you're hiking, but when you're navigating by car and discovering the treasures of the United States. And you know, like I said, also going up into Canada, it's just, I have maps everywhere at home. So I have mapped the whole car. If you ever need to be warm, we have map bedding and our raft forest, like atlas and map bedding. I want to go to really looking at Iowa Falls at this Empress, I mean this boat, can we talk about the era of that boat? Because that really harkens to the old day. And I think that's where Roger got his, you know, Roger, you wanted to go back because this is back in time, this boat is back in time, right? So it's partially back in time, but it's still experiencing things along the route and the beauty of the route that was there. I mean, when we talked, you know, when we're going back to Connie, just a bit ago, I mean, you can go and see, we have pictures of people being in the same site, you can be in Douglas Lodge is in the park there in Minnesota, and you can look at that building and you can look at pictures of it from the dawn of the Jefferson Highway and it's almost a dent. And you can, it's changed a little bit, but you can still, the trail down to the water there, you can walk across the Mississippi, the least, I don't know if you ever walked that walk, but it's really neat. And the last time I was there, a rainbow appeared over the water is just beautiful. And then the same goes when you're in Iowa Falls, you're seeing things that these travelers saw generations ago, and a different area was impressed with it. We can be impressed with it today, you can travel around. That's kind of cool, Roger, because that's the fun thing, like here at Itasca, families have been coming for generations. There have been people, I have one gentleman, he was celebrating his 61st year of coming to Itasca, and he and his wife had their honeymoon here, and this was their 61st wedding anniversary, but his wife had gone into a nursing home and she said, "Honey, you go anyway and tell me how it was and take a picture and bring that picture back to me." And that's the cool thing about traveling the Jefferson Highway route, because like the boat club or Douglas Lodge at Itasca or the headwaters, a lot of times you can look at family album pictures and those Jefferson Highway pictures. And like Roger said, it hasn't always changed and it's like you're a part of that history, you're a part of that legacy of exploring the Jefferson Highway route and the beauty of the country. And we have people who recreate old photos and like old family photos and they pose, we have some Jefferson Highway photos from the sociability runs outside of Douglas Lodge and the people sitting in on their model T's, model A's, and then we have people who like replicate it with their collector cards, or they'll replicate it with the four event club will come and they'll replicate those pictures because they're following those road routes to these unique places. Wow, wow. It's amazing to me because it's part of family history, right? And so this is something that families did a long time ago and people want to go like, "What do my grandparents do?" And we're kind of in that era of people understanding family history more now and getting into that and going, "I didn't know my grandparents camped along this highway," or went to Iowa Falls. So it's kind of really interesting what we're in now and the resurgence of this highway coming back is incredible with these experiences where people can recreate, just like you were saying, Connie, it is and it's also creating new memories for kids. Jessica, over at the Empress, I mean the Empress, can you tell us a little bit about the boat's history? Because it does look pretty angelic, you know? It looks like we should have a queen on there or something. Well, I think she's beautiful. I do too. She was built in Wisconsin in 1986 and then when she was brought down here, she's essentially done a tour about her whole life and we are just doing our best to keep her beautiful. Yeah. And so you're saying you do special events and things like that, so like social ability run comes or something like that. Families can come and say, "Hey, I want to rent this out. Can we do this?" So you do that for folks. Yeah, that is awesome. And so how long has there been a badge itself for events or private cruises on the Empress? Do people come out to look at nature on the river, on the Iowa River? Absolutely. We have, I mean, the whole cruise is beautiful between the limestone bluffs and our swinging bridge and the waterfall and the wildlife. I think that's some of the best parts about it. I love history. So the history of everything is what I enjoy, but seeing all the beauty everywhere definitely makes it better. I agree. I mean, it's kind of this, that's why I think the beauty of the boat is very historic, right? Let me talk about the 80s. Apparently now that's classic rock era, which I object to. Yeah, but you know what I mean. Like it's wrong. It's wrong. We're not classic rock quite yet, but apparently we are. So like just saying the Empress is classic rock. Yeah. But when you look at the decor, it just is like she's a bell of the river. She is. She is. And I was looking in the pictures. I'm like, wow. And just to do a slow kind of, you know, how many people can go on there? Like actually, like on that boat. We can fit a total of 50 passengers. Oh, that's perfect. And that is perfect. Yeah. And we're a double decker. So down below, they're seating for 44. And that's air conditioned. And then up top is open seating. Oh, so do you have weddings on there? Every so often we do. Just about just about any event that you could think of. I think people are still into small weddings now, even after COVID, like it's kind of still there. It's like, let's let's put our money on doing like a epic, you know, honeymoon. How about doing a road trip on the highway to saying, can you imagine Roger with people with their little cans that they get a really cool car rent a cool classic car, Roger, for a honeymoon and go down the route, right? The highway, the Jefferson Highway with tin cans that I think they'll take the tin cans off at a certain point, don't you think? Every town on the route, as we talked about, has its story, has its differences. And the Iowa Falls is definitely quiet. And they have embraced us. We have a gentleman there that did a lot of work. And I think they have more Jefferson Highway historic markers in that town and anywhere on the route. And they actually have a brochure that you can pick up at their tourist information center, which shows you every one of those markers. And you can almost just do a trail on those round. And then you could my point is you can spend a whole day there. I mean, now you could go to the theater and I see the the the Empress take across the bridge was just there's a unique statue there. I mean, it's just a really a fun town. My wife and I enjoyed our our time in that town. And again, make sure you stop by that popcorn stain if it's open because it's really cool. We were there at the end of the day. And Roger, you got us to go there. You're like, no, you I don't care. Go. I think I think it was like seven or I don't know, but it was like seven was coming. You know, but we were on that like spur of the moment. We didn't even know where we're going that night. We had no idea. We're just like, we're doing the route. You know, when we get like that, we just go work, we're going and whatever happens happens. And then I, you know, I did the thing of send Roger and Arlene from Nechadish. I got to bring up Nechadish, one of our supporters here on the show, Nechadish, Louisiana. So go to N A T C H I T O C H E S dot com Nechadish, big supporter of the show. Our friend Arlene is returning this month, right? So as this air is just going to be the last time we get to mention her name. Well, we'll always mention her name. I don't care. We always will. She is one of the most, she's a huge supporter of the route. Huge. And she's retiring. But she, it, you and her, we sent photos to and both of you, like, you need to go here, you need to go there, you need to go here, you need to go here. And Nancy, like, we can't quite make it. Well, she was in Iowa Falls on the, uh, uh, uh, sociability, Brian, we did and, uh, uh, I know she enjoyed her time there. Uh, but we, you know, I, I highly encourage you, uh, listeners to, uh, go on the website for the interest and take the link to just the, uh, because you'll feel like you're on the boat with a boss. Yeah. I mean, look at the site. I'm like, I'm like, I'm ready. I'm ready. They did a really good job on the piece. And they, and they did two of those shows are both about the Jefferson and highway. One of them is in Iowa, which is fully marked and there's a byway there. And, uh, we have a new byway board. It's just formed in Iowa and, uh, excited about that. But there's a North one. And this is what this is. This is on the North show. And that segment on the, uh, the Empress was really well done. I really enjoyed watching because I almost felt like I was taking. And I also saw the passion, uh, for Jessica and others, uh, staff there that, uh, they, they, it's probably, it's just like a lot of us. You know, we, we, they enjoy what they're doing. They enjoy seeing people enjoying. I love it. And Jessica, this goes on beyond because you have private, private charted cruises. You've got regular, regular public cruises you were talking about, but catered ones. And then you even have watching, right, that you can help people with that. We have what lodging, lodging. Uh, it's so we call it our lodge. It's so we don't have like rooms to sleep in. It's just an event venue. Okay. So you have an event? Yeah. Yeah. And it was set up as a historic lodge. Members. So it was a building that was built back in time, I believe in, uh, and, uh, so it was, you know, we think of a lodge. We think of, you know, like the, the else club or whatever was a lodge. And, uh, this was a boat club that did this. So, uh, that's what, what's kind of neat about it. You don't think about that. Um, uh, a lot in, uh, the middle of Iowa, but, uh, it is there and, uh, it's a really a neat part of the route. You know, we look at the routing of the Jefferson highway in, in Iowa. And again, there's clear lakes not far from there. It's a lake, a pretty good side lake right in the middle there. And it has always been a resort area and Iowa Falls is, uh, near there. So it's just really, uh, fun, uh, things to see along the route. And, uh, I wanted, wanted to ask about your classroom on the river. So that is always so much fun. Um, we kind of partner up with Calkin's nature area, which is part of the Hardin County conservation here, just, just on the edge of town. And, uh, we call it our, our water classroom. They, they can come and they cruise on the boat. They, Calkin's teaches them about the wildlife, about the limestone, about just all kinds of different things. I mean, our, our river really does have quite a history with, um, the different fish and the, the birds and how the limestone was carved out and how they'll even teach how it looked before we had our dam. And it's, it's so much fun. And we are actually an Iowa water testing site. So when the kids come on the cruise, they're able to dip the, the little test tube in the water and actually do testing on the water. And I, I, it's so much fun. The kids are excited and we get excited. It's a good time. That's amazing. I think that's so important. I think that's a huge part. I know watches like Nancy and I about this about the education and kids being involved on the highway in all these, you know, places. So I want to go to Connie over and I test. Am I saying it right yet? I test that. I want to say it. I test it. I test it. I test the state part. It's it test it. I got to get the accent. It's asked for it. I task it. I task. Oh, no. See, no. You're doing good. It's, it's actually two. It's from two Latin words. Veritas and cappet. And, uh, so they just, uh, Henry Rose Schoolcraft in 1832 renamed the lake and, he took veritas, which means truth or true and cappet for head or source and he shortened them up and pushed the two words together, creating the word, I taska. And it just means true head or true source, meaning the true source of the Mississippi River. Oh, you learned something every day. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's a beautiful, a beautiful spot. And, uh, just like Jessica, we also offer programs. So visitors that are coming out to itasca can join us at our naturalist programs. Uh, we have a calendar online. A lot of our programs are in the summer, but I taska state park is a park that's open year around. And so people can come at any time of the year and enjoy the beauties of, of itasca state park. We have lodging throughout the year. Um, and so you can stay here in the winter if you want to cross country ski or snowmobile. And the cool thing is, you know, a lot of people come in the summer because they want to cross the Mississippi River, wait in it. Um, because there's not a lot of major rivers that are easy access. And that I think is also why this was chosen as part of the route for the Jefferson highway is people to see the beauty of the Mississippi River where it begins. And you can wait across it. You can also see it flowing in the winter because that section of the river does not freeze. So you might see fish houses, sitting and trucks going across like I taska, hauling out their fish houses to do some ice fishing. And you can be standing at the rocks and the water is flowing right at that point. Um, and it, it's pretty neat, you know, to see it in all the seasons and in the autumn when our hardwood trees are changing color and you have that stunning contrast with the green of the conifers, the evergreen trees, as many people will call them. And in the springtime when it starts flushing again and the birds return and the ice is melting and it is just a magical place. And I was noticing, you know, like Jessica, they have their boat club and it was built in 1936, 1937 in that log style. And that's what's kind of neat. You know, the Jefferson, the Jefferson highway really inspired people to begin traveling. Cars allowed people to get out and explore. And as we were researching the Jefferson highway at itasca, we were learning that, you know, middle class people couldn't necessarily afford those first cars that came out in 1915. So it was sometimes a little more wealthy people that were doing that. But as more cars came out, models changed, they were selling their used cars and middle class could come. And so our park began building these early car cabins and motels. And we have a lot of log structures similar to the boat club in that look with the log. And we actually have, they're made of real log and stone from the area. And they date from the 19 teens. So people, the first round of our sociability runs, people would stay in those cabins, 1920s, 1930s. And then we also have more modern units as well. But you know, also a bit about the Douglas when you get a chance, huh? Right. And you know, these cabins came because Douglas Lodge was opened up in 1905. And it has numerous rooms, almost a dozen rooms upstairs, downstairs is a dining area, and a beautiful lobby lounge area with a massive stone fireplace. And that was opened in 1905 because even before the cars were coming to the area on a regular basis, people were bringing their wagons. And they were, they were bringing a train so far, and then they would take the stage. And a lot of people go, Oh, is that like the Wells Fargo, you know, the big horse and buggy thing? No, it was, it was an ox or a donkey or a horse pulling a two wheel cart and it would haul people up to the park. And they would stay, yeah, they would stay for like three weeks. And when they opened our lodge, the governor of Minnesota opened the lodge for the citizens of our state. And he was the first person to arrive in an automobile. And in 1905, but the funny thing is, they had like pictures and they had gas cans strapped all over the car because there were gas stations. And that's what we chuckle about when we do naturalist programs and we talk about the Jefferson Highway because you can still see remnants of it in our picnic grounds, the original road corridor. And we tell people, you know, when these cars first came out and these people were taking these trips, that was a pretty amazing thing because there wasn't a gas station on every corner. There weren't tire shops on every corner, you know, and, and people had to make do and a, you know, an adjust and they did it. And Roger, you remember you and I were chuckling about the social ability runs, how they had them timed to like the, oh, yeah, they would say car would arrive at 432. And then the next batch of cars at 434 and 30 seconds. And it was like, man, we just, we find it so amazing what the, when the cars started coming and how cars allowed people to enjoy our natural resources. Think about this also is, you know, we can look on you, we can look on YouTube, we can look on all over the place and find pictures or videos or it could be on TV. These travelers didn't have that. Well, they were, they were only heard about these places. Bird, you can do this. And if there was a picture, it might have been on a postcard or something. It probably wasn't that clear to them. So these people were exploring this and seeing the beauty of this for the first time because they could get out of these cars. And Roger, wasn't there a Jefferson highway, like newspaper. Yeah, the declaration and it promoted these towns and it talked about the beauty. And, you know, I think of as when I was a kid and I'm a little older and I remember, you know, looking at magazines and reading about these trips you can take and how it inspired me. And when I look at those old Jefferson highway declarations, it's like, it's the same thing that inspiring you to explore. Yeah, one of my favorite pictures is one of those sociability runs with a lot of the dignitaries and they're holding hands together across the rocks on the, where the Mississippi is formed, they're all together taking their picture. Right there. You're talking about dignitaries actually holding hands. That's pretty. Well, those are different days. Yeah, but no, but I mean, that's something we can look up to, right? And go, hello, remember, we used to do this. And no, but, but that's the thing about travel. Travel opens hearts, minds, right? And education. And I think this in waterways are crucial when we talk about rivers, Iowa River, the Mississippi River. These are very important water sources to our country. They're recreation areas, but they're important water sources. And so the wildlife in both of these places is quite fascinating. Oh, I mean, like what I didn't think we'd see pelicans on the Jefferson highway. Like, what the hell were they doing there? Well, you, this is another, you've seen some alligators. We've seen alligators. We've seen literally a yes. And I know when I was there in, yep, yep. In Tosco, this big giant turtle would came out on the path there for us. I remember taking the picture of that. Well, I'll take the birds, the bird life. So I want to do a big shout out for, you know, we all know waterways are good places to get bird, you know, views and sightings. And that's an important thing. And on the highway as a whole, I'm going to say because of the topography and the different terrains, if you're a bird watcher, do it. And also the highway also goes through, and I'm going to say it's Minnesota mostly. Ah, honey, you may know more than me on this. There is a monarch highway, which actually corresponds with the Jefferson highway and the monarch highways to get the monarch butterflies back and plant the native plants and milkweed and things like that. And it's awesome to see. And when you travel through these areas, you're just an ah, people are not, I don't think the Midwest gets due respect in travel and tourism within our country. I think the other edges are always getting more of the travel and tourism. And I think a lot of people don't understand just how beautiful it is here. It is incredible. Nancy and I, um, the prairie, the grasslands, the waterways. My wife is a good example of that. I mean, when we went to Iowa for the first time, um, on Jefferson highway trip, I took in 2016, 17. Yeah. My wife fell in love with Iowa, you know, it's just, ah, it's just something really, ah, natural about it. The people were always friendly there along the route. We went to and, ah, they'll see in the farmlands. It's just, it seemed like there was something along the route all the time in Iowa. I mean, you're not going to get bored traveling around all the places or scenario in Iowa, if you follow the, ah, the byway, because there's a lot to see in Iowa Falls and the Impers is just part of it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think in the mid going into Minnesota is the same thing. The history Minnesota showcases its history. I don't care if it's outdoors, indoors, teacups, you know, I mean, I mean that about the teacups. Minnesota is just flat out beautiful and especially in the area that, ah, this park is, I mean, it, you know, if you're, if you are setting your sights on seeing this area, ah, schedule a few days and make sure you can. And, and look up and down for bald eagles. I learned to not just look up the bald eagles hang on the ground with a carcass. That's something I learned. Um, last year, Nancy and I were like, what, you know, we're always looking up, but I didn't expect to see bald eagles bounce around on the ground with a carcass, but I did see that. Am I right, Connie? What was going on? Is that normal? Oh, yeah, they'll, they'll take advantage of, ah, what we call roadkill. Um, but they'll take advantage of a carcass and like here in a task of this last winter, oftentimes they'll leave in December and they'll return in February as they build their nests. But this last winter, we had so little snow that they stayed all winter. And even though the lakes froze because they do feed a lot on, on fish, but they'll take advantage of, um, if there's a car hit deer, um, they'll be in the ditch. And, and like you said, you kind of got to be careful because if you're driving the road routes and if it's in the winter season, like you're in northern Minnesota, you have to be careful because those bald eagles when they come up out of the ditch off of something, you know, they'll swoop right over the hood of your car. And you know, you're like, Oh, no, I don't want to hit the national one. Yeah, I just, we, we were on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota. And we were, um, there's a wildlife refuge, a national wildlife refuge that we were driving through. And oh, my gosh, like, stop. You know what I mean? Because we were just like, what, what's going on? And it was intense. And you could tell that the weather was different. You know what I mean? It was, I don't know, man, it's a whole other world up where you are. And I want to say both of you, Jessica and Connie, you deal with some weather that a lot of people don't deal with. And Roger too, in Oklahoma, but really people just, the route is beautiful. It's summer, it is time to get out. It's good to go. Right, Roger? This is the time of year to get on the road. Yeah, obviously there's going to be some heated times, but, um, I mean, getting out on the water, a lot of times it's cooler there. And, uh, and then it's also, uh, walking these, uh, I just got back from a trip different place. But I mean, walking in the woods, there's just something about it. Oh, yeah. Nature is good. That, that's the thing. Just calm, just, just makes you, uh, it's just, it's good for your period. I might be in mental health to get out and walk and see nature and see these places. And, uh, both of these are great places to go. And, and the whole route has nature opportunities. Nancy did it. Nancy and I did it, um, that last summer, we just went, we started in Kansas City and we were just, we had like two days and all we did was parks. And we sat amongst flowers, wildflowers, families having a good time. We learned about fish and we have no clue about, about fish. We don't even eat fish. We're looking to it. But, we learned about fish. We could see, gar, is that, that's a fish, right? Gar? Um, we saw big gar things. Um, you know, we were sitting there going, get the sea gap. The, um, you know, uh, there, there's this wonderful app out there. And, um, you know, we, we were just like, this is incredible all the way up. And I know Louisiana, Texas has amazing places that we've done before too. You know, the nature part of the trail, you know, we talk about the highway and all the restaurants and all the, you know, the roadside attractions on top of it. But the nature part is part of it because that was there first, right? So when we think about this highway going through, this is the original stuff. And there's parks, like gazillion parks going from Winnipeg all the way to New Orleans. And you can go from big mosquitoes to big mosquitoes. Am I right, Connie, from one big mosquito to the other? Um, that's a, that's the highway bird, I would say, right, Connie? No, we, we jokingly say it's the Minnesota state bird because we have plenty of them, but our Minnesota state bird too. Yeah. Yeah. But our Minnesota state bird is the common moon. And you're talking about, Roger, you're talking about water. And that's one cool thing about Minnesota. We, our state was really shaped by glaciers. And we have our license plates on our cars say 10th, the land of 10,000 lakes, but we actually have over 12,000 lakes plus rivers. And, you know, it's like anywhere you're driving, unless you're like Southwest Minnesota has a few fewer lakes, but you can drive anywhere in our state and see these beautiful lakes. And, and Lisa, you were talking about the beautiful birds. And you know, with 12,000 lakes, it attracts so many different bird species from bald eagles and our, and our state bird, the common loon and ospreys. But the warblers and the sparrows and pelicans, we had just this weekend, my husband and I were fishing and we had two white pelicans totally passed us. That's weird to me. Like, why are we seeing, you know, this, this pelican thing in the Midwest blew our minds. We've seen them in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, yeah, all the way up. We've seen them all the way up to your state. And we were just like, what, what, what are we doing? You know, what's going on here? But I have to ask you before we go, Connie, our travel writer Debbie Stone, she just traveled all through your state and then went to Isle Royale and Voyagers and, and did both those parks, national parks. And she said she saw sandhill cranes and the whooping cranes, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly either. I get yelled at every time I say that name, but, which I think the Wisconsin really started the conservation project, the whooping crane, which they go to Port Aransas and the Gulf Coast of Texas area in the spring. But the cranes, is it sandhill cranes in your area? Because she's like, this is the biggest crane I've ever seen. Is it really a sandhill crane? Yes, we have sandhill cranes here in Minnesota and, and you know, there for a period in the 70s, a lot of our bird species were really suffering. But the sandhill crane has done a, an incredible recovery in our state. And it's, it's quite common to see them. We just had someone drive in today and said, could I have seen a pair of sandhill cranes right by your park entrance? And I said, yes, they do nest here. And we said it is so cool. Like, if you've seen them, the call they make when they're walking and they make this really bizarre call. And it is amazing to see something so big and flying through the air. And, but there's a lot of those amazing stories. We have Trumpeter swans. They were reintroduced in Minnesota. And one of the locations when they reintroduced the Trumpeter Swan was here at Itasca State Park. And now they're common throughout the state of Minnesota because, again, of all of our lakes and our clean water in the state. And, and there's just so many amazing recovery stories about, you know, bald eagles recovering in our state. And, and with all the water systems we have, people being able to see them as they're nesting and the lunes and other things. And we don't realize, as Roger was saying earlier about just that importance. And Lisa, you were saying it too. And Jessica, about that importance of our water being clean and it does make a big difference. So when people are traveling anywhere in the country, you know, just those water areas and the forest where they come in and there's even if it's a small wood lot, those are important for our wildlife so that you can have that opportunity to see them. And not just birds and mammals, but you think about the wild flowers for right now. Like right now our state flower, the showy lady slipper, it's a type of orchid is blooming big beautiful pink and white blossom and people come from all over and it likes, we always say it likes it's feet wet. And they're growing right along the edge of Lake Itasca and many of our our park has over 100 lakes within our state park. And, you know, you can see these showy lady slippers in those wet areas and it all, it all fits in together and those beautiful places that we can see when traveling the Jefferson Highway and wildlife and flowers. So we hope we hope Lisa, you can come back again to Itasca some time. We're coming, we're going to come to Itasca because I've got to go to the headwater of the Mississippi. Are you kidding me? Yes, you got to cross it. We say, hey, it's the only place where you can be on the east side of the US and walk across out west and come right back. No, we will. We will be there soon. And we're going to go out and see Jessica over on the Empress boat. Jessica, so you're saying that naturalists do go out there. So you've got to see herons and things like that. You get bald eagles in any kind of scoop you can give us on the natural side. Oh, yeah, we have bald eagles. We have a blue heron. Well, there's a couple of them, but they like to fly right along the boat. We joke that they're on the payroll. And there's just a lot of it. We have birds that I always send a picture to our naturalists since they I've never seen this. What is it? Why is it here? Not in a bad way, but what brought us brought it here. And it's just awesome. Yeah, I think waterways are going to always be the crucial land for I mean, everybody like James Mitchener talks about the famous author, right? It's like humanity goes along the water. So does wildlife and animals, right? So we always congregate along that. And when you go on the Jefferson Highway, you're going to find so many waterways, which means history happened. And so did natural history. I think that's the perfect way to put it, right, Roger? I'm sorry. Yes, I think I'm trying to get off you here. Yes, there's a there's just so many things again to see here and then on the route and that we're we're really excited to have these two guests on the I've really enjoyed talking with both of them. And again, you can just sense that they have a they have a passion for the boys. They're they they're you're going in and out here. We find out from down the route. Yeah, you're going in and out a little bit. But everyone for Jessica, she is again from the Empress Boat Club out in Iowa Falls go to Empress Boat Club.org. And then for Connie, who is out at Itasca State Park, did I say that right, Connie? Itasca? Yes, as long as you never put a K in it, you're good. Okay, I got it. It's M-N-D-N-R.gov. But listen, all the links are in the episode notes you can click right through. Again, also the Jefferson Highway. That's the route. Go to jeffersonhighway.org. And when you go on their home page, they say like, here's the clickable map. I cannot say that more. I show people the website all the time and I go, no, no, click on the clickable map. Click just click on the clickable map and then you'll get it. Do it. Just do the clickable map and then you will see exactly what the highway is because there's so much history behind how the route was made and all that. That's a whole other episode. But to follow it, that's the map. Click on the clickable map. Right, Roger, you know what I'm talking about. Click on the clickable map. Yes. And we revised that every once in a while and we find things. But it's a great tool to use and we hope to create more tools as we go forward for people to find the route and find the things on the route. Well, thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you Jessica. Thank you Connie. Thank you, Roger. As always, keep up with us at bigblendradio.com. Again, all links in the show notes. Thank you ladies. Thank you, Roger. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us here on the Big Blend Radio Jefferson Highway Show. The show airs every fourth Thursday and we encourage you to go to jeffersonhighway.org to learn more about the Jefferson Highway Association or even become a member. You can also dig into the history of the highway and share travel notes with friends at the Jefferson Highway Association Facebook group. Follow our shows at bigblendradio.com. Happy travels!
