7/6 - International Falls, last day

We were glad we’d already done our boat tours because the weather has taken quite a turn.  Yesterday was 80…..this afternoon it’s 58, cloudy and windy.  Feels like late October at home.  It would have been a chilly day out on the water.  Visibility is better today but the Duluth news says air quality over all of northeast Minnesota is still unhealthy because of the Saskatchewan wildfire smoke. 

This afternoon we went to the two museums in town, both in the same building at the Smokey Bear Park where the July 4^th festivities were held.  Half the building is devoted to the Bronko Nagurski Museum which honors the most famous resident of International Falls.  For those who don’t recognize his name, he was such an outstanding football player in the 1920’s and ’30’s he was called the best of all time, the only person ever named All-American in both offensive and defensive positions in the same year.  After his football career he went on to a professional wrestling career in which he won the world heavyweight title three times.  What makes him really special, though, is that he never got a swelled head over his accomplishments.  He wanted most to be an ordinary citizen, a contributing member of the International Falls community.  He was a good and decent man who took care of his family, ran his businesses (farming and a Pure Oil station) and remained humble throughout his life. 

He played football for the love of the game rather than the money.  His salary when the Chicago Bears signed him in 1929 was $5,000.  Football wasn’t yet Big Business and it fell from there in spite of his athletic accomplishments.  It had just got back to that amount when he retired eight years later.

What a difference between football then and now.   

The other half of the building is the Koochiching County Museum which has a remarkable amount of history in it.  All the exhibits were very interesting and we could probably have spent a couple more hours in there.  There were signs about photography being banned because of the cumulative damage flash lighting does to the items on display so I couldn’t get any pictures.   It was banned in the Bronko Nagurski Museum too but I didn’t see the signs until we were through that section. 

On the way back to the campground we checked out the view from the river.  The river’s banks are very industrial with paper mills on both sides.  The mills are what's kept this area going for 100 years.

The International Bridge between International Falls and Fort Frances, Ontario.  Sounds more impressive than it is.

Floating barriers to stop boats from getting too close to the dam which is just to the left of the bridge.  Every float was full of gulls.  

Riverside resident.

Mountains of wood chips with a conveyor pipe transporting them to the Boise Cascade mill.  The pipe is very noisy or we wouldn’t have realized what it was doing.

Our campground in International Falls.  A very small campground, peaceful and quiet (other than July 4^th when we had a family with nine children next to us).  It’s next to the little league baseball fields (unused since we’ve been here) which means Lovie can run around off leash which she loves. 

Tomorrow we’re off to Grand Portage, MN, 260 miles to the east, and a boat tour of Isle Royale National Park on Wednesday.  We may be bundling up in coats which will cause great amusement to the locals.