8/12 - Red Wing

Needing a break from the traffic and crowds, we did something today that wasn't on our original agenda. We drove 100 miles (total, not one way) to see the small town of Red Wing and its two little specialty museums. The countryside between Apple Valley and Red Wing was beautiful and free of traffic jams.

Wind farmette

The first thing that stuck out on our way was this lonely wind turbine. Minnesota is one of the top wind-power states with the biggest wind-energy utility but we've managed to miss all the wind farms in spite of the extensive area we've covered.

Flint Hills Resources - crude oil refinery

One of the other big sights on our route was this huge refinery near Rosemount. We wondered if it was an ethanol producer because of all the corn being farmed here but learned online that it refines crude oil and is an extremely clean and efficient plant. It certainly looked it. Not a puff of smoke anywhere.

The first destination in Red Wing was the pottery museum. Pottery has been made here for thousands of years because of the ready availability of clay around the Mississippi River. Red Wing Pottery started in the 19th century and lasted until 1967. It wasn't an efficient operation in its later years and was struggling to stay open when a plant-workers' strike over wages put the business under. 

Red Wing Pottery building

The building has been renovated inside and now contains offices and shops including a pizza place. The museum is in a smaller pottery building across the parking lot. The big building above is now called Pottery Place. (And that's not our truck messing up the picture.)

POTTY PLACE?

The chimney on the pottery building had the letters POTTERY PLACE on it but apparently a prankster has removed the E and R. Since nothing else has fallen off or is askew, one can only guess that this was deliberate.

 Gigantic salt glaze stoneware crocks - the numbers indicate gallons

Stoneware crocks are very heavy so it would have been quite an ordeal to move one of the big ones, even when empty. 

70-gallon jugs and an assortment of other pieces

These crocks and jugs were used for all sorts of storage before refrigeration. Insects were kept out of flour and grains, hot things were kept hot and cold things cold. Sauerkraut was made in them. Fresh eggs could be kept for a year when properly stored using water glass (a bacteria-resistant solution of sodium silicate). They made food storage and preparation a lot easier.


The next stop was the Red Wing Shoe Store and Museum. In 1905 a successful Red Wing shoe merchant created the Red Wing Shoe Company with 14 other investors. It's still going strong. The museum not only showcased the company's shoes, it had videos and displays on how they were made. While machines do the stitching (controlled by a person like a sewing machine), the boots and shoes are basically made by hand. Cutting the leather hides is done with metal dies placed by experienced cutters. Every stage of assembly is done by highly skilled workers. It was really impressive.

Jim with the world's largest boot - a Red Wing size 638 1/2

 Downtown Red Wing with its massive grain elevators

Red Wing was a very important port on the Mississippi River in years gone by. Local businessmen built a dam on the Mississippi's Wisconsin Channel to force river traffic to use the longer Red Wing Channel, thus building up the town's business opportunities. At one time Red Wing was the world's largest wheat port. 

Raft of barges with towboat waiting on the Mississippi with Lake Pepin in background

Red Wing is still an important port. The Army Corps of Engineers keeps the river dredged to maintain a 9 1/2 foot channel so shipping can keep moving. The Corps also maintains a lock and dam above Red Wing which enables shipping to go even further up the river. Each year 600,000 to 750,000 tons of grain are shipped from the Red Wing Grain Company with another 50,000 to 60,000 tons of corn, soybeans and vegetable oil from the Archer Daniels Midland Company. Rafts of barges tie up along the river, like the ones in the picture, waiting for their turn to load.

View from Sorin's Bluff

Another surprising thing about the Red Wing area is the terrain. Meltwater from glaciers created huge bluffs as a channel 200 feet deeper than the present Mississippi was carved into the earth.  The river is on the far side of the bluff in the picture where the bridge is just barely visible. The land is hilly for about 20 miles west of Red Wing at which point it gets flat again.

We enjoyed our break from the crowds. Tomorrow we'll tackle them again.