The Indians viewed clams as a food source, and some people still harvest the mollusks to eat. Along the Mississippi, clams were the basis for a thriving pearl button industry. Today, some people still harvest clams, but for different uses.

Sometimes an experience will bring up memories that have lain dormant for years. Maybe it was of something that didn’t seem particularly important at the time it was happening. Possibly the new experience is like a key word on a computer that opens up an apparently unrelated, or unsuspected file.
Or maybe that first memory wasn’t complete, without something to trigger it.

You can’t compromise on survival gear quality, so almost 20 years ago, I invested in a Cold Steel SRK. If I could only have one survival knife, which would also be used as a field dressing tool for big game and a meat cutting impliment, it would be a Cold Steel SRK. Here’s why.

The beauty of the morning seemed to be an apology for the storm the night before. As I leafed through my journal, looking for dampness, I had to smile at the previous day’s entry. It would have to be extensively re-written!

  From Cass Lake to Grand Rapids, Mike and I paddled through the land of Paul Bunyon, the legendary logger, on the river that was the highway of the Minnesota timber industry until the 1940s. Local legends are part of the fun of traveling the Mississippi, and Paul Bunyon is one of those yarns that [...]

The Chippewa Indians have always thought the wild rice beds are a gift from God. Today, wild rice is still important to the Indian people.

  Lobo Minnesota: Long before wolves were re-introduced back into Yellowstone National Park, the wolf topic was controversial. In the 1930s, a giant Canadian wolf became infamous for slaughtering deer in the Lake Itasca area. Here is the story of the man who ended the wolf’s bloody career. Bemidji, Minnesota: Bemidji, population about 10,000, is [...]

Lake Itasca to Bemidgi We started paddling the next morning from Wanagan  through a canoeist’s paradise. The scenery ranged from pine forests that infused the air with a sweet, pine woods smell, to marshes full of cattails with stalks higher than our heads. The wetlands were full of waterfowl.  It seemed at every bend there [...]

  Sign up for our Email Newsletter Chapter 2 Be careful around daydreams, particularly those that won’t go away or leave you alone. They can become intrusive, and at some point will demand to be dealt with. Before I set off down the river, I worked on the night stock crew at Hy-Vee Number One [...]

  Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to travel the Mississippi River like Huckleberry Finn did. In  1980, I canoed from the Mississippi’s headwaters at Lake Itasca, MN to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the story of that journey, and installments of  the tale will be posted here! Enjoy the trip! There [...]