Bemidji, Minnesota

Bemidji, Minnesota – home of Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox and the Mighty Mississippi River.

Bemidji, MN is located on the shore of Lake Bemidji. Lore has it that the lake was formed in a footprint left by Paul Bunyan. If you look at an aerial picture of the lake, it certainly does look like a footprint. Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox welcome visitors to Bemidji. Paul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who appears in tall tales of American folklore. If you are not familiar with these stories just Google Paul Bunyan and read all about him and his exploits.

Just south of Bemidji is Lake Itasca. The Mississippi River begins it's journey of over 2,500 miles to the Gulf of Mexico by overflowing the edge of a picturesque little lake, Lake Itasca. The Gulf of Mexico is due south, but the Mississippi, in contrary fashion, embarks on its trek by flowing due north. It flows north to Lake Bemidji and then east to Lake Cass and on through numerous other bodies of water getting larger and gathering strength all the time until it becomes what we think of as the Mighty Mississippi. We find it interesting that at the beginning of this trip we were in New Orleans close to the mouth of the Mississippi and now we are at the head waters of that river.

Bemidji is also home to the 2006 Olympic Curling teams. We hoped to watch some curling at the Bemidji Curling Club and to take some amazing video footage for the blog but apparently it is just a winter sport so - with heavy hearts we leave without witnessing this captivating sport.

This part of the country is beautiful but today was a lousy picture taking day as it was gray, overcast, and just one of those days that the color gets sucked out of everything.