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Travel: Minnesota offers glimpse of Bob Dylan’s origin, plus wild and wonderful North Shore

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Travel: Minnesota offers glimpse of Bob Dylan’s origin, plus wild and wonderful North Shore

Linda Lange and Steve Ahillen
 |  For the Knoxville News Sentinel

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DULUTH, Minn. — About a thousand people gather at Duluth Ship Canal in the early evening to watch a cargo ship pass beneath the iconic Aerial Lift Bridge.

The ship’s crew waves as it passes. The crowd waves back. Once the bridge lowers, people applaud and then wander off. “It’s a Duluth thing to do,” a woman tells us. “People like to mingle and enjoy the pleasant waterfront.”

Ships, trains, hawks and native son Bob Dylan are among the many causes for celebration in this city on Lake Superior.

“There’s a lot of mythology about Bob Dylan and his time in Minnesota,” says music historian Ed Newman as he drives along Bob Dylan Way, a part of Superior Street.

Newman likes to promote Duluth’s connection to Dylan, who was born here in 1941 and lived his first six years in a top-floor duplex at 519 North Third Avenue. The clapboard house sits on a hill above downtown.

In “Something There Is About You,” Dylan sang, “Though I’d shaken the wonder and the phantoms of my youth/Rainy days on the Great Lakes, walkin’ the hills of old Duluth…”

Newman believes the bond between Dylan and Duluth is strong. U.S. Highway 61, a main thoroughfare through Duluth, inspired Dylan’s 1965 album “Highway 61 Revisited.” Newman stops at the Duluth Armory where Dylan attended a Buddy Holly concert in 1959, a pivotal performance in the singer’s life.

Dylan’s music reflects the grittiness and toil of Minnesota’s mining region. In Hibbing, his second childhood home, he lived among miners and others of the working class. “His songs are a lot about the haves and the have nots from here,” Newman says.

Alluding to Dylan’s studio album, “Together Through Life,” Newman says that for many people Dylan’s lyrics are “part of their soundtrack in life. No matter what happens, there’s a Dylan line that sums it up.”

A week-long Duluth Dylan Fest around his May 24 birthday attracts fans from all over the world. A local radio station hosts an hour-long Dylan program every Saturday night. Numerous concerts and other events have happened here through the years, several that included the Nobel prize-winning singer and songwriter.

Duluth’s top attractions

Love for the Lake Superior waterfront is seen throughout the city. Locals and visitors go to the Canal Park District for dining, entertainment and shopping. They snap photos of the North Pier and South Pier Lighthouses.

A few steps from the Aerial Lift Bridge, the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center showcases the legacy of shipping and fishing on the lake. Re-created steamship passenger cabins provide visitors a glimpse into cruise travel of the early 1900s. Famous shipwrecks like the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald are explained in other displays.

From Canal Park, people stroll and bike on the Duluth Lakewalk to Leif Erikson Park. The rose garden is a bouquet of color throughout the summer. Other parks, beaches and entertainment areas punctuate the route. For a hilltop view of the city, they follow the Skyline Parkway to Enger Park. The 80-foot-tall Enger Tower grants magnificent panoramas of Duluth Harbor, the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. It is near the Lincoln Park Craft District, a former industrial site, now home to Bent Paddle Brewing Co., art galleries and restaurants.

The Lake Superior Railroad Museum, once voted America’s best transportation museum in a USA Today poll, has some rare engines housed in the restored Duluth Union Depot. The North Shore Scenic Railroad leaves daily from the depot for tours along the shoreline.

History is on display at Glensheen Mansion. The 39-room residence was built for mining executive and lawyer Chester Congdon in 1909. Situated on a 12-acre property along Lake Superior, the estate draws more than 100,000 visitors annually.

At Great Lakes Aquarium, a two-story, 85,000-gallon tank contains creatures at home in Lake Superior. Birding enthusiasts gather at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, a viewing area just off the Skyline Parkway. In the fall, an average of 75,000 raptors are spotted during the annual count.

Driving along Lake Superior’s North Shore

Duluth is the gateway to sightseeing along the North Shore Scenic Drive (U.S. Highway 61). The dense forests of the Sawtooth Mountains offer hiking trails, campgrounds and attractions such as Lutsen Mountains, a premier ski resort. North Shore Winery hosts tours and tastings. Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay, Bluefin Bay in Tofte and Naniboujou Lodge in Grand Marais are popular vacation destinations.

We hike into the gorge at Gooseberry Falls State Park in Two Harbors. The Gooseberry River weaves through aspen, cedar, spruce and pine forests as it plunges into Lake Superior in a series of falls and cascades.

Nearby, at Split Rock Lighthouse, we experience gorgeous views of Lake Superior. Construction on the brick beacon on this rocky promontory was completed in 1910. The historic site includes three restored keepers’ cottages, an oil house, fog signal building and the original tower.

Grand time in Grand Marais

Grand Marais exudes the carefree spirit of an artist colony. People lounge in chairs at Harbor Park to watch for the rust-red sails of the 50-foot schooner Hjordis.

The business district offers all the essentials: art galleries, bookstore, playhouse, history museum, cafes, breweries, clothing boutiques and souvenir shops. A sign at World’s Best Donuts touts its five-generation tradition of sweet treats. Sivertson Gallery sells paintings, prints, photography and sculpture by regional artists. A favorite gathering spot is Artist’s Point, where people scramble across rocks to a man-made breakwater ending at the Grand Marais Lighthouse.

This city of 1,315 people was established by French Canadians. They came after Ojibwe Indians who had hunted and trapped in the Great Marsh for thousands of years. To immerse ourselves in this ancient heritage, we stay at Skyport Lodge on Devil Track Lake, the site of an ancestral Indian encampment.

Into the wilderness

Grand Marais is the southern terminus of the Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway, a 57-mile motor route stretching north to Saganaga Lake. It crosses through Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

It is no surprise to notice that almost every other car carries a canoe on its roof. The crystal-clear lakes connect by portages, rivers and streams.

For outdoor lovers, this is heaven. Fishing is excellent, particularly for walleye, northern pike, bass, crappies, perch and trout. At Loon Lake, a fisherman tells us, “I’ve traveled all over the U.S. and Canada, and there’s no place I’d rather be than right here.”

Side roads off the Gunflint Trail lead to dozens of fish camps, resorts, campgrounds, canoe outfitters and trailheads. Many of the resorts, such as Gunflint Lodge, established in 1925, are family-owned and -operated.

Housed in a stone lodge at Saganaga Lake, the Chik-Wauk Museum provides the cultural history of this region. A restored log cabin displays common furnishings, including woven blankets, water basins and bed frames handcrafted from diamond willow trees. A re-created trapper shack holds steel traps and tools used to skin pelts.

Minnesota’s tallest waterfall

We return to the North Shore Scenic Drive along Lake Superior and reach Grand Portage. Grand Portage Bay was a fur trading depot for Ojibwe trappers and traders and French and British merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Native Americans called it the “Great Carrying Place,” a name reflective of the labor required to carry goods from inland waterways to Lake Superior.

French Canadians, known as voyageurs, hauled furs in canoes from Canada’s immense forests. As they neared Lake Superior, rapids hindered the voyageurs’ journey. The men hauled canoes and cargo over portages, or trails, to bypass unnavigable waterways. A 12-man master canoe held three tons of cargo.

In exchange for the furs, they received manufactured goods, such as cloth, woolen blankets, copper and tools. Then, they reversed the route.

This history is described at Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center. Across the street from the museum, a reconstructed village and trading post inside a palisade illustrate the life of fur traders in the late 1790s.

Visitors can retrace the footsteps of voyageurs at Grand Portage State Park. A hiking trail follows the historic path to a series of violent rapids on the Pigeon River, the boundary for the United States and Canada. The 120-foot High Falls is the state’s tallest waterfall. At the visitor center, interpretive displays provide an overview of the culture and traditions of the Grand Portage Ojibwe people.

The state park is located on the tribal land of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, commonly known as the Grand Portage Ojibwe or Anishinaabe (the original people). The tribe owns and operates the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino, as well as the Grand Portage Marina and Hat Point Marina. Ferries depart from Hat Point Marina to reach Isle Royale National Park, located 20 miles from the mainland.

Linda Lange and Steve Ahillen are travel writers living in Knoxville, Tenn.

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