GUNFLINT Observer - Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center

GUNFLINT
Observer
PUBLISHED BY CHIK-WAUK MUSEUM AND NATURE CENTER
Volume One, Issue 2
Gunflint Trail, MN
ALL ABOARD! TRAINS
OF THE GUNFLINT TRAIL
Tracks Through the Past
Today, when you visit the Gunflint Trail, you might be surprised to learn
that trains once regularly rumbled through the thick forest, crossing lakes
and skirting the edges of steep cliffs. After the U.S. government opened
the Gunflint Trail to settlement in the 1800s, many people ventured to
Minnesota’s northeastern reaches to find work and wealth. Some mined
the Gunflint Trail region in search of gold and other mineral riches. Other
individuals saw the wealth they wanted in the area’s towering pine
trees, which they logged and sold to lumberyards. In those days before
cars and trucks, both loggers and miners needed railroads to transport
their goods to buyers.
The railroads constructed through the Gunflint Trail forest at
the turn of the 20th century have now all but disappeared from the
landscape. A few gravel roads off of the paved Gunflint Trail — like the
Lima Grade and the Gunflint Narrows Road — are laid on top of what
were once train tracks. People gave up on mining the Gunflint Trail
years ago and although people still log on the Gunflint Trail today,
they now use trucks to transport the harvested logs. Now that it’s easy
for visitors to drive up the Gunflint Trail, there’s also no need to have
a train that brings passengers up the Trail.
The trains may have disappeared from the Gunflint Trail, but
they remain an important piece of Gunflint Trail history. Try this: on
a still day or night when you’re on the Gunflint Trail, stand at a lake’s
edge and see if you can imagine the sound of a distant “choo-choo”
coming from the far shore and a puff of steam from the train’s engine
rising into the sky.
Interpretive sign on the Centennial Trail
Where to Find Train History Along the Gunflint Trail
Keeping the Railroad Alive on the Centennial Hiking Trail
The story of one ill-fated Gunflint Trail railroad is kept alive on
the Centennial Hiking Trail, located 50 miles up the Gunflint
Trail. This 3.3 mile hiking loop takes off at the Kekekabic Trail
parking lot. The Centennial loop begins on the Kekekabic Trail,
a well-established 40-mile wilderness hiking trail. After 1.2
miles, hikers turn off the Kekekabic onto a new path that loops
back to the parking lot.
Portions of the new path are laid atop the Port Arthur,
Duluth and Western (PAD&W) railbed. Nicknamed Poverty,
Agony, Distress and Want, the PAD&W was based out of
what is today Thunder Bay, Ontario. A group of Minneapolis
businessmen, including a Mr. J. A. Paulsen, convinced PAD&W
to extend the railroad into the United States where the train
could access an iron ore mine just west of the Canadian border
at Gunflint Lake.
A camp, known both as Paulsen Camp and Gunflint
City, was built on the shores of a small unnamed lake near
the mine site. However, the mine produced very low quality
ore and the train made only one trip out of the Paulsen Mine
in 1893, removing, according to local legend, just enough ore
for a single horseshoe. Unable to generate any money, the
mine closed permanently only months after opening.
An interpretative brochure is available in the parking
lot to explain points of interest along the path. You’ll pass a
rock cut made by railroad workers 120 years ago, look down
mine shafts, and view remains of a 1940s fire tower. Bring
sturdy shoes and a good imagination.
AT HOME ACTIVITY
TRAIN
FACTOIDS
Make Your Own Train Out of Candy
Create your own train out of candy. You’ll make an engine and five train cars. Be sure
to have an adult help you with the hot glue.
Supplies for one train:
Glue gun and glue sticks
1 sixteen-inch length of 3/8-inch-wide ribbon
3 packages chewing gum (each pack has 5 sticks of gum)
3 packages (1½ ounces each) raisins
Round peppermint candies
1 roll ring-shaped hard candy (like Lifesavers)
1 foil-wrapped Kiss milk chocolate
Assorted small candies, pretzel sticks, anything else you want to be the train’s “freight”
1. Start out by arranging your train cars. Lay the gum and raisin packages flat and place
them in a line until you like the arrangement, spacing the cars about half an inch
apart. Make sure that a gum package is the last “car,” since this will be the base for your
train engine. Glue the ribbon on top of each car so it connects them all. You now have
six train cars.
40 percent of the world’s freight
is still transported by train.
Logging railroads on the Gunflint
Trail once went as far as Rose,
Daniels, and Rove Lakes.
2. Glue four peppermint candies to the side of each car to make wheels.
3. To make the train engine, glue the roll of ring-shaped candies onto the “gum” car at
the end of the ribbon. Glue the Kiss candy on top of the roll of candies so it looks like a
steam pipe. Glue another candy to the top of the roll of candies to create a cab where
the train engineer would sit.
4. Decorate the remaining cars with candies so it looks like they’re hauling freight.
5. Let the glue dry, then use as a decoration.
The Gunflint Trail Explorers Program
The Gunflint Trail Explorers program is a Gunflint Trail wide naturalist program based at ChikWauk Museum and Nature Center. This free program is designed for families with elementary
school aged children, but is suitable for all individuals curious about the natural and cultural
history of the Gunflint Trail. The program features activity bins loaded with themed supplies and
an activity guide, adventure booklets, indoor and outdoor games, field guides, and other kid-friendly
information all related to the unique nature of northeastern Minnesota.
After the closure of the Paulsen
Mine, the PAD&W mine continued
to operate in Canada until 1938
and was commonly called the
“Peedee.”
LUMBERJACK ACTIVITIES
TIMBER!!
LUMBERJACKS,
LOGGERS & TREES
•
COMMONLY
SEE
OF THE GUNFL N BIRDS
INT TRAIL
FROG & TOAD ACTIVITIES
AIL EXPLORER
GUNFLINT TR
OKLET
R
ADVENTU E BO
HOP TO IT!!
GUNFLINT TRAIL
FROGS & TOADS
NOTES FOR LUMBERJAC
•Justaddkidstocreate3
Lumberjacks
(orLumberjills).
• Activity requires approximately
30-60 minutes.
• Use bin inside or out.
• Do not remove bin from Chik-Wauk
grounds
WHAT’S IN THE
LUMBERJACK
ACTIVITY BIN:
•3Flannelshirts
•3PairsofSuspenders
•3PairsofLeatherGlove
s
•MinnesotaTreesand
WildflowersGuide
•TreeMatchingGame
•MeasuringTape
•ScratchPaper
•Pencils
•TreeStick
•String
K ACTIVITIES:
•Anactivitytakesapprox
imately
30-60minutes.
itiesinsidethemuseum
•Donotremovebinfrom
at museum front desk, if
out bin
oroutsid
• Check
eonthe
ground
Chik-Wauk
s.
using bin outside on Chik-Wauk grounds. grounds.
•Doasfeworas
manyactivitiesa
don’t •Checko
or toad,sh.
• Remember, if you see a frogsyouwi
utthebinatmuseumfro
ntdesk.
move it from the place where you found it.
& TOAD ACTIVITIES:
NOTES FOR FROG
•Completeactiv
ngs to:
(Parus atricapill
us)
Length: 5.25 inche
Males and fema s
les
are identical.
INTRODUCTION
Many years ago, lumberj
acks cut down, or harveste
d,
trees for large compan
ies that turned the harveste
d trees
(known as timber) into
lumber. The companies
then sold
the lumber to build homes,
furniture, crates and more.
Beginning in the 1890s,
many lumberjacks lived
in
logging camps along the
Gunflint Trail. They worked
to
harvest the area’s large
trees, especially white
pine trees.
The lumberjacks worked
long, hard hours. At this
time in
history, it wasn’t uncomm
on for lumberjacks in
Minnesota
INTRODUCTION
to cut down enough trees
in a single
to build 600,000
Many different frogs and toads call the puddles,
IN THE
two-story homes!
WHAT’S year
ponds, and low areas of the Gunflint Trail home. Frog& TOADS
Today, we call men and
FROGS
women who cut down
like creatures date back to the time of the dinosaurs.
trees
for a living “loggers.” ManyACTIVITY BIN:
loggers work on the Gunflint
Over the years, frogs and toads have developed many
Trail. The trees they cut
down
Cycle Kit
are Life
• Frog
fascinating characteristics, like an ability to make noise
processe
d into wood
products that we all use,
like• Frog
Kit e,
to attract mates or change body colors to camouflage
Calls
paper,
furnitur
firewood,
even toilet paper.
themselves from predators. Frogs absorb and release
• 50-foot length of rope
water through their skin, making them sensitive to
• Reptiles and
environmental changes like pollution. All frogs and
Amphibians guide
toads hibernate during the winter.
This booklet belo
BLACK-CAPPED
CHICKADEE
These are wild animals, not pets.
COMMON MER
GANSER
Dennis Chick
(Mergus merg
anse
Length: 25 inche r)
s
Females have
chestnut
colored crested
heads
while adult male
s’
are emerald green heads
.
GRAY JAY
Dennis Chick
(Perisoreus Cana
densis)
Length: 11 inche
s
Male and fema
les are
identical. Juven
iles
are a dark, sooty
gray
color.
HAIRY WOODPE
CKE
Sparky Stensaa
R
s
(Picoides villos
us)
Length: 9.25 inche
Females lack red s
spot on
back of head.
The
Downy woodpeckesmaller
inches long) looks r (6.75
very
similar.
NORTHERN FLIC
KER
Date:
Name:
©Gunflint Trail Scenic
Byway • www.chikwauk.com
Nancy Ullrich
(Colaptes aura
tus)
Length: 12.5 inche
Easily identified s
by
white rump when its
flying.
Nancy Ullrich
©Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway • www.chikwauk.com
©Gunflint Trail
Scenic Byway
• www.chikwau
k.com
With Gunflint Trail Explorers program material, families immerse themselves in the great
outdoors at their own pace. All activities are self-guided and feature a mix of exploration, science,
dress-up and play. Families check out activity materials at the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature
Center front desk. Everyone participating in an activity receives a handmade journal to record their
“findings” and take home.
During the summer months, the U.S. Forest Service and other outdoor educators offer a wide
variety of naturalist programs each week at Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center and Gunflint
Trail businesses. Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center also hosts journal making workshops
throughout the summer.
Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center is located 55 miles up the Gunflint Trail (Cook
County Hwy 12) outside of Grand Marais, at 28 Moose Pond Drive. For more information call
218-388-9915, email [email protected], or visit www.chikwauk.com.
On the Gunflint Trail, railroad
tracks used to provide an easy way
to transport boats and goods from
one lake to the next. Just pull your
boat up onto a trailer fitted for the
tracks and push or pull the boat
across the portage!
Before trains became popular,
people depended on the sun to tell
time; when the sun was highest in
the sky, it was noon. This created
local time, which meant “noon” in
neighboring towns might be a few
minutes apart. Railroad companies
introduced time zones to do away
with local time and make it easier
for them to create timetables.
TRAIN COLORING ACTIVITY
Use your crayons or colored pencils to help the train! It needs an engineer, tracks and Gunflint Trail scenery around it.
TRAIN MAZE
Use a pencil to help
the train get through
the maze to the logging
camp so it can pick up
a load of logs.
TRAIN PUZZLE PAGE
TRAIN CROSSWORD
2
1
4
3
5
6
7
8
ACROSS
2. The kind of train that transports goods rather
than passengers
4. Trains on the Gunflint Trail were powered by this
7. An industry that used trains on the Gunflint Trail
8. Sounds we associate with trains (include hyphen)
9. The beams that hold up a railroad bridge
DOWN
1. A place where passengers would get on a train
3. Made up of rails and ties; what a train travels on
5. A part of the train that carries passengers or goods
6. Who sits in an engine?
9
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SECRET MESSAGE
Use this code to reveal a
lyric from a well-known
song about railroads:
A=Z
B=A
C=B, etc.
H
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TRAIN WORD SEARCH
Find the following words in the grid of letters
to the left. Words can be vertical, horizontal,
or diagonal, forwards or backwards.
STEAM
TRESTLE
MINE
TRACKS
LOGGING
CONDUCTOR
ENGINE
BOXCAR
GRADE
CABOOSE
LOCOMOTIVE
RAILROAD
PASSENGER
D B O ’U Z N V I FB S U I F X IJTUMF CM PX JOH SJTF
VQ FB SMZ J O U I F N PSO DB O’ U ZNV I FBS U I F
D B Q U BJ O TI PVUJ O H, “ EJ O B I , CM PX ZPVS I PSO!”
!
WORD SCRAMBLE
ELHEW
LEXA
Can you unscramble
these common parts
of a train?
GSIPRN
RLEUPOC
KEBARLWEEH
HHTCA
Crossword Puzzle: DOWN: 1. station, 3. railroad, 5. boxcar, 6. engineer;
ACROSS: 2. freight, 4. steam, 7. logging, 8. choo-choo, 9. trestle.
Secret Message: Can’t you hear the whistle blowing, Rise up so early in the morn;
Can’t you hear the captain shouting, “Dinah, blow your horn!”
Word Scramble: wheel, spring, wheelbrake, axle, coupler, hatch
KEY TO ANSWERS:
©Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway • www.chikwauk.com