GUNFLINT Observer - Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center
Transcription
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 K U V E I Q D V G J X L P T R N J G T R E S T L E Y O A L L S J T U D S A M T S R G S O C V U T G B M T E F B A G S C X Y M H R N M C E M I I I E O L E O U A C H O M A D L N N M T SECRET MESSAGE Use this code to reveal a lyric from a well-known song about railroads: A=Z B=A C=B, etc. H L L D A B N Y W M R G G O J R B E E B H D A C G O S E T Y E E C Z O Q U N O Y A F R I B G N M U O W C N R Z D Q M V E G V G A S N T X T K G H I E L T G R I E B O X C A R I N L B B V O C N G R E O Y N H E Q G C X V P Z E X F T R A C K S A J J N J F M O M Z S D Z H D C 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
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