In Search of Lake Wobegon, The Early Roots of Bob Dylan & Jucy Lucy
Journeys into Hidden America Beyond the Interstate & Beyond the Campaign Trail
Among some of the icons of Minnesota are the Golden Gophers, the Mayo Clinic and the lakes (and their loons).
For a time Mary Tyler Moore represented Minnesota to many though she never lived there as she portrayed Mary Richards of TV station WJM, a fictional station located in the Twin Cities. So complete was the adoration that a statue remembering The Mary Tyler Moore Shows and its iconic interdiction that a statue is located in downtown Minneapolis two blocks down from the Nicollet Mall METRO station.
Here we share with you some words about three other Minnesota icons.
A Fictional Town surfaces in Real Life
Lake Wobegon is a fictional town created by Garrison Keillor as the setting of the recurring segment "News from Lake Wobegon" for the radio program A Prairie Home Companion which used to broadcast from St Paul, Minnesota. The fictional town serves as the setting for many of Keillor's stories and novels, gaining an international audience with Lake Wobegon Days in 1985. Described as a small rural town in central Minnesota, the events and adventures of the townspeople provided Keillor with a wealth of humorous and often touching stories.
Keillor has said that people often ask him if it is a real town, and when he replied that it was not, they seemed disappointed because "people want stories to be true". So he began to say it was in "central Minnesota, near Stearns County, up around Holdingford, not far from St. Rosa and Albany and Freeport, northwest of St. Cloud", which he says is "sort of the truth, I guess."
The fictional settlement Lake Wobegon was created so as to resemble many small farm towns in the Upper Midwest, especially western Minnesota, North Dakota, and to some extent, northern Iowa, Wisconsin, eastern South Dakota and northeastern Montana. These are rural, sparsely populated areas that were settled only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely by homesteading immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia.
In a situation where life appears to have imitated art, one these places, Holdingford, Minnesota, which Keillor said is "most Wobegonic" has tried to make the most of this association.
It is located along the Lake Wobegon Regional Trail. The trail is actually two paved recreational rail trails in central Minnesota, named after the fictional town. Each trail is marked with mileposts every 0.5 miles (0.80 km), corresponding with the mile markers of the former railroad lines. Snowmobile use is allowed on the trail in winter, conditions permitting.
The Minnesota Rails and Trails project began creating the Lake Wobegon Trail in 1998. It now stretches from Waite Park, Minnesota just west of St. Cloud, to Freeport, Minnesota, where it forks; one trail heads northwest to Osakis, Minnesota, the other northeast to Holdingford, Minnesota and Bowlus, Minnesota, and on across the Mississippi River.
Keillor himself participated in the trail opening ceremonies and said that Holdingford was the most "Wobegonic" town in his mind.
The Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon takes place every year in May on the trail. Runners leave from Holdingford and run to St. Joseph, Minnesota.
Hodingford now and advertises itself as the "Gateway to Lake Wobegon", even hosting a "Lake Wobegon Cafe."
Image: Explore Alexandria (MN)
Before He Was the Bob Dylan We Know
Over the years he has not said much about his Minnesota roots or upbringing.
But in a 2017 interview Bob Dylan did speak on the subject in an interesting article. We attach a link to it where he speaks about Duluth, where he was born and the early years of his career in the Twin Cities before moving on to New York.
Dylan typically isn't overly vocal when it comes to the "North Country." However, in this interview he opened up about his time growing up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. When asked of his memories of World War II, which had a significant influence on the heartbreaking and sentimental lyrics of the classics found on Triplicate, Dylan (born in 1941) admitted that he didn't remember much. He did, though, share some of his earliest memories of this time, which were the memories of his childhood in Duluth:
About Duluth:
I was born in Duluth - industrial town, ship yards, ore docks, grain elevators, mainline train yards, switching yards. It's on the banks of Lake Superior, built on granite rock. Lot of fog horns, sailors, loggers, storms, blizzards. My mom says there were food shortages, food rationing, hardly any gas, electricity cutting off - everything metal in your house you gave to the war effort. It was a dark place, even in the light of day - curfews, gloomy, lonely, all that sort of stuff - we lived there till I was about five, till the end of the war.
In the at article he also shared some feelings about Minnesota and regional differences within the state, especially distinction between the north and south:
When asked if there was something unique about Minnesotans, Dylan claimed that "people are pretty much the same wherever you go."
However, he did have something to say about the difference between northern and southern Minnesota:
Minnesota has its own Mason Dixon line. I come from the north and that's different from southern Minnesota; if you're there you could be in Iowa or Georgia. Up north the weather is more extreme - frostbite in the winter, mosquito-ridden in the summer, no air conditioning when I grew up, steam heat in the winter and you had to wear a lot of clothes when you went outdoors. Your blood gets thick. It's the land of 10,000 lakes - lot of hunting and fishing. Indian country, Ojibwe, Chippewa, Lakota, birch trees, open pit mines, bears and wolves - the air is raw. Southern Minnesota is farming country, wheat fields and hay stacks, lots of corn fields, horses and milk cows. In the north it's more hardscrabble”.
Here also is a 2011 documentary from Minnesota Public Radio News that explored Dylan's Minnesota roots and how they influenced the evolution of his music: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2011/05/21/boy-from-the-north-country-bob-dylan-in-minnesota
Jucy Lucy
When talking foo in Minnesota, many think wild rice. Others go to the quintessential l hot dish or jelly mold. Still others go regional ethnic in the form of Lefse or lutefisk.
We recently came across an item that was new to us, but which has become very Minnesotan.
It is called a Jucy Lucy.
It was created in the 1950;s and comes out of Matt’s Bar & Grill in neighborhood eatery in Minneapolis.
According to their website, in 1954 founder Matt Bristol responded to a customer’s specific request ked for two hamburger patties with a slice of cheese in the middle. According to Matt’s Bar & Grill’s website, “Upon biting into this new, molten hot burger, he exclaimed “that’s one juicy Lucy”, and a legend was born.
Now decades later the place that “time forgot” and which does not accept credit cards still serves up the Jucy Lucy. Their motto is “Fear the Cheese”
A complete history and more on this story can be found at: https://mattsbar.com/index.php
Image: Matt’s Bar & Grill
Kuralt’s America Re-visited: The Man Who was Building a Highway By Himself
I was first introduced to this story through a Charles Kuralt “On the Road” feature.
As a state legislator, Gordon Bushnell couldn't pass a bill to construct the 200-mile road. So, Bushnell bought up 40 acres of land along the proposed route north of Wright. He used a shovel, wheelbarrow and tractor to clear a path for a road through the woods, and completed about 12 miles by himself during the final 25 years of his life. He died in the early 1980s.
Here is a Duluth News podcast introducing Gordon and his story (Unfortunately I could not find the Kuralt feature).
The Duluth News also recently did a story asking for those who remember Gordon to reflect upon the man, his vision and his legacy: https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/northlandia-family-neighbors-remember-duluth-to-fargo-road-visionary