A Recent Visit to Lake Itasca — hpham. '287 



the line of Becker ami Hubbard counties, due north to the extrem- 

 ity of the Southeast arm of Itasca is only nineteen miles. 



Besides the generally crooked course of the road, detours from 

 it must be made in many places to pass around large fallen trees,, 

 some of which were lordly white pines that rose to a height of one 

 hundred feet and had withstood the storms of a century. Stumps 

 and boulders, the latter occasionally very abundant, projecting 

 six to eighteen inches in the wheel ruts, jounce and jolt the wagon 

 merrily; frequent sideling places threaten to tip it over; and here 

 and there the horses struggle through quagmires in approaching 

 the bridges or fording-places of streams, which however at the 

 fords have a hard and safe gravelly bed. A shaky bridge, the 

 uppermost on the Mississippi, built of tamarack poles, carried u& 

 safely over Craig's crossing at the southeast corner of Section 26, 

 Town 145, Range 36, seven miles due north of the mouth of Itasca^ 

 the stream there being about twenty feet wide and twelve to eight- 

 een inches deep. It is becoming to say a good parting word for 

 this bridge and indeed for the whole road; they shall be long re- 

 membered for their help to me in this journey, which had no mis- 

 hap nor noteworthy adventure, and was blessed with the finest of 

 sunshiny, clear and calm autamn weather. 



Two or more railway surveys have crossed the Mississippi, se- 

 lecting routes from the Red River valley to Duluth, at rapids of 

 the river about two miles and five miles northeast of Craig's cross- 

 ing. One of these railways is now in process of construction from 

 Duluth to Grand Rapids on the Mississippi eighty miles east of 

 Itasca, and its western extension will probably be built in the near 

 future. It is also very probable that a railway will be built from 

 the south to Park Rapids and the vicinity of Itasca. A large in- 

 ducement toward these enterprises is the valuable pine timber, 

 which occurs sparingly or in groves, sometimes covering several 

 sections, throughout nearly the whole district of the upper Missis- 

 sippi, the Clearwater river, and the basin of Red lake. When such 

 means of travel are supplied, the beautiful lake Itasca, and proba- 

 bly also Cass, Winnebagoshish and Leech lakes, will be counted 

 among our most attractive resorts for summer rest or in autumn 

 for the capture of game and fish. 



The Mississippi river at the crossing of the Saint Paul, Min- 

 neapolis & Manitoba railway survey in Section 8, Town 145, Range 

 35, about eleven miles distant in a direct line a little to the east of 



