THE ROAD TO GRAND MARAIS 



MAKING an automobile trip from Duluth to Grand 

 Marais is a good deal like approaching a beauti- 

 ful city ; it is all right when one gets there, but the ap- 

 proach through the slums is discouraging. An out- 

 sider very properly expects to find the best highway in 

 the state between the Twin Cities and Duluth, the larg- 

 est centres of population. With that idea in mind, he 

 is somewhat shocked to find the most execrable piece 

 of road in the country. It is little wonder that many 

 turn back when they think, as they have a right to, that 

 the road beyond Duluth, much of it in a wilderness, 

 must be much worse. 



How could anyone be expected to know that the Twin 

 City-Duluth trunkline highway is the worst piece of 

 road in the state. That piece of information ought to 

 be advertised so that travelers would know that better 

 things are ahead of them. If they become discouraged 

 and turn back, they make a mistake for the roads of the 

 north are well worth even the agony of a drive from St. 

 Paul to Duluth. 



Once in Duluth most of the tourists' troubles are over, 

 at least as far as the roads are concerned. From Dur 

 luth to Two Harbors there are few hills and the road 

 surface is good, as it is on most of the roads in St. Louis 

 County. The iron mines see to that. The first jar 

 comes in Two Harbors itself. The very elaborate signs 

 of "Welcome" at one end of the town and "Come 

 Again" at the other end, though probably well meant, 

 take on a rather sarcastic tone when one has bumped 

 into town over a quarter of a mile of very rough road 



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