We drove down to Red Wing, Minnesota yesterday for my birthday outing. Red Wing is full of funky sculptures.

We drove on past Red Wing to Frontenac State Park at the north end of Lake Pepin. The Mississippi River. As we gazed over to Wisconsin on the other side, we had a conversation about the settlers and explorers of the area and decided they must have been pretty sturdy folk. After the Indians, it was the French. This State Park was named after a river town that was named after Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the governor of New France who arrived in the late 1600s. The governor was a French military man who came to America to defer his great debts. Not very romantic. The French came in the 1600’s to set up fur trading with the Indians or to set up Christian missions.

Etinne Brule was born in France and was the fur trader and explorer who was credited as being the first European to reach Lake Superior in 1622. (I think the Vikings were there earlier.) Medford Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit Radisson, both born in France, were the first Europeans to set foot in what would become Minnesota, reaching present day Duluth. Brother Claude Allouez, also born in France established a Jesuit mission and traveled the area producing the earliest maps of Lake Superior. Louis Joliet, born in Quebec City, and Father Jacques Marquette, born in France, traveled down the Mississippi River as far as to where Arkansas is today. In the 1680’s Robert de La Salle, born in France, claimed the whole Mississippi River basin for France. Pierre and Jean Pepin traveled up the Mississippi from the south. So the 1600’s were full of French explorers in the area.

Lucien Gaultier, born in France, was a Roman Catholic priest who arrived in Minnesota in 1840 and apparently named the city of St. Paul. After Minnesota was established as a territory in 1849, the French fade away. People from the east coast are the first to arrive, followed by Europeans from Germany, Scandinavia, and Great Britain. In my opinion, those are the people who were really gutsy. Anyway, then there is the whole messy horrible history of the Indians killing them and them killing the Indians.

So I won’t go into that.

But the Park is one of my favorites. It was established in 1957.

From there we went back into Red Wing and enjoyed the views from the bluff. And of course stopped at our favorite used bookstore before dinner and a nice drive home.