After driving across much of the state of North Dakota the previous day, Steven and I had arrived too late to visit the city of Fargo located on the state's eastern border with the state of Minnesota. Unlike the excellent Rough Rider Hall of Fame in the Bismarck statehouse that honored famous North Dakotans, the Fargo Walk of Fame recognized famous people from all walks of life who had performed in or visited the city. It seemed a bit of a stretch to me, I must admit.
The walk was located adjacent to the very striking F&M Visitors Center that resembled a barn, a common sight in the prairies. The 'F,' of course, represented Fargo and the 'M' the Minnesota city of Moorhead, just minutes away. I don't recall ever seeing a visitors center with such an imaginative design so kudos to the architects.
If you were a fan of the TV show Fargo, perhaps you recall seeing the woodchipper? It was now in the center but it couldn't be touched because there was no safe way to clean it in the age of Covid-19!
The image outside the Plains Art Museum was inspired by a quote from writer Toni Morrison to honor female icons whose contributions to the world were often minimized.
A few shots from downtown Fargo:
Buddy the Bison was much easier to find than either of the ones in Bismarck and Jamestown, North Dakota yesterday!
As we found absolutely nothing else to see or do in Fargo, we headed over to the sister city of Moorhead, Minnesota via the Veterans' Bridge.
A stroll along the Red River in the city's Viking Ship Park sounded like fun. First, though, we came across a full-size replica of the 12th century Vik, Norway Hopperstad Stave church that had been constructed of cedar, redwood, and pine in 1998. The church served as a reminder of the Red River Valley's Scandinavian heritage.
It was almost inconceivable to imagine the calm-looking Red River that was the border between North Dakota and Minnesota had topped its banks several times to cause horrendous destruction to Fargo.
When North Dakota entered the Union as a dry state in 1899, the state Constitution required that all saloons close on June 30, 1890. Many of Moorhead's saloons were built on piers cantilevering out over the Red River so they would be as close as possible to their North Dakotan customers!
Soon after, thirsty North Dakotans flocked over to Moorhead which was home to 45 saloons by 1900 and 3,700 residents which equated to one for every 82 residents! Most saloons were clustered around the Red River bridges. In 1915, when liquor sales were outlawed in Moorhead's Clay County five years before national Prohibition, it ended Moorhead's saloon row days.
Hjemkomst Center was a cultural center whose main attraction was a full-scale replica of the Gokstad Viking ship discovered in Norway in 1880. The replica was called Hjemkomst, which means "Homecoming" in Norwegian. Robert Asp, 1923–1980, a school guidance counselor, came up with the idea in 1974 to build the replica and sail it to Norway!
Though ill with leukemia, Asp captained the ship on its maiden voyage through Lake Superior in 1980. After his death, his children and other crew realized his dream as the Hjemkomst set sail on June 8th, 1982, for Bergen, Norway, arriving there on July 19th and in Oslo three weeks later. It arrived back in Minnesota a year later. All I could think of when viewing the massive ship was what an incredible testament it was to one man's dream and vision!
As there was nothing else to warrant our attention in Moorhead, we headed east toward Minneapolis. Booming Prairie Chicken in Rothsay was a fun sculpture of a protected bird that had inhabited the Minnesota prairies ahead of its settlers. The 8,000-pound sculpture measured 13 by 18 feet and was placed in Rothsay as it had been designated as the Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota. I imagine you wouldn't be surprised to read that the sculpture was the largest one of a prairie chicken, too!
We stopped next in tiny Alexandria a hundred miles northwest to see the symbol of Minnesota Viking pride. Big Ole, pronounced Olee, was created to accompany the Kensington Rune Stone to the 1965 World's Fair in New York. Big Ole was 28- ft.-tall and came in at four tons.
Sadly, Ole hasn't fared so well over the years. One year, the town dressed him as Santa but a flaming arrow sent Ole up in flames; another vandal snapped off his sword; a freak storm caused him to keel over; and he was partially crushed under the weight of a snow-covered roof when he was lying prone for repairs! Throughout it all, Big Ole was patched up and repainted by the town's citizens so he can now reside comfortably for his later years, we hoped!
I wish you could have inhaled the scent of these pink and white shrub roses. They smelled as beautiful as they looked!
This was just a smidge of the largest hosta garden we'd ever seen! I hadn't realized there were quite so many varieties before as they grew in abundance at the arboretum.
The hostas led to the idyllic Japanese Garden where any worries seemed to melt away.
As it was too late in the season for peonies and too early for lilies in the harsh Minnesota climate, we walked through the Rose Garden.
Of greater interest to us because it was so unusual was the Brandon Bog where duckweed and tiny watermeal, the world's smallest flowering plants, grew as a green carpet on the pond.
I learned that these plants cool the fish and clean the water, create a mat where frogs hunt flying insects, and shelter the tadpoles and feed the ducks. How remarkable were these plants that looked initially like algae?!
As we traipsed through an oak forest, a novel question was who 'plants' the forest? I certainly hadn't realized that lowly blue jays can airlift a whole forest's worth of acorns. Somehow, it's been recorded that a flock of 50 blue jays once cached 150,000 acorns in a month! Jays choose stronger acorns than squirrels and bury them at a better depth to sprout.
Also new to me was the fact that after the last Ice Age, oaks were the first to reforest the land. As the seeds were too heavy to ride the wind, scientists had long questioned how the trees could move across the landscape so quickly. I guess they must have had blue wings, huh!
Berens Cabin, the original cabin on the property, was being restored to become the arboretum's History Center.
Just a small part of the Wildflower Garden:
This was called a Dry Stone Construction Demonstration Garden but all we saw were these rock formations, not a garden as we knew it.
As we had driven almost 250 miles since leaving Fargo, we opted to drive through the rest of the landscape arboretum so we wouldn't miss everything else. I was amazed and in awe of the vast collection of trees as there seemed to be a gazillion ash, followed by the same number of birch, hawthorn, etc, etc! It was almost overwhelming in its scope.
With hardly anyone else around, the arboretum was so peaceful and serene as long as we discounted the heavy highway traffic nearby, that is!
Being fans of sculptures, we were definitely intrigued when we arrived at the arboretum's Harrison Sculpture Garden.
In a bed of narcissus was a creation by a Swiss sculptor.
I'm sure you, too, could have come up with Stone Arch as the name for this!
British artist Barbara Hepworth created Construction (Crucifixion) in 1966. Even though I didn't recall seeing the two parts of the cross ever being the same size before, I was quite taken by Hepworth's image of the Crucifixion. Wondering, Phil and Michaela, if you have heard of Hepworth?
Hepworth was also the artist behind Summer Dance, a title I would never have thought of. Guess that's why she was the artist!
I found these, more readily identifiable sculptures more pleasing as I could 'relate' to them.
Cathedral by Argentinian Alicia Penalba was a little too 'out there' for my taste as I couldn't visualize the place of worship.
I wondered what might have inspired these artists. Was it the wonders of nature - wind, water, animals, and plants - and man's place in it? I liked how some of the sculptors used their creations as a 'frame' to view the surrounding landscape and could imagine how different that might look with each passing season.
Moon Gate was the inspiring entrance to the Chinese Garden, also known as the Garden of Harmonious Beauty. The belief was that visitors should pass from life's hustle and bustle into another world at this threshold. It was a place to ponder as we were drawn forward to enter.
The Qinling Mountain Rocks were considered to be the cornerstone of the garden. The majestic 35-ton rocks had come from the mountain range in Shaanxi province that is a natural boundary between northern and southern China.
As it had been a long day for Steven, he was pretty beat and elected to stay in the car while I hurried to look at You Betcha Willow Structure by North Carolinian artist Patrick Dougherty. I read that he liked to work with objects that change with the seasons and aren't permanent. That, he observed, contrasts with the public who imagines a work of art should be made to endure. "I believe that a sculpture, like a good flower bed, has a season."
Posted on July 5th, 2021, from Concord the capital of New Hampshire whose motto is Live Free or Die. Earlier today on our drive from Vermont's capital of Montpelier, Steven and I stopped in minuscule Post Mills, Vermont, to view Vermontosaurus, a very quirky sculpture. It reminded me for all the world about the willow structure above! Look for photos in an upcoming post.
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