The mainstream media is full of stories of overrun parks and campgrounds in this era of COVID. But last fall we had our county Farmers Union meeting at a quiet county park I’d been by dozens of times but never explored and I was amazed at how lovely and underused it was. Was exploring another county park on Saturday of Labor Day weekend and same deal- walked a couple miles of trails and saw only a couple fellow hikers, and campgrounds weren’t full. And that was in Lyon County, Minnesota with but two county parks ’cause the farmers didn’t want to waste even an acre of steep hills or swampland on mere recreation. Time to explore the next county over, where planted acreage takes a back seat to parks…
Lincoln County, Minnesota is a magical place with barely five thousand people thinly spread over 15 townships and a half dozen cities, incorporated or otherwise. Seems like the settlers of the county and their descendants had a thing for parks and just couldn’t stop making them, as well as a folk school, opera house, and stuff like two story four room schoolhouses for just a couple rural sections. These folks believed in investing in their communities- Heck, when the WPA went on it’s building binge they probably figured it was just the rest of the country catching up to them! Having all that civic activism take place on a glacial ridge dotted with lakes in this magical county and it’s parks are a secret too good to keep!
First stop, Anderson Park and Arco::
On to the Polish enclave of Ivanhoe(?)…
Even Marble Township got into the park building act…
Then there’s Hendricks, a town so obsessed with parks that they gave up the whole west side of town by the lake for a park… They gave up millions in tax base, and it was worth every cent!
On to Picnic Point County Park , half full campground behind the trees…
Then Norwegian Creek County Park on Lake Benton, huge campground had a few empty spaces…
Just down the road, Hole in the Mountain County Park…
Lake Benton City Park and lovely boat launch…
The old Lake Benton boat launch…
This was Labor Day weekend… We’ve at least another month of good weather left and the parks will be pretty much ours ’til the snow flies. So get out and explore!
GearheadGrrrl 