Postcard Friendship Friday - Barn Bluff in Red Wing, Minnesota is a giant lump sitting alongside the city, almost like a building. It shows up in so many postcards of the city, and has many postcards devoted to it.
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| Barn Bluff postcard, Red Wing |
Click here [red-wing.org] for some more information about the history of the bluff, from half a billion years ago to today.
The card here is a real photo postcard from the mid 20th century. The area of the bluff facing the photo was partially removed to make way for highway work after this photo was taken, leaving a sheer cliff next to the highway leading to the bridge to Wisconsin. I think the "Indian Head" formation seen here [flickr] might have been destroyed during this, but I am not sure. To the right of the bluff towers one of those grain elevator buildings that are ubiquitous in towns in this part of the country.
Don't forget to visit the blog [The Best Hearts are Crunchy] that hosts the Postcard Friendship Friday feature, and participate if you can.
11 comments:
Had a nice visit to Red Wing a few years back. We were going to the Twin Cities from the Chicago area and took two-lane roads west to the Mississippi and then north along the river. The trip was so spectacular we did it twice, and I wouldn't mind doing it again.
What all do you remember seeing?
To be truthful, my clearest memory is of a very big store. It was a couple of rooms and had antiques, books, and ethnic items from all over the world. Being there felt like being in another country altogether--or maybe in several different countries. --Oh, but that's just Red Wing. Did you mean on the whole drive along the Mississippi? Two recurring features stood out: first, the fascinating rock formations, kind of like Miner's Castle, but one after another; second, beautiful stretches along the river of what looked like grass growing in the water, kind of like what you see in Grand Traverse Bay along M-22, but it surprised us seeing it in the river. And the Mississippi itself, even in what seemed to us like its northern reaches, was IMMENSE!!!
That is SO cool! I've never heard of Barn Bluff before. I really like this postcard...indeed that hill does look like an old barn.
Wow! Thank you for posting, and happy PFF!
PJ: The place in Red Wing was likely Pottery Place.
The valley with rock formations is called the Hiawatha Valley. Some have compared it to the Rhineland, since it has all the castles overlooking it (in this case, all natural formations). Yes, one after the other. The river is wide there, but artificially so in many places, due to the lock-and-dam system. But it's a lot narrower up past the Twin Cities, upstream of where the Minnesota River flows into it.
Click here for one my many previous posts about the valley.
Beth: It was also called Mt. La Grange in French. For 'The Barn'. From the historic marker that is there:
"This bold bluff was a landmark for French explorers who named it Mt. La Grange for its resemblance to a large barn.
Some 10,000 years ago meltwater from the glaciers carved a deep channel in this area. Barn Bluff became an island in the five-mile wide river that then filled the valley.
The rock layers are shown at the left. The nearly vertical fault line visible at the bluff's southwest edge indicates a crack which developed millions of years ago. As a result the greater part of the bluff on the river side dropped 150 feet, leaving the bluff dolestone adjacent to the green sandstone at the fault line.
The bluff is 3100' long, 800' wide, 334' above the river and 1001' above sea level.
Limestone was quarried out of the Oneota stratum for about 40 years until stopped by citizen protest in 1908. In 1910 Barn Bluff was donated to the city for a public park."
Definitely one of those scenic old small towns. In addition to their pottery, Red Wing is (or was) a famous brand of shoes
As a teen I worked in a wholesale shoe company: Red Wing boots were big sellers to lumbermen & construction workers. As far as I
know, they are one of the few shoe
factories still in the US. My first
cafe hamburger at age 6, was on a drive to Red Wing.
Red Wing also spawned a university: Hamline. It left Red Wing and went elsewhere.
It's huge! The grain silo place looks dwarfed.
That would be an interesting place to visit. Come to think of it, there are so many wonderful places to visit here in the states.
I love these old postcards. I wish I had a collection of them.
I wasn't familiar with this phenomenon - and it looks a little less menacing in colour, I might add!
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