The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-10-15
A FISHING TRIP IN
NORTHERN MINNESOTA
Over Corduroy Roads and
Fording Grow Wing River
Gull Lake, One Of the Beauty Spots Of
Cass County, Minnesota, as it was
in 1896. Also, Other Fishing
Spots Beyond the Pine Line
By Buck

III tHO HOnth VI July, III TIC year
1896, | was sitting on the from
porch of our house, in the city OF
Minneapolis. enjoying myself watch
lug the various people passing up
and down the street. when man
drove up to the curb in single
seated buggy. He alighted and
came upon the porch and after in
troduding himself as a Mr. William
Preston, of Omaha, asked me if
knew of any young man or boy who
would like TO go on fishing trip OF
about two months duration to the
4 northern part of Minnesota. Now,
as | was occupied at the pleasant
work of doug nothing at that par
tlcular time, jumped at the chauce
and after talking the matter over
for awhile | agreed to go with him
the following morning.
The next morplng | was ready
and waiting for him when he drove
| up at eigh' O'Clock.
| We drove all the way from Min
neapolls up the east side of the
Mississippi river as far as Little
Falls. where we crossed to the west
side and followed the river Az far as
Fort Ripley and then we turned iu-
land toward the northwest until we
reached two little lakes four miles to
the west of Lake Alexandria and
three miles northeast of the North
ern Pacific station of Lincoln.
| | have forgotten the names of
those lakes. now, but we eamped on
the smaller one for about two weeks
and caught great numbers of black
bass. for the lake literally swarmed
with these fish. All one had to do
was just to throw hook with some
bait on it in,o the water at any
place III the lake and one was sure
to pull cut nice bass IN a few min
utes. During the whole two weeks
that we were there not another per-
sou came to fish in that locality, and
from that we concluded that there
was very little fishing done there,
which probably accounted for such
large numbers of fish swarming in
the lake.
AS to what we did with the fish
we shipped them to Minneapolis and
sold them; for in those days there
were no laws against the sale of
black bass, such as there are now.
| After we had been there about
two weeks we decided to go further
north, and accordingly packed up
our things and started for Gull
Lake-thirty miles to the northeast
of where we were then.
Besides the single seated buggy,
we had two wheeled rig attached
to the rear on which was our boat,
and in the boat the various utensils
for camping, and the fishing tackle.
1t was quite load for one horse,
and up to where we now were the
roads had been very good, but from
there on we felt that the roads would
not be in such good shape for back
in those years that part of the state
was sparsely settled and in some
places the roads would be nothing
more than mere paths through the
woods.
Well, we started on our thirty
mile drive through the woods, and
as whole we found that the roads
were not so bad as we at first feared
With the exception of one piece of
corduroy road about half mile
long laid over piece of swampy
land and several sandy hills, the
road was passably fair, and we bad
no trouble until we came to the
Grow Wing river-the road ran in
to the river ard came out on the
other side. AS we did not dare to
ford the river without some lnfor-
nation in regards as to how to go
across. and as it was about one
O'Clock. we decided to camp where
we were for dinner. About an hour
after we had ate dinner a farmer
came down the road on the other
side and instead of fording the river
right straight across he came down
the river and then up again, coming
out where we were camped, making
sort of half-circle of it. He told
us to go across the same way he had
done, for straight out from where
the road dipped into the water was
q very deed spot--a sort of large
hole-and that by going down and