The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-09-28
"Grouch On After Touring
Blue Earth County
DENIES Being AN I.W.W.
But at That He Has Some Good
Words to Say of Things
Hereab( utS
From FRIDAYS Daily.

From Fridays Daily.
Albert Lea Tribune: The road from
| Minnesota Lake to Rapidan passes
| through very rich and prosperous farm
| ing country. Blue Earth county must b.
| one of the very best agricultural counties
in the state. The county looks beautiful
1t has more than twenty-five lovely lake!
scattered over it's surface. 1t has eigh
rivers ana nine good sized creeks beside:
numberleSs brooks. The county wa:
originally covered to a large extent by
heavy hardwood forest. which has nov
been cleared and has given room FOL
prosperous homes.
Blue Earth county is really part of al
old lakebottom. At the time when the
great glazier had withdrawn north o.
Mankato it still damned up the powerful
waters of old Minnesota river and formed
a tremendous lake of the territory which
now constitutes Blue Earth, Faribault
Watonwan, Brown and part of WasecS
counties. When the lake was in it's full
glory the present site of Mankato was
200 feet under water. To begin with this
lake drained south by the Blue Earth
river through the Des Moines river into
time was running south. Even to this
day we can follow the old riverbeG
across the divide south of Gilmore.
Later on the lake drained east past
Elysian into the Cannon river. The old
watercourse is in plain sight even today
1t is this old lakebottom which to q
large extent causes the wonderful fer
tility Of Blue Earth county. But what
ever may be said of the fertility of the
county, the roads are not good. In many
places roads were just in the transition
stage from country road to state
road, all plowed up and being crowned
AS \ consequence they were almost i'm
paSSab BILE.
Old Maud had to plow through in low
or intermediate for half a rifle or a mile
at stretch in many places. She did not
like it.
And then--what is almost worse-the
roads are not marked. It is eXasperating
If the good people of Blue Earth county
knew all the wrath from heaven-to say
nothing of quantities of blue sulphur
from worse place-which the perfect
heaped on their heads. L am sure they
would. invest in little paint and a few
Signboards
a traveller starts out with the We,
body any harm. His language is as pure
as that of an angel in heaven. I know
that was true both with Rolf and my
self, to say nothing of Finn.
Suddenly you arrive at a crossroad. And
there you are-left with your own choice
Both roads look good to you. Or rather
one looks as bad as the other. Not a
word Or mark to indicate which one of
the two roads will take you to your
particular point of destination. Just for
spite the nearest farmhouse is a quar-
ter OF mile or half a mile away. The
farmer is almost certain not to be in the
Held. You stop your car. And there you
are. ... -...
If you finally decide on ono road and
you travel along for a couple of miles
without seeing any road marks an al
most uncomfortable desire overtakes you
to turn back and take the other road If
you had taken the other road you would
have been in exactly the same fix.
By thi: time-you begin to dislike the
people of the particular county you are
travelling in. They may be perfectly good
people. Very likely. They have never done
you any harm. But somehow you don't
like them. And you begin to feel a
strong desire to give expression to this
feeling. You don't like the road either
1t may be perfectly good road. 1t may
wish to go. But still you do not like it.
And YOU begin to feel the same strong
desire to give expression to your feel,
ing for the road as you have for the
desire. 1 did--for a while. But as we
rode on | noticed to my horror that my
desire for stronger words grew stronger
for every mile. .
and gave free vent to some horrible
wishes as regards the present and fu-
ture happiness and welfare of both the
people of Blue Earth county and the
IL.
not as far as the road was concerned
And if my wishes had come true, i
would Immediately have retracted them
But somehow it relieved the tension
From that time on the road turned in
the right direction and as we contin-
ued we found thct we after all, had
taken the right road we finally hit the
Daniel Boone trail. which is a splendid
well kept state road. This trail took us
past Good Thunder and uD to Rapidan,
The Rapdan dam is beautiful piece
of engineering work. 1t was started in
1910, completed during the year of 1911
at cost of half million dollars 1t is
located on the Blue Earth river nine
miles southwest of Mankato. The capa-
city of the station is many thousand
horsepower The structure is all built of
reinforced concrete and carries above
the entire length of the dam a bridge
constructed of the same material.
The water in the reservoir is sixty feet
deep at the dam and the Blue Earth
river is backed up in it's natural banks
and channel about six and a half miles.
The Rapidan dam now furnishes Man
kato and a number of the surrounding
towns with light, power and transport
tatlon, If necessary another dam can be
constructed below the first The Rapidan
dam is now one of chain of water
States Power company. They own ten
different water power plants among
which are. the .-Rapidan. Coon Rapids,
Taylor Falls and Cannon Falls.
service in more than forty cities and
towns of Minnesota, North Dakota South
Dakota, Illinois and Wisconsin They
serve a population of more than three
quarter million people. Besides their ten
water power plants they t~n thirteen
steam power plants and - gas works
They are said to h.oc 5000 HORSEPOWER
of undeveloped waterpower.
We crossed the bridge and parked
Maud. We wished to see the power
house. I introduced myseif. handed the
man my card. told him that | was a
peaceabe citizen Of Albert Lea, travel
ing to see the country with my two bows
and that I did not hold membership in
the 7. w. w.
Nothing doing. He asked for my pass.
I had never thought of a pass. He shook
his head. looked suspiciously at Finn,
who carried a camera. dangling at his
side and closed the gate. The man had
his orders and the situa ton did not really
admit of an argument. This was only
the first of a number of similar expert
enCes we had later on our trip. The
fact is. the whole country is closed as
tight clam to all visitors not bear
ing credentials directly from headquar-
tiers.
Uncle Sam is at war and he does not
proDose to take any chances.
Million dollar dams and power plants