Tales of the Road: Highway 61

By Cathy Wurzer

Book Overview

Highway 61 traces approximately 440 miles through Minnesota, from Pigeon Falls at the Canadian border south to La Crescent. Along the way, the road hugs the North Shore, zips through St. Paul, and navigates bluffs along the Mississippi River. While places such as Split Rock Lighthouse or Sugar Loaf Mountain offer well-documented stopping-off points, observant travelers may wonder about historic buildings, abandoned sites, and decaying structures they see along the way.

In this companion book to a new Twin Cities Public Television documentary also called Tales of the Road (airing in November 2008), Cathy Wurzer unearths stories about these places and more as she travels down the road and into the past, spotlighting famous and fascinating locations, many of them little remembered today. Learn about bootleggers crossing the St. Croix by ferry or importing hooch from Canada onboard vessels designed in White Bear Lake. Visualize--or maybe even visit--the quaint tourist cabins, supper clubs, and lodges that served tourists who began motoring up the road in the 1920s. Take stock of historic and current industries: Russ Kendall's Smokehouse in Knife River, a rutabaga plant in Willow River, the pottery factory in Red Wing. Each tale is illustrated with historic and current views to show how much-or how little-Highway 61 has changed. Here's one road trip you won't want to miss

Cathy Wurzer is host of Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio and cohost of Almanac on Twin Cities Public Television. She has been honored with four Emmys for her work on Almanac.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873516265
• ISBN13: 9780873516266
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A must for any Minnesotan's Library

Cathy Wurzer is well known to Minnesotans as a host of Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Edition, and is one of Minnesota's best journalists. In this book, Tales of the Road, Highway 61, a companion to a PBS documentary of the same name (which I have not seen), Cathy Wurzer travels the quintessential highway in Minnesota, Highway 61. Memorialized by Minnesota native Bob Dylan, Highway 61 stretches from the Canadian Border at Grand Portage and goes all the way to the Iowa border (although its re-signed as Interstate 35 for a good portion of its route). Wurzer takes us along this entire route, north to south, stopping at the famous locales, as well as the less heralded locations. Even more poignantly, like her visit to the tragic tale of rollingstone colony, only the site and a few ruins remain of one-interesting venues, attractions and historical sites. This is where the power and strength of Wurzer's writing comes through best. Her stories about the famous Split Rock Lighthouse, Tobie's, and the Aerial Lift Bridge are strong writing, interesting and show good scholarship. Its her stories about the venues which are lost or are fading away, venues that, even though I have traveled much of Highway 61, I've never *heard* of, is where the strength of the book lies. The next time this amateur photographer and transplant into Minnesota travels Highway 61, I will be taking this book along, so that I can find the sites and places, and stories that Wurzer has so ably brought to life. Any Minnesotan, local or expat, would do well to have this book as part of their library.

Great Memories/Great Road Trip

Having traveled the upper half of Highway 61 (Minneapolis to the Canadian border) for over over 60 years, I can report that Cathy Wurzer has captured the many places of interest, history, and curiosity along that highway. Many are gone, some enhanced, and some crumbling, but she has used old photos to bring the descriptions and places to life. The book brings back many memories of childhood, youth, and current trips to a cabin off Highway 61 on the North Shore of Lake Superior. After reading the book, I am looking forward to a trip on Highway 61 from the Twin Cities traveling down the southern part of the highway, along the Mississippi River. Again, old photos, good details, and history make this book a joy to read - whether you've traveled on Highway 61 already, or want to plan a road trip with historical sights, places, and contemporary enjoyment.

Good interesting information about places to visit

This book, of which I bought 3 , is so interesting in places we want to see along the highway and love the recommendations.