St. Cloud Minnesota
St. Cloud Minnesota |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Just the FactsNOTE: The data that follows derives primarily from the 1990 U.S. census and as such is a decade out of date. Comparative data for the U.S. at large and for the St. Louis metro area are presented to establish perspective. St. Louis was chosen because it is the largest city on the river as well as smack dab in the middle.
St. Cloud is located just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Sauk rivers. Of all the cities that grace the banks of the Mississippi, St. Cloud has the loveliest riverfront.
During our last visit Isaac and I opted for more sedate entertainment and toured the Stearns County Museum. We also visited the museum's research and education departments and talked awhile with their staff. I was very impressed with their education outreach efforts. I've always heard that Minnesota has some of the best public education opportunities in the country. I certainly saw evidence to support that. The Stearn's County Museum is superb. It's not my favorite history museum on the river, but it is arguably the best. They are well funded and they've applied their resources well.
|
St. Cloud is the first city of consequence on the Mississippi. It's hard to settle on the characteristics that determine why one city is substantially different from another. The cities above St. Cloud are all much smaller (I call them towns as often as not) but, it's not just St. Cloud's size that places it in a different category than Little Falls or Bemidji. No, St. Cloud has a characteristic that clearly sets it apart from its northern neighbors--St. Cloud is the first city on the Mississippi with traffic; the kind of traffic you can get stuck in. They have rush hour, a plague unfamiliar to the good people who live farther north along the river. They also have that blight common now to all larger U.S. cities with an excess of private automobiles. I speak of the commercial highway strip of fast food dispensaries interspersed between X-marts and X-depots that reaches to the horizons.
Riverside Park is located in south St. Cloud on the east bank of the Mississippi. In the park and directly along the river is Munsinger Gardens. The gardens are delightfully planted and contain just the right mix of cultivated displays, walking paths, benches overlooking the river and tree shaded open space. On top of the bluff above Riverside Park and, within easy walking distance from Munsinger Gardens, is another Garden--the Clemens Garden (photo on the left at the top of this page). The Clemens Garden is more formal and sits at the foot of a large and splendid home. As I was told by a patron we met there, the garden was first created by the home owner (Mr. Clemens). He planted it for his wife who was ill and bedridden so that she would have a pleasant view from her window. Now I believe it is maintained by a private foundation. The two gardens together make for a delightful afternoon outing and/or a memorable visit to St. Cloud.
St. Cloud goes by the name Granite City and, as you may well surmise, they have ample supply of that hard crystalline rock. Granite quarries and stone finishing businesses gave St. Cloud it's early economic boost. There is a wonderful painting hanging in the Stearn's County History Museum (in St. Could) that depicts St. Cloud's early relationship with the rock it is nicknamed after. Isaac and I were very amused and somewhat amazed to see that the revetment along the banks of the Mississippi in St. Cloud was composed of quarried and occasionally polished granite. We guessed that this was defective and/or discarded stone. The Mississippi is girdled throughout almost it's entire length by rock and concrete revetment that serves to resist scouring. In St. Cloud the river's girdle is quite extravagant--befitting a queen city. Below is a photo of the Mississippi's east bank a few hundred yards south of the Sauk river confluence; it's not a pretty picture but you can see how the cut granite is acting as bank revetment.
I got the impression traveling throughout the State of Minnesota that folks up there are very serious about their professional sports teams. Everywhere Isaac and I turned we'd see evidence of sports mania in Minnesota--I guess that's why they elected a professional wrestler for their governor. They have a bumper sticker up there that says, "Our governor can beat up your governor." Anyway, I think they also like to mix their spectator sports with a goodly amount of forearm lifts holding mugs of frosty beer -- certainly that's the case in St. Cloud which is the sports bar capitol on the Mississippi river. We have ten times their population here in St. Louis, but I'll bet St. Cloud has more sports theme bars than we do. With a state university campus in town and two private colleges nearby, St. Cloud must be a rousing fun town during March Madness or Super Bowl weekend.
The Mississippi in St. Cloud runs clear and blue. There are no bluffs yet along the river; the surrounding land is mostly forested. It is an ideal river for sport fishing, small recreational boats, summertime splashing and year-round walks along its banks. In downtown St. Cloud there is a dam across the river. Ostensibly it serves for flood control and to create a recreational water pool for the city. Dams on the river are controversial. The ecological impact of a dam is much greater than was thought decades ago when The Bureau of Reclamation led the way and began damming every river in sight. Dams change the ecology of a river and often destroy wetland and riparian ecosystems. In extreme cases species of fish, birds, plants or mammals can be threatened. The Mississippi has over 35 dams and a new navigation dam is under construction right now just below the Mississipi-Arkansas confluence. Environmental groups have begun fighting to have the Mississippi river dams removed and the river returned to its natural condition. It's a complex issue because the dams are useful in a number of ways. Some generate power, others like the one here in St. Cloud help control flooding and still others (most of the Mississippi dams) make navigation of the river possible.
One afternoon for lunch Isaac and I stopped in a Taco John's. While we waited for our order a group of teenage boys came in. They were outlandishly dressed in leather and rags with lots of jewelry piercing their bodies. I believe they were punk rockers or heavy metal fans (I'm not all that in touch with such things). In any case the visual impression they created was quite formidable. Then I heard one of them speak. He spoke with that heavy Scandinavian accent typical in the region--almost to the point of caricature, and as he addressed the clerk he was polite. The contrast between his appearance and dialect was so incongruous I began laughing and had to walk away so as not to offend the young man. I had to smile about the incident later as I thought about our visit. Those boys were the toughest looking people we saw in St. Cloud, and governor Ventura aside, it's a friendly place where you can walk down the city streets feeling secure in your person and expect a smile and polite words from even the teenage punks.