What Minnesota Kept

At 1:40am on August 27, 1979, a Marshall County deputy radioed that a light had come at his patrol car. The Ford was found 854 feet on, stopped across the road with a broken windshield, a dented hood, and both antennas bent back. His wristwatch and the dashboard clock had each lost 14 minutes.

Start in Warren, because this stop sets the calendar for the rest. The Marshall County Historical Society keeps the car indoors at Settler's Square, open Wednesday through Friday from 10am to 4pm between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and by appointment outside that window. Listings disagree on the exact days, so a phone call before the drive is worth making.

Built for a winter carnival that opened on January 14, 1937, and never taken down. Babe started as a parade float on a truck chassis, plumbed so the exhaust came out of the ox's nostrils. They are the oldest surviving pair of their kind and the National Register listed them in 1988.

About 2 hours 15 minutes east to the Lake Bemidji shore. The statues are free, outdoors, and there at any hour, so this is the stop that absorbs a late start. The tourist information center behind them keeps daytime hours and holds the town's collection of oversized objects.

A 200 pound slab of greywacke cut with runes and the date 1362, pulled out of a Minnesota field in 1898 by a Swedish immigrant who said he found it clamped in the roots of an aspen. Runologists called it a forgery within a year. A state historical committee called it genuine in 1910.

About 2 hours 40 minutes south to Alexandria. Doors are open 10am to 4pm Monday through Saturday, and the stone sits at the center of a museum that also holds a reconstructed 1860s fort and the Douglas County collections. The forgery case and the authenticity case are both on the wall.

Sinclair Lewis clerked at the front desk here as a teenager and put the building into Main Street as the Minniemashie House. The ghost stories are a century newer, and in December 2025 the hotel was bought by a paranormal radio host, which makes the haunting the business plan as well as the folklore.

About 30 minutes further south, and the place to stop for the night. Sinclair Lewis clerked at this front desk as a teenager. Rooms 17 and 22 can be requested at booking and go first, and basement tours and overnight investigations are sold separately and fill well ahead for September and October.