First night in Red Lake Falls - The Spot restaurant:  

Judy, 11th child out of 13 - turns out Judy and I have had parallel lives over the years; got married in 1972, husbands the same age, we both lived in California 1968-1970 - and we didn't even know this - lives in Wisconsin.

Peggy - Mora, MN - turns out she and Judy both worked at Honeywell Aerospace.  Peggy is headed to South Korea in 11 days with her daughter and family to help bring back her newly adopted little grandson. Funny thing is Judy's first child was adopted from Korea - next two biological.

Me: nothing new:) except all of this and I am heading to China Sept. 24 so maybe I can wave at Peggy somewhere.

Lana:  She and her husband now own The Spot so we thank her for the complimentary dinner!!!  I met Lana for the first time when we were in 5th grade and I had just arrived at the "town school" and was a scared little girl so she became my friend.

The Spot:  I can't find out the history but as far as I can remember it had the same name and has never closed.

Red Lake Falls Gazette - Since my mom died in 2010 I have subscribed along with Peggy and Beth.  We stopped in so Judy could subscribe to the weekly newspaper!

Phone booth outside the Chateau Motel and Liquor Off-Sale; I think we were the only women in the 16 room hotel.  It was filled with construction guys from fiber-optic cable team to highway workers.  First we thought they were admiring us when they opened doors for us and called us "Ma'am" but then the horrid truth is some were young enough to be our grandsons!

The morning we left Peggy wanted to drive down to the power plant and dam area to see where her father had worked for 40 years.  He "ran" the power plant.  As we drove onto what was clearly private land this pickup drives up and the man kind of frowns - just a little. We got out, introduced ourselves to Herb J. and pretty soon everyone is hugging and we follow him right down to the river after his wife shows up on this John Deer Gator.  Both the Red Lake and Clearwater Rivers run through the town.  For a bit of history visit The Land of the Dancing Sky website http://www.visitnwminnesota.com/redlakehistory.htm

Peg and Herb - Herb's wife is in the purple shirt above which says "RLF Drumline".   The power plant building is in the background and Herb says he bought it and "it is full of my junk"!  It brought back lots of memories for Peggy and my Dad took us fishing down there.

Also on Herb's wide open riverfront land were a few remote control airplane enthusiasts.  It was fascinating as this small drone could hover over us and take pictures and he could see it on a small screen a distance away.  Sound familiar?

The "man cave" of one of the guys - each little plane is about $3,000 and he must have had about 15 and 15 more at home.  We ended up spending a couple hours learning history things from Herb and hearing about the planes from the "guys" who were enthusiastic to share their hobby.

Dinner at TnJ's Bar and Grill.  The food was really good and Gemma 2nd from bottom on the right picked up the drink tab.  She said it was all of $20 for 10 drinks as we hit happy hour for $2 a drink and we are not big drinkers!  Gemma is the town veterinarian and her mom was the Superintendent of Schools when I was in the one room Black River District 124J.  She used to bring boxes of library books out once a week and always brought a lot of extra hand-picked by her ones for me.

"My" cemetery.  It is half full of Schultz's (my maiden name), the tallest ones in the background are old and written in German.  It is Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery and of course all Lutheran!

St.Joseph's Cemetery - Catholic and where the other 3 girls' families are buried.  It's funny how we all love cemeteries.  Beth in green who was able to spend a day with us - lived in "The Hollow" in a house high up on the riverbank.  We visited her in Phoenix the last 2 years and had a great time.  They now have a place on a lake near Bemidji also.

Pierre Bottineau is buried here.  They moved his body from another nearby cemetery and here is the story: http://www.redlakecountyhistory.org/bottineau.htm.  He had 23 children from 2 marriages.

Huot Cemetery: 124 people buried from 1884-1987.

From my internet search:  The worst epidemic was the influenza epidemic in 1918.  I'm assuming since this person Polite (love the name) was just 19 this may be the cause of death.  My grandfather also lost siblings this year.

"Dorothy Church" or formally St. Dorothy's Parish - a high school friend got married here and it is no longer a church and privately owned.  It closed in 2001.

Peggy and I.  I often see us holding hands - we all did that in high school as we walked in a row downtown!  This is near the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin across the road from Old Crossing Treaty State Park.  Our friend Diana provided the beautiful flower pots and keeps them watered - I just found that out this morning!

Red Lake County Courthouse vault - one of them.  The two ladies who work in the Recorder's and Assessor's office took us on tours and showed us the vaults.

"Judge Judy" - yup - the courtroom including the desk with gavel, jury box, and viewing area are old, beautiful and intact and open to the public.  They just told us "don't steal anything"!

Second vault with all the land deeds.  The person who took us in also gave me a lot of printed information and my family records and told me how to do further searches on land records.  I now can see the 1861 deed to my family farm.  

Though Red Lake Falls was the natural choice for the county seat in the 1890s, the 1905 Soo Line railroad that was built through Thief River Falls and the discussion of building a permanent courthouse led to a long a bitter fight for county headquarters.  Finally, suspected arson brought the issue to a head.  In April 1909, the original wooden courthouse burned to the ground as the fire brigade arrived suspiciously late.  A vote on the new building was taken before an election could change the Red Lake majority on the board of commissioners.  The final vote occurred in February 1910.  The courthouse was completed on donated land in 1911 at a cost of $37,070.

So - we are excited to return next year and plan to head up the short distance to Canada and to see signs that say "Welcome Americans"!  Best thing is how often I heard:  "You look like your mom with that white hair - she was a sweet little thing".  I'm quite sure I have never been as sweet.
We now have 2 friends who have volunteered as tour/history guides.  Peggy asks:  "How many can we squeeze in your car?"