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Other stories in "Fall"

• This weekend
  See elves, artists and Irish dancers.
• Next weekend
  Elves, artists and Irish dancers are hard at work during holidays.
• Remember the wrecks
  On Lake Superior, gales of November bring haunting memories.
• Welcome, Southwest
  Finally, low-cost air fares to Chicago have returned.
• All quiet up north
  Like the leaves, room rates have dropped.
• Big birds
  Eagles are flocking to a stretch of river best known for tundra swans.
• Join the fun
  With an outdoors club, make friends, see new places and save money.
• Culture in the bluffs
  Follow musicians to four unusual venues near the Mississippi.
• Ghouls ahoy
  On Great Lakes, two haunted ships are spoiling for a fright.
• Bash on a bike trail
  Kick up your wheels at small-town fall festivals.
• Scenery in the studios
  On autumn art tours, treasure hunters strike gold (and orange and red).
• Closing the deal
  Believe it or not, it's time to reserve hot dates for 2009.
• Ely's blue over hues
  Act now to keep town's future bright.
• Eyes on the skies
  On bluffs and ridges, it's time to watch the hawk migration.
• Price check/A northwoods weekend
  Two Minnesota B&Bs offer a Boundary Waters adventure — is it a deal?
• On the ropes in Lanesboro
  Try walking a high wire on Halloween.
• In Iowa, a singular inn reopens
  Through December, snag a $99 room at the Hotel Pattee.
• Hunters on the North Shore
  A special deer season this weekend may put guns close to hikers.
• Geocaching for beginners
  Try a fall treasure hunt.
• Hot tip/A different North Shore
  Didn't reserve for fall-color season? Thunder Bay has rooms.
• On the road/A fall drive along the St. Croix
  A stretch of river valley is packed with attractions.
• 10 great trails to ride in fall
  Here's where to get your fill of flora, fauna and fall colors.
• Go on a trail-clearing trip
  If you enjoy a hike, help make it possible for others.
• In river towns, favorites debut anew
  On the Red Cedar and in Red Wing, three inns and restaurants finally reopen.
• Home of horsepower
  In Wisconsin, see where race cars, snowmobiles, outboards and motorcycles were born.
• Go swan watching
  

Homes for the holidays

On tours, see where the rich and famous celebrated Christmas.

The leaves are barely off the trees when holiday mansion tours begin.

In the southern Minnesota town of Rochester, the country manor built by W.W. Mayo's younger son is first out of the block, filling its 38 rooms with ribbons, garlands and gleaming glass balls for tours that start Nov. 7.

Built at the same time as Glensheen in Duluth, Mayowood (pictured) is the same size but much less ornate. Dr. Charlie Mayo loved nature and was more interested in his wooded grounds, where he built water gardens, stocked ponds with fish and brought in elk, Japanese deer and English pheasants.

He also built greenhouses and, being frugal, installed panels made of old glass X-ray plates, etched with the outlines of gallbladders and fractured tibias.

Glensheen, built by Minnesota's second-richest man and finished in 1908, is magnificent but still a family home; the J.J. Hill House in St. Paul, Minnesota's largest house, was built to showcase the railroad baron's wealth.

Along with Villa Louis, built with Wisconsin's first million-dollar fortune, they and other mansions around the region are decked out and open for tours during the holidays. For more, see Tours de force.

Last updated on October 29, 2008