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Bemidji's behemoths

A northwoods Minnesota town changes, but faces stay the same.

In Bemidji, three faces tell much of the town's story.

Chief Bemidji stands facing the lake the Ojibwe called Bemidgegumaug, or "river flowing crosswise.’’ His real name was Shay-Now-Ish-Kung, and he fed the white people who settled on the lake's shores in 1888.

Their settlement became the first town on the Mississippi, which starts 35 miles south in Itasca State Park, winds north to Bemidji, flows through its lake and turns south again.

A stern, square-shouldered Paul Bunyan stands a block away, at the edge of the old-fashioned amusement park. When he and his blue ox, Babe, were built for Bemidji's first Winter Carnival in 1937, the town's lumberjacks were still around, still telling stories of the logging camps that, not long before, had fed the area's magnificent white pines into the maw of the sawmill.

The concrete-and-plaster duo was an immediate sensation when they were built, sparking a mania for giant mascots that continues today. As a piece of Americana, they're irresistible. Over the generations, very few tourists have left Bemidji without a photo of Paul and Babe.

A third giant figure stands across Bemidji Avenue, next to Morell's Chippewa Trading Post. Known at the shop as "Injun Joe,'' he's naked from the waist up, has a single feather stuck in a headband and raises a stiff arm in a "How'' salute.''

With his presence, unwelcome to some in Bemidji, Injun Joe speaks volumes about the historically uneasy relationship between the town and the Ojibwe residents of the nearby White Earth Reservation.

For a small town, Bemidji, pop. 11,500, has many layers. One of the last towns in Minnesota to be settled, it retains a frontier feeling despite the presence of a university and the main campus of Concordia Language Villages, which pulls in students, counselors and visitors from around the world.

It's still a logging town, and the home of hard-core fishermen and snowmobilers, but it also has some of the best cross-country ski trails in the state. Lake Bemidji State Park is a center for silent sports, with naturalist programs, swimming at a long beach facing town and the northern trailhead of the Paul Bunyan State Trail, popular with bicyclists.

In the summer, no matter what the activity, visitors fill their lungs with the bracing air beloved by generations of windswept North Dakotans and heat-fleeing Southerners. In the forests, there's a rich, woodsy tang born of balsam fir, pine resin and moist earth; Thoreau called it "the moulding of odors of the soil.''

During the long winters — average ice-out on Lake Bemidji is April 26 — the snow-draped forests are threaded with trails. At Three Island County Park, skiers glide along 20 kilometers of trails, many of them alongside the rushing Turtle River.

At Movil Maze, 11 kilometers take advanced skiers on a roller-coaster ride. There are gentler trails in Hobson Memorial Forest, through stands of red pine and along small lakes and bogs across from Concordia Language Villages.

At Lake Bemidji State Park, 17.5 kilometers of ski trails wind through forest and along a ridge above the beach; during two candelight ski tours, the lights of the city, glittering from across the black lake, add to a magical atmosphere.

And Buena Vista Ski Area has 25 kilometers of trails, on which the Finlandia Ski Marathon is held every February.

Buena Vista, which straddles the Laurentian Divide, is a friendly ski area run by a family that’s been living next door for more than a century, since there was a logging boom town of Buena Vista. Four chairlifts serve 15 trails, all starting at the top of the ridge that determines whether a raindrop flows to the Arctic or to the Gulf of Mexico. The view, obviously, is spectacular.

At the bottom of the hill is a re-created logging village with a church, a schoolhouse, a lumberjack hall of fame and a wanigan, a floating cook shack used during log drives. In February, Logging Days pay tribute to the area's logging history.

Bemidji's downtown is a modest collection of brick storefronts that house coffeehouses, pubs, shops and a theater. The renovated 1918 Chief theater on Beltrami Avenue blinks year-round, with concerts, dance and community-theater performances in winter. In summer,  the professional Paul Bunyan Playhouse presents a slate of musicals and comedies.

The playhouse was started in 1951 by an impresario who brought in a troupe of New York actors for a season but went broke in a month.

It was long enough to hook Bemidji's citizens, who raised enough money to pay the actors' room and board while they performed the rest of the season's plays and to pay for their tickets home. Then, the town raised enough to pay for a season the next year, and the year after that. Now, the Paul Bunyan is Minnesota's oldest professional summer-stock company.

At the southern edge of downtown, a renovated 1910 depot houses Union Station. It was the first of a wave of renovations and openings in Bemidji, including the Headwaters Science Center, where children carry out their own experiments, and the Bemidji Community Art Center, in the old Carnegie library on the lake.

Students from the lakeside Bemidji State University put on plays and concerts around town. The Prairie-style Headwaters School of Music and the Arts shows and sells the work of local and regional artists, and hosts frequent concerts by local performers.

Next door, the Wild Hare Bistro & Coffeehouse shows other works on its slick, contemporary walls.

But not everything in Bemidji is modern. The family-run Bemidji Woolen Mills has been going strong since 1920, still famous for its plaid Paul Bunyan jackets, ear-flap caps and other warm items made in the back, where short tours are given on weekdays.

New is good. But there's no sense in throwing out the Babe with the bathwater.

Trip Tips: Bemidji

2010 summer events:  July 17-18, Art in the Park. Aug. 5-7, Dragon Boat Festival. Oct. 22-24, First City of Arts Studio Cruise.

Accommodations: Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge, on the northwest corner of Lake Bemidji, has a feel of old-fashioned gentility. It's a full-service resort with a long beach, indoor pool complex, dining room and supervised children's program in summer. It's one of the region's best values; for more, see Last call for lake breaks. In winter, it's a nice place for outdoors groups to stay. 888 788-8437.

The newer, lodge-style Hampton Inn & Suites on the south shore near downtown has a long sandy beach, and rates include a hot breakfast. 218-751-3600.

On the west shore, the 1910 Villa Calma B&B has four attractive rooms, $79-$139, 218-444-5554.

Dining: Across the street from the Paul Bunyan Playhouse, Brigid's Irish Pub serves such entrees as Guinness beef stew and shepherd's pie, including a vegetarian version. Down the street, Tutto Bene Ristorante has a pretty patio and serves seafood and steaks as well as pasta, 218-751-1100.

At Minnesota and Fifth Street, Wild Hare Bistro & Coffeehouse serves breakfast and lunch Monday-Saturday and has a small back patio. Raphael’s Bakery and the Keg ’n’ Cork are decent downtown lunch spots.

Paul Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, Minn. In 2010, it's staging "Biloxi Blues'' June 9-19; "Picasso at the Lapin Agile'' June 23-July 3; "Bram Stoker's Dracula,'' July 7-17; "The Boys Next Door'' July 21-31; and "Gypsy'' Aug. 4-14. Call 218-751-7270.

Lake Bemidji State Park: It has a year-round naturalist and offers many fun nature programs. Its bog boardwalk is very popular, especially in the last two weeks of June, when the pink showy lady's slippers are blooming. The annual open house, with free admission, is the first Sunday in June.

In summer, naturalist John Fylpaa gives free, narrated pontoon-boat rides with three themes, Exploring the Mississippi, Exploring Lake Bemidji and Paul Bunyan's Footprint. The first is June 24; others are announced through the summer. Call 218-308-2300 to reserve a spot.

Sports rentals: BSU rents canoes, kayaks, sailboats and bikes on the lake side of its football field, just south of Diamond Point Park at the end of Fifteenth Street. 218-755-2999.

Paul Bunyan State Trail: The trail that eventually will connect Bemidji to Brainerd has seven miles paved from its northern trailhead in Lake Bemidji State Park. It's a scenic cruise around the east shore of the lake. For more, see Bicycling the Bunyan.

Cross-country skiing: Pick up maps at the visitors center or any business.

Downhill skiing: Buena Vista is 15 miles north of downtown on County Road 15, 800-777-7958.

Concordia Languages Villages: The main campus of the world-renowned language-immersion camps are just north of Bemidji.

For more, see Going abroad in Bemidji and  Language camp for adults.

Information: Bemidji tourism, 800-458-2223.

Last updated on March 5, 2010