65 feet
Length of the world’s largest wooden muskie, a former drive-in restaurant adjacent to the Big Fish Supper Club in Bena, east of Bemidji. The mammoth fish, which landed a cameo in the opening credits of one of the National Lampoon Vacation movies, lures camera-toting travelers by the dozen. Charles Kuralt once called it his favorite building in America.
3,800,000,000
Age of the world’s oldest rock, an outcropping of morton gneiss near Granite Falls that was “unearthed” by a series of fortunate glacial events. Geologists from around the globe flock to the Yellow Medicine County Historical Museum to see this aging rock star. So what are you waiting for?
6
Number of “seats” in a two-story outhouse in Belle Plaine, which was built in the late 1800s by a family with 11 kids. It’s attached to the second floor of the historic Hooper-Bowler-Hillstrom House by a “skyway.” Curious? The lofty loo, now maintained by the Belle Plaine Historical Society, is open to visitors in summer on Sunday afternoons. But please use the facilities elsewhere before you go.
$2
Cost to tour the 3M/Dwan Sandpaper Museum in Two Harbors, housed in the former home of one of 3M’s founders. Displays tell the story of the invention of the rough stuff: glue, magnetic charges, and bits of sand from the Lake Superior shoreline all played a part. Learn how use of the proper grade of sandpaper could have averted the Hubble Space Telescope malfunction and saved billions—plus other nitty-gritty facts.
As many as 500
Worshippers who pull up for “drive-in church,” a 10 a.m. Sunday service that has been offered during the summer months by Crosslake Evangelical Lutheran Church since 1971. Men in orange vests direct cars into a field, and the pastor preaches to his peeps via the airwaves (88.1 FM, if you’re so moved). The service begins with a honking hallelujah and ends with more of the same: automotive amens.
