Exploring the continental divide

I'm always on the lookout for a reason to take a road trip, and I was pretty sure I had a good one this time.  The western edge of Minnesota is a straight line from north to south, but there's a spot where the line deviates, bulging nearly ten miles westward into South Dakota.  Looking at it on a map, I got to wondering why this place was so important to the founders of Minnesota -  what was there?   I further discovered that a major geographical feature, the north/south continental divide, was located there, near a small town named Browns Valley.  Intrigued, I set out to see this for myself.

That was five years ago.  It's a long drive out there; with a little meandering, it ended up being a day-long project, and about 450 miles of driving in all.  But I never saw the continental divide.

Part of the problem is that I didn't know exactly where it was before I made the trip.  I just assumed Browns Valley would embrace a landmark like that, maybe putting up signs saying "North/South Continental Divide" with an arrow pointing toward it, and erect a monument on the spot itself.  I've seen numerous bronze roadside plaques around the state marking much lesser landmarks, so surely the continental divide deserves one.

But no.  I saw a few interesting buildings in the town, including a Carnegie library.  But I hadn't officially seen the continental divide.

Recently I decided to try again.  A Google search pulled up a map with "Continental Divide Historical Marker" at a spot inside the town of Browns Valley, conveniently located within a block of the main highway through town.  Now I knew where to look.

I talked to my dad about the project, and it turns out he had tried to find it too, and had also been unsuccessful.  With better preparation I was sure I'd find it this time.  He decided to join me for the trip.

It was a perfect summer day.  Highway 7, the route we took to Browns Valley, winds along Big Stone Lake, which is the source of the Minnesota River.  Rolling terrain, lake views, and bright sunshine.

We got to Browns Valley around 11:00.  I turned off at 2nd Street, where the monument was supposed to be located, and we searched the eight block length of it without finding anything.  No panic, though, the day was still young.

I had seen a wayside rest on our way into town, but had ignored it.  Now it occurred to me that it might have had a sign or a map... some clue, something helpful.  We drove back to it and pulled in.  It turned out to be a marker unrelated to the continental divide, and in my disappointment I didn't bother to finish reading it.  I pulled out my printed Google map and discovered we should have turned on 2nd Avenue, not 2nd Street.

We drove back into town and found the place indicated on the map.  There's a small campground there, and south of it, where the monument was supposed to be - homes.  That didn't seem right.  Thinking the monument might be in a vacant lot between one of the homes, we drove up the street, then made a u-turn and looked again.  Nothing.

I did a second u-turn and pulled into the parking lot at the park so we could regroup.  I had taken my dog Scout along on the trip and I thought both of us could use a rest room break.  Dad laid out the maps on the hood of the car and looked at them while I walked Scout.

After some head scratching, it occurred to me that maybe the map was slightly off, that maybe the monument was further south, maybe just on the other side of the houses.  We got in the car, drove until we found a connecting street, and then searched some more.  A couple blocks down was a large fenced-in area, with a historic log cabin and another building that looked like an old schoolhouse or church - and near those, a stone and bronze monument seven feet tall.  Surely that was the spot.

When we pulled up in front of it, we read the sign over the gate:  "Sam Brown Memorial Park".  A monument to the town founder.  But the location roughly matched the map, and what better spot for a park like this than the continental divide?  That would make the park doubly significant.  We proceeded to explore the place.  We read every sign and plaque, and even peeked in the windows of the log cabin.  No mention of the continental divide.

Not the continental divide

It was clearly time to find a person who lived in the town and ask them where the continental divide monument is located.  I drove to a gas station and went inside and asked the clerk.  She told me to proceed west of town on the highway and that the it would be located at the base of a hill, on the right hand side of the road.  The location she gave me was a mile west of the location shown on my Google map, and not in town at all.  So... my map had not been all that helpful, really.

We drove west on the highway and saw a roadside parking lot on the right side of the road at the base of a hill, just as the clerk had described.  Eureka!

The spot turned out to be a boat launch, though.  No monument.

We didn't even come to a stop, just turned around and got back on the highway.  Not a hundred yards west of the boat launch, there stood a brown road sign on wooden posts.  It was so badly faded from sun exposure it was a little hard to see, much less read.  No wonder I'd missed it on my previous try.  And not so much as a parking space next to it.  I pulled to the shoulder and switched on the four-way flashers so we could jump out and get pictures.

You'll have to decide for yourself whether it's worth the trip.

North / South Continental Divide