We left Two Harbors, Minn. at 7:30 A.M. with the stage for Grand Marais, Cook Co., Minn. The first 5 miles out of Two Harbors was bad so we had to walk all that distance. We put up for dinner at 12:30 P.M. with a Mrs. Hanson, a homesteader 16 miles from Two Harbors. Here we changed horses. The dinner was a very substantial Norwegian one. About 1 o'clock we again started on our journey. We then travelled 20 miles to Beaver Bay, a little tumbled down hamblit, located on Lake Superior, and which formerly had a sawmill located in it. Here we had a lunch while the horses were again being changed. After we had finished our lunch we again started out for Little Marais, kept by a homesteader and fisherman about 14 miles away. It was just sundown when we again started out on our journey. The first 8 miles we had to walk nearly all the way as the road was again bare and was very muddy. After dark we came into thick timber of pine, spruce, balsam, cedar and birch and some other kinds of timber and could ride all along. About 3 miles from Little Marais we passed a lumber camp owned and operated by a Mr. Martin. Here we left two men. One a cook who came to the camp and the other a homesteader who lived near by. From the lumber camp to Little Marais it is downhill most of the way and the driver gave us a drive for our lives down along the narrow winding road. A short time before Mr. Taylor and myself had a narrow escape from getting our legs crushed between the side of the sled and a tree which stood so close to the track. Here are no roads such as we have there but only winding trails through the woods. When we drove up to the barn at Little Marais the man from the other end of this line came up and told us he could not take us as the road was too bad. After a little talking we convinced him that we would walk half of the way as we had the day before.
At Little Marais we got supper and it was 11:30 PM. Mr. Lutzen keeps the stopping place. This place has an unenviable reputation for its filth and unwholesome cooking. After supper we went to bed and slept about two hours till 3 o’clock. After one of the worst breakfasts I ever tasted we again started on our journey about 4 o’clock. The first part of this journey was very pleasant as the snow had hardened some during the morning hours. Our driver was Mr. Bukman, one of the owners of the stage line. He was a very pleasant jolly fellow. About six miles from our starting place we passed through Cook Bay, a fisherman’s home. We next stopped and changed horses at Mr. Dolans Camp, about 12 miles out. Here we also had a lunch. After lunch we again drove out till we came to Mr. Nelsons place who keeps the postoffice at Lutzen and is a fisherman and lumberman. After dinner we started out for GM about 20 miles away. The road was fairly good till we came to within 3 miles of GM where they were all bare and having been plowed and worked the fall before they were very meiray. We started in ahead of the other stage which did not get in till an hour after us. Shortly after the road turns to the east we got sight of Grand Marais which lies 1000 feet below along the shore of Lake Superior. There is a good natural harbor, with a natural brakewater formed by a rocky reef. From the northerly end of this reef extends a rocky cape which is about 40 feet higher than the brakewater reef and which extends out into the lake about 1500 feet.
