Category — Travelogue

On my walk through the state park (Fort Snelling) today, I encountered several teachers and a group of young students all speaking German. To say the least, I was surprised. I turned and asked, “Deutschen?” The lead woman looked past me and said to a wayward student, “Bleib stehen,” and then turned to me and said, “Sie darfen gehen.” I laughed. She, of course, thought it was funny too. It turned out they were from the German immersion school in St. Paul.

At St. Isidore’s in Litomysl, Minnesota (pronounced “little missile”)—a tiny Czech community in southern Minnesota—there stands a Roman Catholic church constructed of field stones the local farmers brought from the fields so they could be added to the outer walls of the church. There is nothing quite like it in southern Minnesota or anywhere else that I know of. It is a beautiful structure maintained by local families in this rural community who appreciate its loveliness and want to preserve it. Beauty makes it own rules and has its own passionate followers.