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Once Upon a Byway

1-3 Day Tour Connecting Three Beautiful Byways

  • OTTER TAIL SCENIC BYWAY takes you through 1,000 lakes and wildlife-filled wetlands with cultural stops along the way. LAKE
  • COUNTRY SCENIC BYWAY visitors see remarkable changes in vegetation in a relatively short distance driving through prairie grasslands, deciduous forests and coniferous forests. GREAT
  • RIVER ROAD NATIONAL SCENIC BYWAY winds with the river through charming, quaint river towns, dense woods and majestic bluffs.

 

Once Upon a Byway

Featured Stops Include

Once Upon a Byway

Day One

    • 9:00am: Depart Minneapolis

 

    • Noon: Lunch

 

    • 1:30pm: Arrive Fergus Falls
        • OPTION 1: Agricultural Tour

       

        • OPTION 2: Art Center

       

        • OPTION 3: Historic Phelps Mill

       

       

 

    • 5:00pm: Lodging Check-in

 

    • 6:00pm: Dinner

 

Fergus Falls, MN

Center for the Arts - Once Upon a Byway

A Center For the Arts

Originally The Fergus Theatre, the building was built as a vaudeville house and now home to the performing arts with year-round music, dance, theatre, and visual arts programs.

Phelps Mill

Phelps Mill

Tour a flour mill built in 1888, now an Otter Tail County Park and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Prairie Wetlands Learning Center

Prairie Wetlands Learning Center

The Center includes 330 acres of native and restored prairie, 28 wetlands and 3.5 miles of trails. An 1/8-mile interpretive trail is accessible for all visitors. The Visitor Center houses a 2,500-square-foot exhibit area, the Bluestem Store, classrooms and a multipurpose meeting room. providing environmental education and interpretation for learners of all ages.

Once Upon a Byway

Day Two

    • 8:00am: Depart Fergus Falls

 

    • 9:00am: Detroit Lakes Sculpture Walk

 

Once Upon a Byway

Day Two

    • 10:30am: Depart for Itasca State Park

 

    • 11:30am
        • OPTION 1 Lunch at historic Douglas Lodge

       

        • OPTION 2 Catered picnic lunch at shelter

       

        • OPTION 3 Headwaters Cafe

       

       

 

    • 12:30am
        • OPTION 1 Mississippi Headwaters

       

        • OPTION 2 Step-on Naturalist Tour

       

        • OPTION 3 Lake Itasca Boat Tour

       

       

 

    • 2:30pm: Depart for Bemidji

 

    • 2:30pm: Tour Bemidji Woolen Mills Factory & Outlet Store

 

    • 5:00pm: Lodging Check-in

 

    • 6:00pm: Dinner

 

    • 7:00pm: Entertainment

 

Detroit Lakes, MN

Sunfish Sculpture Walk

Sunfish Sculpture Walk

Pick up an official sunny map for a tour of nearly 50 sunfish designed by area artists.

Park Rapids, MN

Itasca State Park

Itasca State Park

Stop at the Visitors Center to see interpretive displays and exhibits on the history of the forest and wildlife. "Step on" tour with the park naturalist along Wilderness Drive with a stop at the Headwaters area. Board the "Chester Charles" for a narrated tour of Lake Itasca, where the Mississippi River springs from.

Bemidji, MN

Bemidji Woolen Mills

Bemidji Woolen Mills & Outlet Store

Originallly producing outdoor apparel for the early logging era, the company continues to produce garments for outdoor enthusiasts. See the products being made, and learn the history behind the original processing machines while you shop a host of Bemidji's famous Paul Bunyan Plaid items.

Bemidji Evening Entertainment Options

  • Paul Bunyan Playhouse Live theatre productions June through Mid-August.

  • Native American Flute Performance and narrative on the history of flutes.

  • Native Flute & Classical Guitar Duo that blends the Native

  • American flute and acoustic guitar in ethnic and contemporary music.

  • Local Muscians Folk, country, classical. Dinner performances or evening entertainment.

Once Upon a Byway

Day Three

    • 8:00am: Depart for Grand Rapids

 

    • 9:30am
        • OPTION 1: Forest History Center

       

        • OPTION 2: Judy Garland Museum

       

       

 

    • 11:30am Lunch

 

    • 12:30pm
        • OPTION 1: Itasca Heritage Center

       

        • OPTION 2: Tour Blandin Paper Mill

       

        • OPTION 3: Visit Hill Annex Mine State Park

       

       

 

    • 6:00pm: Dining

 

    • 8:30pm: Mississippi Showboat

 

Grand Rapids, MN

Forest History Center

Forest History Center

Discover the past, present and future of Minnesota's forests through guided tours of a 1900s era logging camp with hands-on environmental learning programs. Lumberjacks, cooks and other men and women of the Northwoods entertain with stories, tall tales and music as they share the history of the forest.

Judy Garland Museum

Judy Garland Museum

Visit the famed birthplace of Judy Garland and home of the world's largest Wizard of Oz collection. The museum features educational exhibits, lectures, performances, seminars and film screenings.

Itasca Heritage Center Museum

Itasca Heritage Center Museum

Explore the people, places and resources from the turn of the century that shaped this region. Exhibits display the woolly mammoth tusk discovered in the area and details the resourcefulness of the Ojibwe along with the variety of cultures represented by the immigrants who came to this new country.

Blandin Paper Mill

Blandin Paper Mill

Tour a paper mill on the banks of the Mississippi beginning with a production overview video that follows the process from cutting down the tree to the finished paper.

Annex mine State Park

Hill Annex Mine State Park

Choose from a fossil hunt or board a bus and trace the route miners took to get to work at once the sixth largest producer of iron ore in the state. Historic clubhouse, interpretive displays, and displayed historic equipment.