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Three Rivers Region

Started by dedgren, December 20, 2006, 07:57:49 PM

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ecoba

Really Great, David!

The RealRoads are amazing, and I haven't seen much of that township.

Ethan

Post 9100, and Welcome to page 456!

just_a_guy

I agree. They're looking great! And congrats for the OSITM!
Come and check out my BATting works at:
   
Just_a_Guy's attempts at BATing

metarvo

It's been a long time since I've seen a "normal" 3RR update that details a city or quad, so this brings back some good memories.  It appears as though this is the southwestern corner of 3RR, and that little town must be almost all Twin Glacier has going.  I can't wait to see where you go with this, David.   :)
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

threestooges

#9103
It has trains in it, you have my attention. Nice to see a return to the MD'ing side of things (not that the content development was in any way uninteresting), and I know I'll be keeping an eye out for news on collaboration progress. If I get a free couple hours tomorrow, I'll see if I can wrap up that boat. Jon's tutorial worked wonders so it's just a matter of getting things put together, properly textured and scaled.
-Matt

Tomas Neto

Very nice road!!! Fantastic!!!  :thumbsup:

Ryan B.

Hmm, I have to check & see if I have these still on my hard drive:



And HD-ize them, of course.   ;)

dedgren

#9106


Let's take a drive down to the southwesternmost corner of Three Rivers Region and take a look at the Village of Hanska and Twin Glacier Valley.  Today I'll show you photos taken along the way, and in the days ahead we'll look at how I would implement some of what we see in the game.

The following map is keyed to the photos.  



We'll enter the area on Route 10 from the northeast.  We've been driving along the southern edge of Broad Prairie, with the mountains of the Southern Range off to our left.

Shortly after we cross the line into Twin Glacier Township, we reach the village limits of the tiny hamlet of Hanska.



Hanska was founded in 1908 by Scandinavian settlers who build a grange and a Lutheran Church to serve their isolated farms.  This is the view along the dirt track that became R-10 shortly afterwards.



The wooden church with its 65 foot/20 meter tall steeple was a local landmark for almost a century.  Sadly, it burned to the ground in 2007, just one year before Hanska's centennial.



The other Hanska landmark that is still visible from some distance away across the flat prairielands is the watertower, another structure that dates back close to the time of Hanska's founding.  This structure is on the 3RR register of historic places, and any talk of replacing it has met with fierce local opposition.



Hanska's replica Stabbur, a structure used in Scandinavia to communally store grain and dried foods, is located in the south end of the city park and is a popular visitor attraction. To discourage rodents from entering the building, a stabbur was set on narrow piles of rocks or inverse cones of wood at each of its four corners. If the stabbur was built with a loft, it was often used to house hired help and could be used as a sleeping space for guests to the village. Many of these structures are still present in Norway today and are used for all manner of things, including bed and breakfasts and family museums.  The village's stabbur is the centerpiece of Hanska's Syttende Mai festivities, which occur on May 17th of each year, and honor Norway's independence day.



No visit to Hanska is complete without stopping to see "Old Number 5."  This tiny locomotive is all that is left of plans to run a branch of the Duluth, Winnipeg & Western Railroad's Highland Spur line to Hanska in the late 1920s to serve a planned grain elevator.  The engine was transported in pieces by ox-cart into Hanska with the intention of using it to construct track eastwards toward a proposed junction with the spur.  The engine was assembled and, on October 28, 1929, christened "No. 5" by proud local residents with a bottle of wine brought all the way from France.  The next day, the world's economy crashed and entered into the Great Depression.  The plans were abandoned, and the DW&W never came to Hanska, except in the form of Old Number 5, which remains to this day on the only track ever built for it.



In the next part of this post, which is here [linkie], we'll leave Hanska and head on into the Twin Glacier Valley.  Nice to have you along for the ride!


David

470197
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

ecoba

#9107
Okay, well I've decided to edit my posts accordingly to your update.

Hanska is a pretty little town. I like very rural towns, but we don't have many in these parts, all of our towns have at least 1000 people. Ah, it's sad that Hanska's church burned down, it looked like a wonderful historic building. I bet that someone could have made a wonderful BAT for that church too. I'm pretty sure that there's a church that looks like that one in our town, our episcopal church, right down the road from downtown. It looks very, very similar now that I really think about it, yet, it looks like it needs a lot of work as I drive by these days. Even though I don't attend a church, churches appear as very beautiful to me. My parents also got married in that Episcopal Church, so I would be very sad to see something happen to that church, and so I feel a bit of despair as I see that church has burned.

Okay, enough about churches,

..how many times have I typed that word now? One, two..three...

That's an interesting building that, that, uh...Stabbur! I've never heard of one of those before. According to your description it's a grain storage building/ bed and breakfast, interesting. I've learned quite a few things from you here at 3RR, David, but that's one of the most interesting. And there's also a lot of Norwegians in Hanska.

Are there lots of towns like Hanska in Alaska, it seemed Montana/ Alaska-esque, inspired, town, very, just, beautiful...

Great work, David, I would like to see some more of this township in the future.

Ethan

adroman

Very interesting!

Can't wait  ;D

Havva good one
Adrian.
737s, Air Force, Australia... what next?

j-dub

That real road reminds me of the old rural highway 2. If it really does have draggable dashed line textures, :thumbsup:

threestooges

So here we are, about one month and one MPRE later and here's what I have:



The textures need a bot of weathering/dirt but the basic shape is there at least. Let me know what you think David.
-Matt

girlfromverona

Welcome back, David.  :)

Congrats on the OSITM! I think the M should stand for Millennium rather than Month, though...  :P

Nice work on the boat, Matt! And those signs looks wonderful, Ryan!

dedgren

#9112


n.b.: Part 1 of this post, which is broken into several pieces due to the size of the pics involved, is here [linkie].  The parts are intended to be read in order.

This post finds us leaving Hanska and continuing into Twin Glacier Valley.  Once again, here's our map, which is keyed to the photos. 



Regional Route 10 leaves Hanska to the west and crosses the Leaf River, which at this point has left the rocky confines of Twin Glacier Valley to flow its wandering course across the Broad Prairie to its mouth on Neeley's River.  The Leaf, as locals call it, has recovered significantly in recent years from the substantial fertilizer and pesticide runoff that polluted its waters so badly up into the 90s.  While the river below Hanska is still a ways from being up to recreational quality, the future looks good to restore water quality not seen since the turn of the 20th century.

A little over half a mile/ one kilometer after leaving Hanska, R-10 ends at a tee intersection with R-1.



Before the F-637 freeway connecting the main route between Duluth and Winnipeg through 3RR was completed in the 1970s, R-1 was the main north-south road in the west of the region, traversing 40 miles/64 kilometers of the Minnesota and Manitoba borderlands.  Along its path lie the region's largest western cities: Highland and Carson Bluff, along with smaller Whitehall and Boissevain.  In Twin Glacier Township, however, R-1 has always been a road pretty much dedicated to tourists and sightseers, as it ends just short of the 3RR-Minnesota border at the start of the trackless wilderness of the the upper valley.

Here, our choice is between taking R-1 north through the tiny hamlet of Waldorf toward Boissevan, or south into the valley.  We take the latter choice and turn left.



That's not to say, though, that R-1 up Twin Glacier valley is not a pleasure to drive.  The relatively flat bottom of the valley and frequent scenic vistas that appear before the traveler, along with the massive realignment of the roadway done in the late 1990s make this one of the region's most pleasurable outings.



As you drive up the valley heading on a roughly southwesterly course, the Leaf flows in the opposite direction alongside R-1 in broad "oxbow" meanders.  This unique landform is created as a result of the Leaf's having a high water volume immediately below its headwaters that, on reaching the soft highly saturated glacial soils of the valley floor, causes the river to weave back and forth between the uplands on either side.



Some of the banks of this part of the Leaf are low and marshy- a paradise for both the lovers and the inhabitants of wetlands.



Other sections of the Leaf have dry, well defined banks.  The large cottonwoods and oaks that grow in the less saturated soils of these areas create an almost parklike effect, making the eight miles/13 kilometers of the Leaf from the put-in at the bridge just below Moraine Falls to the take-out at the R-1 bridge at Hanska 3RR's premier flatwater float tube experience.  With a steady current of about two and a half miles/four kilometers an hour, floating the Leaf is a great way to spend a sunny July or August afternoon.



We run into what passes for a traffic jam in these parts.  Black bears, Ursus americanus, are frequently seen throughout Three Rivers Region, but are particularly abundant in Twin Glacier Valley.  Adult black bears weigh in between 250 and 300 pounds and stands two to three feet at the shoulders.  Coat color may vary from light brown to deep black.  These bears lead solitary lives except when females are rearing their young, or when concentrations of food bring bears together.  3RR's black bears are omnivorous, eating anything that resembles food in looks, smell, or taste.  They feeds on grasses, fruits, berries, buds or leaves, nuts, insects and their larvae, and on small animals and carrion.  Contrary to popular belief, less than ten percent of a bear's food is animal matter.  During hibernation, a female black bear will give birth to one to four young.  At birth, cubs weigh eight to ten ounces and are hairless. They grow rapidly, weigh about five pounds by the time they leave the den, and 60 to 100 pounds by their first year.



The final pic in this part is of the sign that points out Mount Gaston, which dominates the skyline on the north side of the valley.  Interestingly enough, the 3RR historical maker for this mountain is located several miles back just south of the junction between R-1 and R-10.



In the last part of this post, we'll take a look at the glacier that gives the valley its name, and reach the end of the road.

See you in a bit.


David

471958
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Silur

Dear David ...
I like Your Great Theme 3RR from Stex to SC DEV - this is a real GREAT THREAD - YOU give me One Way Rail Roads and many others interesting themes and things ...  Thank YOU very much ... This is my SC4 Bible ...
Sometimes years ago I lived in Soviet Siberia - before 1988 - this is a land like ALASKA with a great October snows, but, sometimes without crazy winds ...
 

Battlecat

Neat update!  Great collection of photos there, it really helps create a visual of a tiny town!  Looking forward to seeing what else you've got coming!

ecoba

Oh, Twin Glacier township just gets nicer and nicer. That is an interesting description of the river, another thing I've learned here at 3RR. See my prior post for a tiny bit of elaboration. I had always wondered why the rivers were so windy.

The rivers down south have a great variety in banks too, we have some marshy areas, and some almost park-like river banks all across our city here, we even have a large, approx. 8 mile park that runs along our rivers. Yet, south of town, there are rocky, almost cliff-like banks, quite close to marshy banks.

Well, David don't rush yourself to give us updates, update on your own time, we're okay.

Ethan

metarvo

#9116
This alone proves that the road less traveled is sometimes more enjoyable than the interstate built to bypass it.  It's true that the local road may be longer and slower, but views like the ones along Rt. 1 make the extra time worth the while.  I'm looking forward to more, David.  :)
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

dedgren

#9117


n.b.: Part 1 of this post, which is broken into several pieces due to the size of the pics involved, is here [linkie].  Part 2 is here [linkie].The parts are intended to be read in order.

Having passed the viewpoint for Mount Gaston, we reach the last part of our drive up Twin Glacier Valley.  Here's our map, keyed to the photos, one final time. 



Regional Route 1 continues almost directly west at this point, as we near the Minnesota border.  The farms that dotted the lower valley have been left behind, replaced by a dense oak, elm, hickory and cottonwood forest on the valley's floor, and old growth pine and spruce on the slopes on either side.  The broad curves of the Leaf River are occasionally visible through the trees to the south.

A half a mile/.4 kilometers down R-1, we reach the junction with the Valley Regional Park access road into the Twin Glacier area.



We will be taking a tour of the park in some detail in a future post, but for now we'll simply turn left, cross the bridge over the Leaf, pay the entrance charge, and drive to the parking area at the end of the road, where we'll stop and follow the path up to the glacier that gives the valley its name.



Twin Glacier is an anomoly, in that it is the easternmost glacier along the border between the United States and Canada, and by all rights should not exist, as the elevation here is several thousand feet lower than the glaciers in the Glacier and Waterton International Peace Parks on the 49th parallel almost 1,000 miles/1,600 kilometers to the west.  Extremely heavy winter snows in the area, coupled with a virtually perfectly oriented location that gets almost no direct sun have left this remnant glacier for us to see.



Twin Glacier descends from a permanent icefield between Mt. Hunter and Green Mountain, and lies entirely within Three Rivers Region.  Its twin arm, being more exposed to summer sunlight, has all but disappeared, and the glacier itself has receded almost a full mile/1.6 kilometers, since the 1800s.  It is estimated that, at the current rate the glacier is receding and barring any major climate change, Twin Glacier will entirely disappear by the year 2080.



As we approach the glacier on the footpath, we can see that only a small tongue of ice reaches the side valley floor.



While climbing on the glacier itself is very dangerous and strictly forbidden by park rules, you can get right up the edge of the cliff on it's north side to look into the spooky blue glow of its ice.



Back to the car, we exit the park, return to R-1 and head the last mile of the road to the west.  The road curves to the south then sharply back to the west and crosses the Leaf River on a historic concrete arch bridge built in the 1930s.  This bridge is also on the 3RR Register of Historic Places, and we'll return to it and the surrounding area, which is a second unit of the Valley Regional Park, in a later post.



Route 1 ends in a small parking area about 500 feet/160 meters from Moraine Falls.  Here, the Leaf flows out of its headwaters in the upper valley, which is located mostly in Minnesota, over a moraine left by the giant glacier, now long gone, that created Twin Glacier valley itself.  A well-tended trail leads down to the falls, which are one of the scenic highlights of today's trip.



* * *

So, we've reached our destination.  The next few posts here will take us through the steps of detailing the quads involved to match the description you've just read.  I'd like to have a volunteer step forward to work with me on this.  I'll look back in this evening and, if there's more than one of you who'd like to be an impromptu collaborator, I'll draw straws or something.

Later.


David

472225
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Tomas Neto

Wow David..., fantastic!!!  :thumbsup:

dedgren

We've completed our drive up Twin Glacier Valley.



Check out part 3 here [linkie].

More... much more... coming shortly.


David

472741
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren