Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Incredible-Lake Pepin's Formation: ABC Wednesday "I"



Yesterday I posted photos of a beautiful Marina on Lake Pepin (if you missed it, take a look). It's formation is pretty interesting. "Lake Pepin is a naturally occurring lake, and the widest naturally occurring part of the Mississippi River, located approximately 60 miles downstream from Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is a widening of the river on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. The formation of the lake was caused by the backup of water behind the sedimentary deposits of the Chippewa River's delta. It has a surface area of about 40 square miles (100 km2) and an average depth of 18 feet (5.5 m), which makes it the largest Lake on the entire Mississippi River."  Credit: Wiki

Lake City is located across the lake from here on the Minnesota side.  It's claim to fame is the invention of water skis and skiing:

 "Ralph Wilford Samuelson (July 3, 1904–August 28, 1977) was the inventor of water skiing, which he first performed in the summer of 1922 in Lake City, Minnesota, just before his 19th birthday. Samuelson was already skilled at aquaplaning—standing on a board while being pulled by a powerboat—but he hoped to create something like snow skiing on the water....Samuelson's early attempts included using staves from wooden barrels and snow skis before he created new skis made of pine boards 8 feet long and 9 inches wide (240 × 23 cm). He bent up the front tips after softening the wood by boiling them in his mother's copper kettle. His brother Ben operated the powerboat that pulled Ralph along, towed by a rope. Later on, he would ski behind an airplane. Gaining confidence on the water, he began jumping wakes, but broke the original skis (the remains of which were believed to be found on a beach on Pepin) in one landing. His slightly-modified second pair still exists; today they are at the Lake City Chamber of Commerce, in Lake City, Minnesota." Credit: Wiki

To see more ABC posts from around the world, click here.

31 comments:

  1. Lovely composition and a great way to show this beautiful lake! Saludos de Mexico.

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  2. Thank you for the lovely compliment, Kate. Let me know if you ever decide to act on that impulse.

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  3. I had no idea that the great Mississippi had a natural lake like this. Interesting post.

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  4. You learn something new every day, well I would never have though of MN as the home of water skiing. Although I knew you had a lot of water in all those lakes! I am not sure there any lakes suitable for me to get any skiing photos for my Leeds daily photo must look into that. Paul

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  5. Anonymous7:56 AM

    I like your lake. I had no idea the Mississippi had a lake somewhere. I did know that Lake of the Woods was also surrounded by miles and miles of what used to be wilderness areas and lakes dotted the landscapes.

    All you need to do is go to

    www.firefox.com

    and download their browser. When it is on your machine, open it and use it to visit blogs or anywhere. It is much better and a lot faster than IE.

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  6. Very nice, I haven't been down that way in a long time.

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  7. As a teenager in St. Louis, I did a lot of sailing on Alton Lake, a wide spot of the Mississippi River above Alton Lock and Dam No. 26. It was a miserable place to sail compared to your lakes in Minnesota. It was a mile wide, but the barges came through several times an hour, creating wakes of 3 to 4 feet, and of course we had to stay far away from the barges.

    I know you would love Jarart's post of an old Corvette today on her Prescott Area Daily Photo.

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  8. I like very much the composition of this photo. And thank you for the info, I never heard about this lake.

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  9. I learn so many interesting things reading these blogs!! Lovely shot across the lake.

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  10. Great post for the I day, Kate! I, too, love your composition! And very interesting information, too, I didn't know of this lake either! Have a wonderful week!

    Sylvia

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  11. I guess I need to come see that again. I think I was only there once as a child, even though I grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River. I have to put that on my bucket list.

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  12. Fun story! I like this view on the lake.

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  13. I love this peek around the corner and through your own tree-framed window on this lake. Amazing how it was formed. Funny how when they tried to teach me to water ski they started me on two skis then graduated to one ski, the opposite of the inventor's process. Hope you went out for a boat ride!
    -Kim

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  14. Great shot of the lovely Lake Kate. Very interesting information about the lake formation and the invention of skis. I never thought about the beginnings before.

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  15. What a fascinating story. I've always loved watching water-skiers but had no idea where the sport started or when.

    "I"nteresting, "i"ntriguing "i"ntelligence, thank you for sharing it.

    Kay
    Alberta, Canada

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  16. Interesting about the lake and about Samuelson!

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  17. What an impressive lake

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  18. lovely lake,
    Thanks for sharing it, it opens one's mind.

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  19. This was news to me! Never knew who invented water-skiing!
    Thanks for sharing!
    Best wishes,
    Anna
    Anna's abcWed rnd 7 post-'I'

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  20. Impressive - I love the information - Samuelson sounds like an adventurous sort!

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  21. Never knew that about the Mississippi, nice viewpoint. I like stories of mad inventors, determination won in the end.

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  22. Looks like a nice place to explore.

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  23. incroyable!
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  24. I didn't know that about the Mississippi either. Nice I post for the day.

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  25. Great to know there are places like this on Earth so beautiful...

    ABC Wednesday here

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  26. How beautiful, and the stone wall just makes it a perfect picture.

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  27. I'll bet his mother wasn't too happy about using her copper kettle in that manner! Boys!
    Lovely lake...thanks for the info!

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  28. A very beautiful lake !

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  29. Bonjour dear friend,
    Great idea for this theme.This lake looks wonderful and I would love to visit there someday!
    Hugs
    Léia

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  30. Very nice capture, I like how it appears around the brickwork.

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  31. Enjoyable story today. Learned quite a bit. Daddy of waterskiing? Interesting.

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