Park Rapids, Minnesota
August 30, 2024
Funkley
Funkley is a city in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 18 at the 2020 census, making the city the second-least populous incorporated place in Minnesota. It shared that distinction with Tenney until the latter dissolved in 2011.
Funkley was incorporated in 1904 at the site of a junction along the Minnesota and International Railway. The name comes from Henry Funkley, a county attorney.
Funkley's Post Office was established in 1903 and remained in operation until 1967. Now Funkley is served by the Blackduck Post Office, which is approximately 7 miles southwest of the town.
8/29 10AM Update: just drove the approximately 50 miles from Big Falls to Blackduck. Wow — what a lonely drive on US 71. Very gray morning with rain and thunderstorms. Might have seen 30 vehicles — mostly logging trucks although I did see three FedEx trucks. Wonder where they are based — must be some long drives! The landscape is flat with short evergreens. I found myself thinking how hard and lonely it must be to live in this area, especially in the winter time. And if you are a teenager? I doubt the schools — wherever they are — are good and what do you do in your free time?
I found this article informative:
Minnesotans are drinking themselves to death at an unprecedented rate
BY: CHRISTOPHER INGRAHAM - SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 8:31 AM
More than 1,100 Minnesotans died due to excessive drinking in 2021, according to data recently released by the CDC. The number is a record high for the state, representing a doubling of the mortality rate since 2014 and a continuation of a pandemic-era spike in alcohol deaths.
Last year more Minnesotans died of alcohol-induced causes than to homicide and suicide combined. The 1,162 alcohol deaths in the latest CDC data would make drinking the 9th-leading cause of death in the state in 2021, more than double the number of traffic fatalities. The alcohol figure is an extremely conservative estimate that doesn’t factor in drunk driving and other deaths indirectly caused by alcohol.
Of note, however, one category of the so-called “deaths of despair” is increasing even more rapidly in Minnesota: last year 1,498 Minnesotans died due to drug overdose, another record high.
While Minnesota’s numbers largely mirror national trends, separate data show the state has some of the country’s highest rates of binge drinking and other types of alcohol use. The surge in alcohol-driven death, here as well as nationwide, has roots stretching back much farther than 2020, with data showing a steady increase for over a decade.
These alcohol-induced fatalities represent acute and chronic conditions that are 100% attributable to drinking. They include alcohol overdose and poisoning, as well as long-simmering conditions like alcohol-induced liver disease, alcoholic psychosis, and damage to other organ systems caused by alcohol.
The numbers notably do not include what the CDC considers “indirect” lethal consequences of alcohol abuse, like drunk driving, homicide, accidents and other actions and medical conditions in which alcohol is a contributor but not the immediate cause of death. Prior work by the CDC suggests those cases would roughly double or triple the total annual tally.
Separate federal data shows that Minnesotans are more likely to be frequent drinkers than people in most other states. In 2019 and 2020, 57% of Minnesotans age 12 and over reported drinking monthly or more, the sixth highest rate in the nation.
The state ranked similarly high on a measure of monthly binge drinking, defined as five or more drinks on the same occasion for men and four drinks for women. That level of drinking is closely linked to alcohol-driven health problems that can turn fatal later in life, according to the CDC.
Statewide, the 1,162 alcohol-induced deaths worked out to a mortality rate of 20.5 per 100,000. Regional differences abound, however. The rate in the Duluth metro area was nearly double the statewide average, at 38 deaths per 100,000. The rate in small towns and rural areas stood at around 22 per 100,000, while the lowest rate was seen in the Twin Cities suburbs at 17.4. The alcohol death rate in the Twin Cities proper was close to the statewide average.
Minnesota’s alcohol mortality rate placed it at 15th in the nation in 2021. Neighbors North Dakota and South Dakota had higher death rates, placing them in the top 10 nationwide, while Wisconsin and Iowa had slightly lower rates.
The numbers were worst in New Mexico, with a rate more than double Minnesota’s. New York, New Jersey and Hawaii had the lowest rates of alcohol-induced death, at roughly half of Minnesota’s.
After adjusting for age, the alcoholic death rate for Minnesota men (25.3) is more than twice as high as the rate among women (11.5). Alcohol-driven deaths increase with age and peak among people in their 50s and early 60s — a reflection of the chronic nature of the medical conditions driving those deaths. By contrast, much of the indirect alcohol-driven mortality not figured into these numbers — particularly drunk driving deaths — peak among people in their 20s and 30s.
But the biggest death disparities, by far, are between members of different racial groups. In 2021 Minnesotans of Asian descent had the lowest rate (7.6 per 100,000) of alcohol-driven mortality. Black (14.0) and white (17.8) Minnesotans had the next-highest rates. But the rate among indigenous Minnesotans, by contrast, was a staggering 120.5 — 7 times higher than whites, and 16 times higher than Asians.
Indigenous peoples have long been stereotyped as predisposed toward alcohol abuse. But as journalist Ted Alcorn reports as part of a lengthy series on New Mexico’s alcohol crisis, there’s no good evidence that Native Americans are genetically predisposed toward alcohol abuse. Studies have found that they’re more likely to abstain from alcohol than whites, and that the two groups have similar rates of binge and heavy drinking. Many researchers now suspect that social factors — like poverty and a lack of access to quality health care — drive much of the Indigenous alcohol mortality rate.
Overall, alcohol is an increasingly important and largely overlooked driver of early death in Minnesota.
Blackduck
Blackduck is a city in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 845 as of the 2020 census. It is 24 miles northeast of Bemidji. Motto: "A Great Place For Families"
The village of Blackduck was organized on October 19, 1900, and the city was incorporated on December 21, 1900. The first settlers came from Crookston, Minnesota. The town was founded because of the area's logging potential. The Laurentian Divide is near the area, and provides good drainage, resulting in good logging because the land is not wet. The community was named for Blackduck Lake.
Blackduck has one public school, which houses Blackduck Elementary School and Blackduck High School.
Tenstrike
Tenstrike is a city in Beltrami County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 201 at the 2010 census. It is 21 miles northeast of Bemidji. A post office called Tenstrike has been in operation since 1899. Tenstrike was a railroad village on the line between Port Hope and Taylor townships, was platted and named by Almon A. White of St. Paul, alluding to the completely successful bowling which with the first ball knocks down all the ten pins.
Bemidji
Bemidji (/bəˈmɪdʒiː/ bə-MIJ-ee) is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2022 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,946, making it the largest commercial center between Grand Forks, North Dakota and Duluth.
Motto: "The First City on the Mississippi"
As a central city for three Indian reservations, Bemidji is the site of many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service. Near Bemidji are the Red Lake Indian Reservation, White Earth Indian Reservation, and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River; it is nicknamed "The First City on the Mississippi". Bemidji is also the self-proclaimed "curling capital" of the U.S. and the alleged birthplace of legendary Paul Bunyan.
Art Lee created the story that the folkloric figure Paul Bunyan came from the Northwoods. Tales about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox led to public sculptures of them in the 1930s.[citation needed] According to Discover America, the Paul and Babe statues are "the second most photographed statues in America," surpassed only by Mount Rushmore.[14] The Rotarians of Bemidji commissioned the statue of Paul Bunyan during the Great Depression as a tourist attraction. It was unveiled on January 15, 1937, to kick off a Winter Carnival that drew more than 10,000 visitors.
Today Bemidji is an important educational, governmental, trade and medical center for north central Minnesota. The wood industry is still a significant part of the local economy, with Georgia-Pacific, Potlatch, and Northwood Panelboard all having waferboard plants in the local area. They use wood species that were once classified as waste trees.
Etymology
According to Minnesota Geographic Names, its name derives from the Ojibwe Buh-mid-ji-ga-maug (Double-Vowel orthography: bemijigamaag), meaning "a lake with crossing waters". This name stems from the way that the Mississippi River flows directly through the Lake. Shay-now-ish-kung, an Ojibwe leader, moved to the area in 1882 and became the first permanent settler of Bemidji. He informed early white settlers of the name of the lake, but they misunderstood him to mean that bemidji was his own name. Consequently, he was known to them as Chief Bemidji.
On occasion, in Ojibwe, Bemidji is called Wabigamaang ("at the lake channel/narrows"), because part of the city is situated on the Lakes Bemidji/Irving narrows, on the south end of Lake Bemidji, and extends to the eastern shore of Lake Irving.
Climate
Bemidji has a hemiboreal humid continental climate, Dfb in the Köppen climate classification: short, warm summers, and long, severe winters. The average mean annual temperature in Bemidji is 38.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldest month is January with an average daily high of 16 degrees and an average daily low of −5 degrees. The warmest month is July with an average daily high of 77 degrees and an average daily low of 57 degrees. The average annual humidity is 47%. The average annual snowfall is 46.7 inches and the average annual rainfall is 26.6 inches.
The average day Lake Bemidji freezes over is November 26 and the average day the ice goes off the lake is April 26.
Annual snowfall in the Bemidji Area increased 5% in the 21st century vs. the 1930–1999 period, according to the National Weather Service.
Bemidji State University (BSU) is a public university in Bemidji, Minnesota, United States. Founded as a preparatory institution for teachers in 1919, it provides higher education to north-central Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. It has an enrollment of approximately 6,400 students.
The city is well-known to hockey fans. As a Division II team, Bemidji State (the Beavers) was a hockey dynasty in the 1980s and '90s. Bemidji State was in the title game eight straight years, winning five titles. It became a Division I team in 1999, and has not won any Division I titles.
The city is also familiar to curling fans. Both men's and women's rinks from the Bemidji Curling Club won the right to represent the United States in the 2005 World Curling Championship and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Pete Fenson, the skip of the U.S. curling team that took the bronze medal at the 2006 Olympics, is a native of Bemidji, as is Natalie Nicholson, who was the lead for the United States women's team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
A city referendum for a Bemidji Regional Events Center passed by a slim majority of 43 votes out of 4,583 cast in November 2006. Opening in 2010, the center was renamed the Sanford Center and serves as home to the Bemidji State University hockey team. The men's and women's hockey teams are both members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. From 2014 to 2015, the Sanford Center was the home of the city's first-ever professional sports team, the Bemidji Axemen of the Indoor Football League.
From January 16 to January 19, 2019, Bemidji hosted Hockey Day Minnesota, a three-day event aired on Fox Sports. The Bemidji High School and Bemidji State University boys and girls hockey teams both played on outdoor rinks outside of the Sanford Center. The Minnesota Wild team also played on the outdoor rinks.
Park Rapids
Park Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Hubbard County, Minnesota, United States. It is near Itasca State Park, the source of the Mississippi River, as well as the beginning of the Heartland State Trail. The city was founded in 1890 near the Fish Hook River rapids and is along U.S. Highway 71 and Minnesota State Highway 34. The population was 4,142 at the 2020 census.
Park Rapids became a city in 1882, and was named by Frank C. Rice after the park groves and prairies beside the Fish Hook River rapids. These rapids have since been dammed.
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