A yearly field trip my students and I would take each spring was to Lindbergh State Park in Little Falls (Minnesota) to tour Charles Lindbergh's childhood home. Dick had never been there, so I suggested that it would be a perfect little outing for this afternoon… until we remembered that all state-run operations are shut down until the governor and the legislature come to a budget agreement. Rapidly switching gears, we jumped on our four-wheelers and headed down a trail on our property… and discovered a train wreck!
One hundred twenty-one coal-loaded cars, each carrying 116 tons of coal, were traveling from Montana to Superior Wisconsin. Eighteen of them derailed within sight of our property.
Such a mangled mess, but the conductor and engineer were not injured. Our day ended eventful afterall.
Whiteley Creek Homestead 
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