Minnesota

Facing a Minnesota rite of passage: a ropes course

Published

2 years ago

May 6, 2024

Facing a Minnesota rite of passage: a ropes course

FINLAND, MINN. – My 10-year-old daughter was stuck on a tower 30 feet in the air, crying and shaking. She had already conquered a series of ropes course obstacles, growing shakier and weepier with each skootch across thin wires and tiptoe over rounded logs.

The finale, the zipline, had been the carrot coaxing her. She imagined a leap and a “Wheeee!” into the dark, chilly night. This vision changed into a fear once she got close.

My daughter could either fling her body into the void or she could turn around and redo the ropes course backward, exiting at the point of entry. There was no ladder, no tele-transporter, no do-over for the decisions that brought her to this point. She was here, helmeted and fully harnessed, and desperate for a third option.

And here I was, also helmeted and fully harnessed, with a front-row seat for this moment. It was the reason I signed up to chaperone — but now I wasn’t sure what she needed in this moment, or even if I had the ability to help her.

Wolf Ridge is one of a handful of environmental learning centers in Minnesota. In its more than 50-year history, it has seen 750,000 visitors come through the outdoor school — students, teachers, chaperones there for hands-on learning in outdoor spaces from on-site naturalists, according to executive director Peter Smerud. The 2,000-acre property near Silver Bay includes classrooms, dormitories, a cafeteria, but also hiking trails, scenic vistas, geocaching sites and beaver-gnawed trees.

You might have a chance encounter with a hawk named Ruby and her friendly minder, with his pocketful of rat meat.

Students from Duluth are among the busloads from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and North Dakota who make this trek. At my daughter’s elementary school, the three-day trip is a rite of passage for the fourth-graders.

Fourth-grade teacher Troy Erie, of Lowell Elementary School in Duluth has been organizing the Wolf Ridge experience for a decade, long enough to see three of his own kids go through it. He credits the center with exposing kids to the experiences they can have in nature — and potentially opening the door to a new lifelong habit.

My daughter’s classmates from Lowell, a crew of 100-plus 9- and 10-year-olds, were divided into groups, each with a schedule that included classes in geology, Lake Superior, art and habitats, that started in classrooms and then segued to hours spent outside.

But it was the kids headed to or from the ropes courses that had a certain sheen.

This is where the stories were made — and everyone had one, whether they opted out of the course and stayed landlocked or zipped through it with ease.

One kid purposefully dangled from a harness, but then struggled to get back on the wire. Then she panicked.

“I want to go home,” she told friends gathered 30 feet below. An instructor talked her back onto the ropes and back to land. Another child, who claimed a fear of heights, shouted deathbed confessionals while rushing through the course, which she finished with no problem.

The cafeteria buzzed on the second day with the story of a student who was still out there, late for nachos. Stuck, his friends confirmed, completely disinterested in exiting via the zipline. Eventually the young adventurer turned around and recrossed the entire course. Another triumph!

He walked to the cafeteria and received a hero’s welcome from classmates.

Each of these scenarios has a lesson attached, according to Smerud. Kids might work through a fear in a dangerous-seeming safe space. The ones who opt out are standing strong in the face of peer pressure and instead doing what feels right in their own bodies.

“It’s easy to celebrate all the people who go through,” Smerud said. “How much strength does it take to say no?”

My daughter, too, would make her own story. She’s a real will-she-or-won’t-she in scenarios like this. She loves climbing trees, but won’t learn to ride a bike. She’s selective at amusement parks. Peer pressure holds no sway and she shrugs at regrets.

On this day, though, she was heady with a morning victory on the climbing wall.

She was the last student on the ropes course. Most of the kids had gone back to the dorms for snack time. She started the course easily, but stalled at the midpoint. She cried as she crossed a wire sideways — unwilling to look forward, backward or down. Safely on the platform, she panicked. The thought of the zipline brought short breaths and messy tears.

I told her to take deep breaths, my go-to parenting advice after “drink more water.” I told her the equipment was safe, made of airplane-grade material and able to tow semitrucks. But short of wrapping her in a bear hug and catapulting us from the perch, there was nothing I could do. She had to want to do it — or at least have that outcome outweigh starting a new life 30 feet above the ground.

Through the trees we heard another team counting backward, encouraging a kid on the other ropes course. A countdown! The idea took hold. My daughter’s physical response was sudden.

She straightened. She emitted a powerful growl of a voice. “3, 2, 1,” she roared, then leaned backward into her harness, dropped from the tower and zipped away into the cold, dark night.

Who was that? I wondered, breathless.

Then I burst into tears.

I inhaled deeply and followed her lead — toward my own rite of passage.

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Minnesota

2 woman killed in Christmas Eve wreck in SW Minnesota

Published

10 hours ago

December 25, 2025

Press Room

2 woman killed in Christmas Eve wreck in SW Minnesota

(FOX 9) – Two women are dead after a crash involving a minivan and a semi-truck in southwest Minnesota on Christmas Eve.

Deadly Pipestone County crash

What we know:

Minnesota State Patrol responded around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday to a crash along Highway 75 at 21st Street in Elmer Township in Pipestone County. The intersection is about eight miles east of the South Dakota border and 30 miles northeast of Sioux Falls. Google Maps images show a rural intersection surrounded by farmland with a power substation on the northwest corner. There are stop signs located on 21st Street.

According to an incident report from state patrol, the semi involved was headed northbound on Highway 75 when it collided with the minivan, which was traveling westbound on 21st Street.

Local perspective:

Troopers say both the driver of the minivan, 71-year-old Patricia Ann Struiksma, and a passenger, 69-year-old Donna Jean Vanthof, were killed in the crash.

The driver of the semi was not hurt.

What we don’t know:

Further details about the circumstances leading up to the crash were not disclosed. However, troopers said alcohol was not believed to be a factor in the crash. Investigators also noted that road conditions were wet at the time of the collision.

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Central Minnesota man honors

Published

22 hours ago

December 25, 2025

Press Room

On Dec. 9, 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuted on CBS, and it became an instant classic. Lee Jenkins’ home is proof that the show is still a hit six decades later.

“It’s just something about these people,” Jenkins said. “Talking about health, talking about wealth, talking about friendship and everything.”

A long-time Staples, Minnesota, businessman, Jenkins didn’t have any woodworking skills when he retired.

But in 2017, at the age of 74, he decided to pick up a jigsaw and build something that made him happy. Snoopy came to mind, and after he created Charlie Brown’s beloved beagle, he realized he was hooked.

“It just evolved from that to more characters every year until this year,” Jenkins said. “There are 18 in the main gang and Marcie is number 11.”

Each of his creations is made out of particleboard. Jenkins first sketches an image and then goes to work.

“I’m not an artist, this is all freehand out of here,” Jenkins said.

From the sketching to the cutting to the sanding to the painting, it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 hours for Jenkins to build one character.

“Probably the hardest one I had to make was Pig-Pen,” Jenkins said.

He now has enough for an entire holiday scene, complete with Charlie Brown’s scrawny tree just like in the show.

There’s Linus with his blanket, Schroeder with his piano and Charlie right in the middle of it all.

“His famous saying was ‘Good Grief,’” said Jenkins. “And it is fun. It really is neat for the family, and that’s what I’ve got here is a family.”

Jennifer Krippner was as surprised as anyone when her dad began this holiday hobby in his mid-70s, but she believes this isn’t just a tribute to Peanuts creator and St. Paul native Charles Schulz.

“I think what it says to a lot of us is passion, creativity, doesn’t retire,” Krippner said.

She believes her dad is honoring a more innocent time. Back when a phrase like “good grief” meant good things.

“It’s a classic show and the Peanuts, I don’t think, are just characters. They are memories for us, and I think that brings back a lot of nostalgia,” Krippner said.

Each of Jenkins’ Peanuts creations is about 3 feet high and they are on display in front of his house, four miles north of Staples. He typically builds one or two each holiday season.

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Minnesota officials warn federal agents that swapping license plates ‘will not be tolerated’

Published

1 day ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

Minnesota officials warn federal agents that swapping license plates ‘will not be tolerated’

State officials sent a formal warning to the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday in response to reports of federal agents illegally meddling with Minnesota-issued license plates on unmarked vehicles.

The cease-and-desist letter from Driver and Vehicle Services Director Pong Xiong describes allegations of DHS agents swapping license plates between vehicles and placing identical license plates on two separate vehicles.

Video: ICE agents in Twin Cities stop US citizen, demand proof of citizenship

“The above-described conduct violates Minnesota law and will not be tolerated,” Xiong wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “To be clear, Minnesota law prohibits anyone, including the driver of an unmarked law enforcement vehicle, from displaying a Minnesota license plate other than the license plate assigned to that vehicle by DVS.”

If federal agents don’t abide by Minnesota law, DVS could reconsider federal agents’ access to Minnesota’s undercover license plate program.

“Historically, DHS has used this program to protect the anonymity of law enforcement personnel
performing sensitive work in Minnesota while adhering to state law and providing a mechanism for
accountability in the event an unmarked vehicle is misused,” Xiong wrote.

Further violations could result in DVS revoking their vehicle registrations and seizing their license plates, the DVS director warned.

Read the full letter from DVS below.

Gov. Tim Walz also addressed the alleged conduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during a news conference on Tuesday.

“These guys are doing what criminals do: They’re putting license plates on vehicles they’re not registered to. They’re renting vehicles and putting on fake plates,” Walz said, adding that such a practice makes it more difficult for local and state law enforcement to know whether a vehicle is involved in official duties.

‘It’s putting people at risk’: Walz, Twin Cities leaders denounce ICE immigration operations

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to DHS and ICE for comment and is awaiting a response.

This isn’t the first time federal immigration agents have gotten in hot water with state officials over alleged license plate violations.

Earlier this month, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that his office had revoked a rental car’s license plate when investigators found ICE agents swapped its plates. He also issued a warning to all rental car companies that they can be held liable if federal agents are caught tampering with the license plates assigned to their vehicles.

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