his Minnesota story Mystery Cache

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Hidden : 10/13/2007
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:




MN 150

NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES



I'd like to share a rambling story about a man I knew my whole life. Kind of like Forrest Gump, my uncle, Sven Carlson, was an accidental witness to many of the people and things that have made Minnesota what it is. His Minnesota story as presented here is by no means complete, he had a whole lot to say about a whole lot of things. What I present here will just give you a sense of the man. Sven was a strapping Norwegian with a love of the land and the outdoors. I loved listening to the tales of his exploits –but never knew which were based in fact and which were made out of whole cloth. Sven was proud of being a Minnesotan and even claimed that he had enjoyed the celebration when Minnesota became a state in 1858. OK, I eventually figured out that even old Sven couldn’t have been around THAT long. Still, some of the things he talked of could certainly have happened.

Sven claimed to have been fishing buddies with Verne Gagne, the Minnesota wrestler who excelled as an amateur before turning professional in 1949. That was a dozen years before the arrival of major league sports into the area. Sure, we had had the world champion Lakers basketball franchise, and Sven said he helped Mikan develop his hook shot, but the Lakers deserted us, so Sven said that pro sports came in 1961. Anyway, like I said, Sven would go out fishing with his wrestling buddies and even Ron and Al Lindner (some pretty famous fishermen from these parts). The brothers had their way of doing things (Lindy rigs and such), but Sven stuck to using grasshoppers on simple hooks to nail the lunkers he spoke of. I guess Sven had been taught to fish by his grandpa who settled the region along with thousands of other Norwegians and Swedes. These were the people that Vilhelm Moberg and Ole E. Rolvaag paid homage to. A hearty people, with a strong fishing and farming background, real Giants in the Earth. This fishing tradition really fit well living in Minnesota. Though fishing was always one of Sven’s greatest loves he was also, to hear him tell it, quite a golfer. I remember him telling of a tournament he played, sometime in the 1940’s I think, near Pipestone in which he was paired with the great Patty Berg. Evidently “Dynamite” was having some trouble with her short game and Sven was able to correct her swing. I guess they really hit it off and lingered for awhile at the 19th hole after completing the course. Well, when Sven told me about this meeting with “Dynamite”, he pulled me in real close. “Paklid”, he said, “Dynamite and I got to talking and we made a pact right then and there that if anybody ever invented satellites, devised a global positioning system using satellites, developed and distributed accurate and portable hand held satellite receivers to be expertly operated by outstanding citizens with unusual names, which ever one of us was around if that ever happened would hide a container for those people to find”.

Uncle Sven recently passed. His brother (my other uncle) Ole and Ole’s wife Lena just came by my house to give me some of Sven’s mementos. One thing in the pile was an envelope addressed to me. Inside the envelope was a single slip of paper on which was written, “I hid something for you”.

I don’t know where to begin to look. But I do know, that in the nearly 150 years that Minnesota has been a state, there haven’t been many characters like my uncle Sven. I’ve shared some of his Minnesota story with you in the hope you’ll help me find what he hid.


Sorry, two of the correct guesses are mine. I wish I had enough
confidence in my ability to use geochecker to avoid test guesses.

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