Navigational headwaters of the Mississippi River, Grand Rapids (pop. 7,764) is a small Frank Capra–esque kind of place, known for its four large in-town lakes (there are over 1,000 in this part of the state) and a great bridge over the river. The town—which is proud of its recent rating as the “47th Best Small Town in America”—can be a bit confusing in its layout, but its compact size makes sightseeing manageable.
The city sits along the western edge of the famed Mesabi Iron Range and includes viewing sites at a handful of open pit mines. The iron mines are a thing of the past, but Grand Rapids is still a major lumber town, and you can tour the impossible-to-miss Blandin Paper Mill (free; 218/327-6302). One of the world’s largest paper producers, Blandin owns most of the surrounding forests and turns the trees into the stock onto which magazines like Time and Sports Illustrated are printed.
Three miles southwest of Grand Rapids, well-signed along the Great River Road and equidistant via US-169 or US-2, the fine Forest History Center (daily in summer, weekends only rest of the year; $6; 218/327-4482) is a living-history replica of a 19th-century logging camp, complete with nature trails through the surrounding woods and energetic lumberjacks rolling logs and telling tall tales.
In the center of town, the Itasca Heritage and Arts Center ($4; 218/327-1843) is housed in a squat, three-story Victorian Romanesque-style grade-school building at the crossroads of US-2 and US-169. Here you’ll find the county historical museum, with the usual “Main Street” of banks, stores, services, and pell-mell displays of farm equipment and logging gear.
Upstairs, however, is the real draw: the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Collection of Judy Garland Memorabilia,” she of ruby-slipper fame having been born in Grand Rapids on June 10, 1922. Truly a cradle-to-grave biographical assembly, the collection displays everything from her first crib to photos of her early performances as part of the Gumm Sisters, a family vaudeville group, to fading images of the London house where she died of an overdose of sleeping pills on June 22, 1969, and a final shot of her tomb in Hartsdale, New York. There are posters from most of her movies, and a copy of her costume from The Wizard of Oz, complete with ruby slippers. In front of the building, right along US-2, is a miniature “Yellow Brick Road” dedicated by some of the surviving “munchkins” who worked on the picture.
And if that’s not enough, you can visit the house where she was born, which has been moved to a site south of downtown and restored as the Judy Garland Museum ($6; 218/327-9276), 2727 S. US-169.
The Grand Rapids visitors center (800/355-9740) is downtown at N.W. 3rd Street in the circa-1898 Great Northern Railroad depot.
