A Weekend in Moose Lake

July 2008

It’s 1:45PM. It’s Saturday. It’s raining, hard. The crowd is three deep at the curb. I’m guessing about 1600 people. A truck is at the end of the block. The big moment will soon be here.

You gotta love small town festivals. Moose Lake, Minnesota is located on Interstate 35, about 100 miles north of White Bear Lake. The population is 1687 or 2339, depending on which sign you believe. Its town festival is Agate Days, held during the third weekend in July. It is the talk of the cafes and coffee shops. It’s the biggest weekend of the year!

It’s 1:55PM. The truck is full of gravel. The load has been salted with Lake Superior agates, $400 worth of quarters, and tokens good for various cash or merchandise prizes. The driver is ready. Small children clutching parent’s hands and empty ice cream buckets are dripping wet, but smiling in anticipation behind the safety ropes.

The festival celebrates the Lake Superior Agate, Minnesota’s official state gem. This year there were five events; a pancake breakfast put on by the Kiwanis Club, A steak fry at the firehouse, an arts and craft show in the park, a gem and mineral show at the high school and the Agate Stampede. The Agate Stampede has been a fixture of Agate Days for 39 years. People line up early to get a good spot. At 2:00PM a truck will drive 500’ down Elm Street, dumping a thin layer of gravel, agates and quarters into the street. A cannon will be fired and everyone will dash into the street to search for goodies. It’s the biggest event of Agate Days!

It’s 1:59PM. People crane their necks to look for the truck. We’re standing about 300 feet from the start of the run. The truck is moving! As it moves past us we see there is… NO GRAVEL! The cannon is fired.

I don’t know the name of the truck driver, and that is probably a good thing. His was the most important job of the year. He alone could bring joy to those wet children and adults who have been waiting for almost an hour. He alone controlled the outcome of the biggest and most important event of Moose Lake Agate Days. He alone forgot to latch the tail gate of the truck and immediately dumped the entire load in a 20 foot long pile. It’s the biggest ….well you get the idea.

It’s 2:03PM. We have run to the end of the block, but the people who were near the pile have surrounded it and the rest of us are looking at their wet backsides as they pick out the prizes. People are pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of the treasure. Parents are pulling their kids away from the mayhem. Ice cream buckets hold only rain and a few tears.

But all was not lost. You could go to the Carleton County gravel pit and search for agates in the rain. We did. You could go back to the gem show for another look. You could head over to the fire house for a steak dinner at 5:00 PM. You could go to Moose Lake State Park and take a look at the Agate and Geological Center, a fine facility. And you could sit around the campfire that evening and contemplate what they will be talking about in those cafes and coffee shops for the next 39 years.