So on Thursday I made a trip to the library to try to find a book related to the Paulson Mine. Through my communications with Clark in North Dakota, we were able to unravel a good part of the life of John Paulson. Apparently he had a brother, Ole, who wrote part of his life’s experiences in a book titled, “Memoirs: Reminiscences of a Pioneer Pastor in America, 1850-1885.” According to Clark there are some references to his brother John which I am really eager to read about. Our communications also helped us find two photos of Paulson; one from his Civil War days as a Private in the 9^th Minnesota Infantry and another as an older man returning to Willmar, MN. Hopefully I can get the book!

Now that I have more time for railway matters, one of my goals is to resume posting videos from my archives. I’ve already uploaded 3 of these videos; Gunflint Railway, Gunflint Mines and the Gunflint & Lake Superior Railroad. I still have a whole bunch of clips from my 1997 North-Gunflint Lake trip and 1998 field work to sort through. Makes for a great trip down memory lane! First however I have to edit the 2011 football highlight video, which will take a bit of time.

In the meantime I had a chance to put together an outline for the article I’m planning to write with Lee Johnson. I think the hardest part will be saying everything in 2500 words. Brevity isn’t always the easiest thing to adhere to when you’re writing about 12 years of railway history. In my planned book this will take up five chapters, but I only have eight pages to work with! I just have to remind myself that this is just an article and not the real thing. With any luck I’ll get a chance to start writing this week.

On another note, plans for our school’s Vimy Ridge trip are coming together. I will be leading a group of 6 students on an eight day trip to Europe over Easter in junction with our sister school St. Ignatius. I’m pretty pumped for this trip as we get to visit Paris, Dieppe, Juno Beach, the Somme, Ypres and of course Vimy Ridge on the 95th anniversary of the battle. These places are on my bucket list; I’m sure my wife is happy that I’ll be taking care of this now and not dragging her along when we retire! I will post more details as we get closer to our travel date.