Butch Halterman
Minnesota River Expedition Founder & CURE Board Member

On June 4, 5, 6  2004, thirteen adventurous Dawson – Boyd 9^th 10^th and 11^th grade students took part in the Fourth Annual Lac qui Parle River Exploration organized and offered by the Dawson-Boyd schools and its science department. The Exploration consisted of a one day class on: water safety, minimum impact camping and canoeing skills. We discussed and had an opportunity to examine water quality testing equipment.

The students signed up for one of four river exploration projects: insect survey, fish survey, bird survey or photography group, to be completed on the river trip.

Saturday morning the hardy crew left Dawson from the dam and proceeded to the Lac qui Parle county park, stopping at each bridge to regroup. Along with the students were four brave river guides: Toby Kemen, Tony Menden, Kim Olson and Nicole Swenson, all teachers at Dawson – Boyd. The day was perfect.

The students experienced the river and all it had to offer, even the unexpected. The last 45 minutes of day one, the sky opened up and we had a down pour of nearly an inch of rain fall on us.

During the storm the guides witnessed the birth of a local rancher’s calf and had to take measures to save the newborn by hiking to the nearby farm and informing the owner that the cow had abandoned the calf during the storm. We arrived at our campsite to find much of our gear soaked. We quickly took measures to "dry out" and prepared camp. Mrs. Lauri and Jenna Wyum joined the group and prepared a supper of hamburgers, hotdogs, chips and bean hot dish for the explorers.

After the supper we discussed the day, made smors and told stories around the campfire. Some of the members continued their fishing survey and were quite successful with a catch of some nice sized catfish, a small walleye and bass. They cleaned the fish and cooked them in the campfire for all to sample, it was quite good. Dan Lonnquist was notably the most able fisherman.

Sunday we shuttled our cars to the Lac qui Parle state park canoe landing and continued our trip down the river. The day was warmer but very nice for canoeing.

We had now picked up two new canoeists, Jason Schueller and Ben Kruckman, both experienced canoeist from previous trips. We made the trip in about four hours. The Explorers had now honed their canoe skills and had no problem negotiating the "tough" spots along the river. We viewed a variety of bird and wild life including ducks and a bald eagle. The river water was pretty clear and the explorers could often see fish below their canoes, a beaver was also spotted.

All in all, the trip was a great success. Besides a raging down pour, some wet equipment and a few cuts, scrapes and bruises we all felt pretty accomplished in what we had done. The river was as beautiful as it ever has been and hopefully will stay that way for many future exploration groups to come.

We need to give a special thanks to the Lac qui Parle Lake Association for the funds used to purchase the water testing equipment and the canoes for the school. Thanks are also due for the donations of their time and the commitment by the river guides: Tony Menden, Toby Keman, Kim Olson, and Nicole Swenson, who without their help, the trip would not have happened.

The river is a beautiful resource for all to enjoy, remember what we have and please take care to preserve it.

Tribune photo (above) by Tom Cherveny Derek Anderson, front, and Zack Suchanek are two of nine high school students from Montevideo who are paddling down the Minnesota River, camping and traveling like voyageurs on a Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness adventure. They are part of the fifth annual Minnesota River expedition led by instructors Richard ‘Butch’ Halterman and Tim Kolhei.