I've had more than "a thousand welcomes" since moving to Minnesota just over a year ago now.
Things work in cycles for me and there always seems to be a connection or an eerie coincidence with everything I experience in life.
The latest is the start of my new job with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. On Thursday 2nd Jan 2025, a year since receiving my permanent resident Green card, I began working in a permanent position as Office and Administration Specialist in Mille Lacs Kathio State Park.
The park is the 4th largest in the State. Over 10,000 acres of pines and hardwood forests, lakes, river and wetlands. We have 2 campsites, 5 rustic cabins, remote backpack camp sites, equestrian camping, a fire tower, trail centre and an interpretive centre. Many trails to explore and our wildlife includes deer, black bear, wolves, and a variety of other animals and birds. In the summer we rent canoes and kayaks, and in the winter, we rent cross country skis and snowshoes.
The park is full of history, and it is recognised as a National Historic Landmark to commemorate the meeting of the French explorers and Dakota villagers in the 1600's. The park preserves habitation sites and mound groups, believed to date between 3000 BC and 1750 AD, that document Kathio as the ancient homelands of the Mdewakanton Dakota nation and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe nation.
The 151-mile-long Rum River meanders through the park from its source at Mille Lacs Lake. It runs through Ogechie Lake, where wild rice is harvested by the Ojibwe Band, then on it flows towards Shakopee Lake, leaves the park boundary and winds its way down to Anoka where it connects with the mouth of the Mississippi.
Mille Lacs ~ "A thousand lakes". There are a thousand reasons why I ended up here. A thousand questions I ask myself how. Coincidence? Fate? Luck?
The dream never changes, but the plan that takes you there does, even if it changes a thousand times. Mille Lacs Kathio is vast, wild and enchanting. I feel a connection here and it's quite spooky walking around the park, but I love it here and it feels like I was meant to be where I am now.
Mille Lacs Kathio. The place where you will receive a Míle Fáilte.
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