1,658 miles
March 4 – Wilton
is located within Eckles Township, and the townsfolk have been playing around
with that name for years. The post
office was first named Selkce, 1900-1903 (Eckles spelled backwards), and then
changed to its present name. On various
maps, the site is also shown as Eckles and Eckels.
 |
| Grant Lake |
Wilton, with
a 2010 population of 204 residents, is described as a bedroom community for Bemidji, but
it does not look like a suburb. It has a
few streets with nondescript houses, but no amenities or discernible center of
community life. Nearby is a county park with
a picnic shelter, a play structure, and a swimming area in Grant Lake.
I saw
mention of a quilt shop in Wilton, but Google Maps was unable to locate
it. I got 3 different addresses for
Sadie Rae’s Quilt Shop, and the only one with a photo on Google Street Views
showed a small white house with no parking space or sign. Google’s idea of where the Post Office was
located was just as ridiculous. I was
ready to conclude that the shop, wherever it had been located, had gone out of
business. The shop does not have its own
website, but I saw it listed on Quilting Hub’s online directory, updated within
the past 2 months, and I couldn’t let go of this mystery.
 |
| Sadie Rae's Quilt Shop (as seen from the highway) |
So I called the phone number listed on Yelp and talked to Shelly. She gave me driving directions from Bemidji while I “drove” along US Rte. 2 on Google Street Views. When I got to the vicinity (just off Rte. 2, not in town), switched to Earth View to search building by building to find the one where the shop is located. It’s on the highway access road just off Rte. 2, between the red-roofed bank and the brown-roofed bar. Whew! What a search! I’m glad I wasn’t doing that by bicycle!
The Great
Northern Railway and the Soo Line both had stations through Wilton in the past. Now there is an old railroad bed labelled by
Google as “Abandoned Railroad”. Shelly
told me that it has been converted to a hiking & biking trail, and it
appears that it is also used for off-road ATV riding.
Quilting
Hub: http://www.quiltinghub.com/Find/Quilt-Shops/In/Minnesota
Abandoned
Railroad image: Google Earth Views
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