The Twin Cities, Minneapolis Great American Railroad Journeys


The Twin Cities, Minneapolis

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I have crossed the Atlantic

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to ride the railroads of North America with my

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reliable Appletons' guide.

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Published in the late 19th century,

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Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me to all

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that's novel, beautiful, memorable, and striking in the United States.

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THEY SHOUT IN SWEDISH

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As I journey across this vast continent,

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I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

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And how the railroads tied this nation together,

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helping to create the global superstate of today.

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I'm continuing a journey across America's Midwest

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that will take in some of the most vibrant cities in the United States.

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They were founded in an age of settlement

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and early industrialisation,

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but they became great in the railway age.

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As the modern world cut a swathe across the country,

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older cultures faced extinction.

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I've begun my journey in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

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I'll follow the Mississippi River south

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before crossing into Wisconsin at La Crosse.

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I'll push east towards Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan.

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Then turn south to Chicago before travelling the length of Illinois,

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through Centralia.

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I'll find myself back on the Mississippi

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at my journey's end in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Today, I continue my tour of the Twin Cities,

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Minneapolis and St Paul.

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Along the way,

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I'll use my diplomatic skills at a Swedish-American lunch.

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What a very... What a very interesting texture.

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Feel the rhythm of a great American epic poem.

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So you get what sounds to us like a tom-tom beat.

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Boom-boom. Boom-boom. Boom-boom.

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By the shores of Gitche Gumee.

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And experience life as a turn-of-the-century tycoon.

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Oh, beautiful. Let's bounce on the bed.

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These people knew how to live.

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Each of the two 19th-century cities of St Paul and Minneapolis

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grew by playing to its strengths on the Mississippi River.

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St Paul as the most northerly port...

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..and Minneapolis with its industry driven by the St Anthony Falls.

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Their characters remain distinct today.

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St Paul, older and more conservative,

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Minneapolis, younger and more hip.

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First stop, breakfast, in one of Minneapolis' favourite haunts.

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This must be the narrowest diner I've ever been in.

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And there's no room at the counter,

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so I guess we just stand here, do we? OK.

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Originally a storage shed,

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made from a corrugated roof over an alleyway,

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this building has been used as an eating place since 1937

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and became Al's Diner in the 1950s.

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Right, that seat is yours, sir.

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That one is mine. Thank you very much.

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I will smear the bacteria.

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This is a very thin diner.

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-Very, very thin.

-This is how big Americans were back in 1950.

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-How many pancakes do you want?

-How many do you recommend?

-Two.

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-Two.

-You've got to keep that girlish figure.

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-Short while he blows!

-Short while he blows.

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Doug Grina still operates a system of credit

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that dates back to the time when the diner catered for workers

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from the nearby railway yard.

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These books you see down here, those are prepaid credit for regulars.

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And it started when Al would come in in the mornings and do prep work,

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he would have railroad workers come in about 4.30 in the morning.

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He wasn't ready to open, but he'd have sweet rolls and coffee

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for them and he'd ask them to write down what they ate.

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And he learned very quickly, better get the money first.

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Right. Are you a regular?

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I am not. This is my first time here.

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And what brought you here? What made you think of coming?

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-All of my friends.

-Obviously, it's a great novelty,

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having such a narrow diner, but is the food good too?

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Yeah. Oh, yeah.

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And you get cabaret thrown in from behind the counter, don't you?

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-Voila, your steaming heap.

-Thank you very much indeed.

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-Nearly arrived in my lap.

-This here is real maple syrup.

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Squeezed from trees.

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Sounds plausible.

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Swimming in butter, glued with maple syrup.

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Stuffed with fruit.

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Amazing.

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I'm taking the metro south

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to explore the earliest period in the history of the Twin Cities,

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when European fur traders and trappers began to trade

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with Native Americans.

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Appletons' tells me that the first building in St Paul

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was erected in 1838 and for several years thereafter,

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it was simply an Indian trading post.

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The first treaty with the Sioux Indians,

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throwing their lands open to settlement, was made in 1837.

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I'm on my way to Fort Snelling,

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which stands on a cliff overlooking the confluence

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of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

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It's a sacred place for the Dakota Sioux Indians.

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The fort was built by the United States Army in 1825,

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when white men and Native Americans traded cordially,

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but within less than 40 years,

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the Dakota had been stripped of their Minnesota homelands

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and were at war with United States.

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These beautiful lands belonged to Native Americans, but when Europeans

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arrived here, hungry for land and wealth,

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they behaved as though the territory was theirs.

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It was an appalling clash of culture,

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the Europeans with their mass production and their rifles

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and their steam engines and their railways,

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the Native Americans advanced philosophically,

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but technologically backward.

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What happened to the Native Americans

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is one of the darkest chapters in United States' history,

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something for which even today they have difficulty in atoning.

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The governor of Minnesota, Alexander Ramsay,

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declared all Dakota must be exterminated

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or driven out of the state.

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Thousands were imprisoned and 38 were killed

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in the largest mass execution in United States history.

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1,700 women and children were forced to march 150 miles to Fort Snelling,

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where they were interned in a camp

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before being exiled to western reservations.

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Ramona Kitto Stately is an expert

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in American-Indian culture and language.

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Ramona, we meet in a delightful spot.

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You are Dakota, is that right?

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-Yes, I am.

-What is the significance to the Dakota of Fort Snelling?

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Fort Snelling is actually the place of our creation.

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For us, this is the centre of our universe.

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We call it Bdote.

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It is the place of our genesis,

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but it is also the place of our genocide.

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The people who were brought to Fort Snelling,

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the non-combatant Dakota people,

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they were housed in what's been described as a concentration camp.

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Is that a fair expression?

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If you look at what the determinants of

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a concentration camp are, it meets every single one of the criteria.

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And yes, it was a place of holding for our Dakota women and children,

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under very harsh conditions, for the purpose of exile and removal.

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They would have done it probably sooner,

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except this Bdote was frozen.

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So they had to keep them here for six months.

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And the Dakota were literally shipped out.

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The women were shipped out, right here at this landing.

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They were boarded on steamboats and taken to Crow Creek and then

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eventually Santee, which is where my people live in exile today.

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-In Nebraska?

-Yes.

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-A long way from here.

-A long way from here.

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What do you think were the consequences for the Dakota

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of the Indian War of 1862?

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The consequences were exactly what they were meant to be,

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which was exile, loss of land.

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There's no faster way to bring the hearts of people to

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their knees than to separate them from their language, their culture,

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their medicines, their food supply,

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their water and all of their ancestors,

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who are buried along this beautiful river valley.

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Since 2002, every other year,

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descendants of the Dakota prisoners have retraced

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the steps of the forced march to Fort Snelling.

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Placing prayer flags at every mile, singing traditional songs,

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and telling stories of their ancestors.

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One of the ways for us to even be able to begin that healing is to

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bring back the language, to bring back the culture, to remember,

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to put back together the oldest cultural knowledge

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on this continent.

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Go back to that point where our mothers lost their voice

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and reclaim it.

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European migration to the Midwest eased during the Dakota War,

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but grew steadily after the Dakota were exiled.

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I've come to South Minneapolis and the American Swedish Institute,

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where I'm meeting current president Bruce Karstadt,

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to find out how this community keeps its heritage alive.

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-Bruce, hello.

-Michael, welcome to the American Swedish Institute.

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-A pleasure to have you here.

-Thank you. Great to be here.

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-Let's go up. Yep.

-What a pile.

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This extravagant French-style chateaux was built by Swedish

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newspaper baron Swan Turnblad,

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who left it to the Institute

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to be used as a museum and cultural centre.

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So, when was the peak period

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of Swedish immigration into the United States?

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It was between 1860 and 1910.

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About 20% of Sweden's population

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or 1.2 million of a five million population country

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left Sweden for principally North America and the United States.

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The majority of these emigrants were farmers,

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attracted to Minnesota by its familiar landscape and climate.

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They built hospitals, churches, and schools

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that upheld Swedish values and reinforced ties with their homeland.

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And what about food?

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When Swedes came here,

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packed in their trunk were recipe cards and pots and pans and other

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kitchen utensils.

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You will find cherished recipes for Swedish meatballs,

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for baked rye bread, lutefisk,

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and all sorts of other delicacies that were important to them.

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-What on earth is lutefisk?

-Reconstituted dried cod.

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So, drying of fish, like meat, is a way of preserving food.

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And so, one way in which today's Swedish Americans

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honour that tradition and that past is

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by having lutefisk at Christmas time.

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It's closer to Midsummer than Christmas, but tonight,

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the Institute is holding a special dinner and lutefisk is on the menu.

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Nordic food specialist Patrice Johnson is head chef

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and I'm going to lend a hand.

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Hello. Are you Patrice?

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-I am.

-I'm Michael.

-Hi, Michael. Nice to meet you.

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I've come to help you... Help you, make lutefisk.

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I'm happy for your help.

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Lutefisk kind of makes itself.

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-Oh.

-But you have to keep an eye on it.

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-OK, good.

-So you can help me with that.

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Now, what I've heard about this dish does not encourage me at all.

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Do you know how it's made?

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Well, I believe you start with dried cod, is that right?

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It is, that's true. And then they soak it in lye.

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Isn't that stuff you use for making soap?

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Yeah. That's the same stuff.

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But you can see that the lye in the water

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has made it a little bit gelatinous.

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Oh. It has.

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Ah, I'm relieved. Not too smelly at this point.

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I'll pop that in there, shall I?

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Yeah. And we are going to put some salt and some white pepper on this.

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And I'm going to put a little bit of allspice on there as well.

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Allspice is indicative of lutefisk.

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Now, that is really nice.

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-Isn't that nice?

-Yeah, yeah.

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I'm relieved that we've got some of that in there as well.

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'The fish is covered in unsalted butter and steam cooked

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'in the oven until it flakes.

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'Overcook it and it turns to mush.'

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Goodbye, little fishy.

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'30 minutes later, and it's ready to serve.'

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Smell it.

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MICHAEL COUGHS

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Yeah... I can smell it.

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'Outside in the garden,

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'13 hungry Swedish Americans are waiting to tuck in.'

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Hey, everybody. The lutefisk is here.

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THEY CHEER

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Happy Christmas to one and all.

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There we are. You're going to have a big piece.

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-You're a brave man.

-Thank you.

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'Lutefisk is traditionally served with boiled potatoes and either a

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'butter or a cream sauce.'

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Would you like some fish with that cream?

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-Sorry.

-I did put rather a lot of cream on.

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Also to deaden the taste.

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Hm! THEY LAUGH

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Hm!

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What a very interesting texture.

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-Memorable, isn't it?

-Memorable.

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'I'm not alone.

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'Not everyone here is a lutefisk fan.'

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Oh. Oh, you're exporting...

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-Yes.

-..yours.

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Are you not too keen on it?

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No, I'm not, but I love making it.

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I've made it for over 40 years.

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When we lived away from Minnesota,

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I would have it shipped in overnight,

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so he could have it for Christmas Eve.

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And you really do like it.

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I do like it. Yes. Absolutely.

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I grew up with it and, yeah, it

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brings me back to Christmases of long ago

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and parents and grandparents.

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-Now, that's nice.

-Yes.

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'No Swedish feast would be complete without aquavit.'

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Oh, thank you very much.

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'A spirit flavoured with herbs and spices

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'first distilled in Sweden in the 15th century.'

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We are going to do a skol.

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THEY SING IN SWEDISH

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Skol!

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Skol!

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And it's not over yet.

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The Swedish fiddle group Spelmanslag

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plays songs based on traditional melodies,

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sung by Swedish maidens to their cattle in the pastures.

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And by miners and loggers as they walked to work.

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My dear American-Swedish friends,

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what a memorable evening this has been and thank you so much.

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Skol!

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-ALL:

-Skol.

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APPLAUSE

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I'm up early and back on the Metro,

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which is taking me out to the west of the city

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to a place that has been on the tourist map for over a century,

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and is still attracting visitors today,

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thanks in part to its literary connections.

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Appletons' tells me that the Minnehaha Falls,

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"which were immortalised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

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"are picturesquely situated, but hardly merit the prominence

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"that Mr Longfellow's poem has obtained for them."

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Nonetheless, I'll go and have a look.

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Where would I be now if I'd been put off by mediocre reviews?

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In the early 19th century,

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a pioneering landscape photograph of the falls gained

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wide circulation in the United States.

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It may have inspired Longfellow to write his epic poem,

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The Song Of Hiawatha.

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Enchanted by the name Minnehaha,

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Longfellow used it for his Native American hero's beautiful lover.

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To hear more, I'm meeting Charles Calhoun,

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who has written a book about Longfellow.

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Welcome to Minnehaha Falls, Michael.

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Thank you very much. Did Longfellow come here to study...?

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No, no, no. He was very desk-bound in his very beautiful house in

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Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard, where he had been teaching,

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but he had a wonderful imagination

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and he could take what he read in these books about Indian legends

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and more and this wonderful array of Indian place names

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and personal names and turn it into a great epic.

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The poem tells of the life of Hiawatha,

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a mythical Native American warrior and leader,

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from his birth to manhood.

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And the tragedy of his love for the beautiful Minnehaha.

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Hiawatha performs brave and magical deeds, slays foes,

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and woos his lover, but she dies.

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He quits his people, sailing into the sunset.

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Do you think he had an intention with the poem?

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Yes, he was one of these 19th-century poets

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who wanted to write a great bardic epic that would summarise

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the history of this country and bring its peoples,

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it's varied peoples, together.

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And he saw that the obvious material wasn't in New England,

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it was in the West, where the Native Americans were still thriving.

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The song of Hiawatha became an instant bestseller

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and made Longfellow one of the wealthiest and best-known authors

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of his day.

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But many Americans criticised his choice of subject matter.

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As you read it,

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what attitude from him towards Native Americans do you infer?

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Well, I think he was sympathetic, certainly,

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or he wouldn't have launched such a huge project, but he,

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like many people in his time,

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he saw them as noble savages and he stressed the noble part of it.

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Yet, for most Americans at that time,

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it was the savage side of that phrase that really predominated.

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It is so strange, the poem comes out and has this huge readership,

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yet within a generation,

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so many of the Native Americans in this country have been wiped out.

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Tell me about the sound of the poem. It has a very specific metre.

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Yes, it's written in a metre called trochaic tetrameter.

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Which means a strong beat, a soft beat,

0:19:360:19:38

a strong beat, a soft beat, over four measures.

0:19:380:19:41

So you get what sounds to us like a tom-tom beat.

0:19:410:19:44

Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom.

0:19:440:19:46

By the shores of Gitche Gumee.

0:19:460:19:48

You might be surprised to know that I,

0:19:480:19:51

brought up maybe 4,500 miles from Minnehaha Falls,

0:19:510:19:54

was taught the poem at school.

0:19:540:19:57

Excellent. That makes my day to hear that.

0:19:570:19:59

And how much of it do you remember?

0:19:590:20:01

Ah! Well, what I remember is precisely the beat.

0:20:020:20:07

-It's hypnotic.

-I remember the metre.

0:20:070:20:09

But now, it looks like you've got a copy of it there.

0:20:090:20:13

Yes, a very nice early edition.

0:20:130:20:15

-Please, help yourself.

-Thank you very much.

0:20:150:20:17

"There the ancient Arrow-maker Made his arrow heads of sandstone.

0:20:190:20:24

"With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter,

0:20:240:20:27

"Wayward as the Minnehaha,

0:20:270:20:29

"With her moods of shade and sunshine,

0:20:290:20:32

"Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate,

0:20:320:20:35

"Feet as rapid as the river,

0:20:350:20:37

"Tresses flowing like the water,

0:20:370:20:40

"And as musical a laughter.

0:20:400:20:42

"And he named her from the river, From the waterfall he named her.

0:20:420:20:46

"Minnehaha, Laughing Water."

0:20:460:20:49

-Well done.

-It's lovely. Absolutely lovely.

0:20:490:20:51

I could read from the railroad timetable now, if you'd like.

0:20:510:20:55

Now the 0800 passes, now the 805 approaches.

0:20:550:20:59

-Choo-choo.

-Choo-choo.

0:20:590:21:01

At the time of my guidebook,

0:21:100:21:11

freight accounted for the largest share of railroad

0:21:110:21:14

business in the United States, as it does today,

0:21:140:21:18

but a new era of opulent passenger travel was dawning.

0:21:180:21:22

Although I've grown fond of the Metro,

0:21:250:21:27

it's not hard to imagine a more luxurious railway carriage.

0:21:270:21:32

In the heyday on the railroads between the Twin Cities and Chicago,

0:21:320:21:36

what was known as the Milwaukee Road, prestigious trains ran.

0:21:360:21:41

Special cars catered for the pre-jet jet set, the rich, the famous,

0:21:410:21:47

the glamorous.

0:21:470:21:48

I've come to a rail yard in north-east Minneapolis,

0:21:550:21:58

home to a collection of beloved relics of the Milwaukee Road.

0:21:580:22:02

Rail enthusiast Steve Sandberg will be my guide to the golden age of

0:22:030:22:09

luxury train travel.

0:22:090:22:11

-Hello, Steve.

-Welcome to Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes.

0:22:110:22:15

And of beautifully-restored rolling stock.

0:22:150:22:18

How come they are in such great condition?

0:22:180:22:21

Well, they've been wonderfully restored

0:22:210:22:22

by the members of the Friends Of The 261,

0:22:220:22:25

which is a non-profit railway heritage organisation,

0:22:250:22:28

here in the United States.

0:22:280:22:30

What was the origin of luxury travel on American railroads?

0:22:300:22:34

Well, really, post 1900 was when most of your families,

0:22:340:22:39

the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, the Woolworths,

0:22:390:22:42

all of those famous families,

0:22:420:22:44

owned fleets of private Pullman cars.

0:22:440:22:46

It's like a corporate jet in today's era.

0:22:460:22:48

And all of America's wealthiest people

0:22:480:22:51

would have not only one but several Pullman private cars.

0:22:510:22:55

Pullman is an iconic name and brand,

0:22:550:22:58

-may we start with the Pullman car, please?

-Absolutely.

0:22:580:23:01

-Come this way.

-Thank you.

0:23:010:23:03

With the advent of the sleeper car,

0:23:050:23:08

express transcontinental rail travel was reduced from weeks

0:23:080:23:12

to a few days.

0:23:120:23:14

-Thank you very much.

-Welcome aboard the Lambert's Point.

0:23:140:23:18

Ah! Beautiful luxury.

0:23:180:23:21

Well, if we come this way, we've got bedrooms, dining room and kitchen.

0:23:210:23:24

-Come on in.

-Oh, look at this one.

-And this is the master bedroom.

0:23:240:23:28

Oh, beautiful. Let's bounce on the bed.

0:23:280:23:31

-These people knew how to live.

-Yes, absolutely splendid.

0:23:340:23:37

This is how some of America's wealthiest and famous people

0:23:370:23:40

would have travelled cross-country at the turn of the century.

0:23:400:23:43

'Then, like today, the dining car was the heart of life on board.'

0:23:430:23:48

Ah, yes. Look at this.

0:23:480:23:49

Isn't that beautiful?

0:23:510:23:52

'And on the Lambert's Point,

0:23:520:23:54

'private chefs prepared everything from scratch,

0:23:540:23:57

'from turtle soup to porterhouse steak.'

0:23:570:24:00

-Crystal, I take it?

-Yes.

0:24:000:24:02

GLASS CLINKS

0:24:020:24:03

BELL RINGS

0:24:040:24:06

So, when the airplane starts to compete in the post-war years,

0:24:060:24:10

how do the railroads respond?

0:24:100:24:12

Well, right after World War II,

0:24:120:24:15

railroads started to go with more luxury travel for the masses.

0:24:150:24:20

They thought that they would actually just put

0:24:200:24:22

the airline industry right out of business.

0:24:220:24:24

From the mid-1940s,

0:24:260:24:28

railroad companies all over the United States

0:24:280:24:30

launched new high-speed services with Pullman cars

0:24:300:24:34

to attract upmarket passengers and business travellers.

0:24:340:24:37

On the Pennsylvania Railway,

0:24:390:24:40

they've put a new cheap-fare luxury train into service

0:24:400:24:42

between Chicago and New York.

0:24:420:24:44

It's the company's answer to the competitive Western Railway scheme.

0:24:440:24:47

And though the fares are reduced, the comfort has increased.

0:24:470:24:49

They're trying the Pullman appeal.

0:24:490:24:52

Here in the Twin Cities, they went one better.

0:24:520:24:55

The Hiawatha was an entirely streamlined train

0:24:550:24:58

with a distinctive orange and grey livery,

0:24:580:25:01

including the world's first double-decker car,

0:25:010:25:04

topped with a glass dome.

0:25:040:25:06

Custom-built for the Milwaukee Road Rail Company.

0:25:060:25:09

What amazes me about these cars is the size.

0:25:110:25:14

They are so wide, they are so high, and of course,

0:25:140:25:18

you've got the beautiful vista of the countryside passing.

0:25:180:25:21

Yes, this car, when it was built,

0:25:210:25:22

it was the heaviest passenger rail car ever built, at 248,000 pounds.

0:25:220:25:27

16 feet tall, 85 feet long.

0:25:270:25:31

So, what does the Hiawatha train really consist of?

0:25:310:25:33

Well, in 1934,

0:25:330:25:35

the concept was developed for a high-speed train

0:25:350:25:38

that would operate at speeds of 110-120mph,

0:25:380:25:42

from Minneapolis to Chicago.

0:25:420:25:44

There was two each day that ran out of Minneapolis and two that departed

0:25:440:25:48

each day out of Chicago.

0:25:480:25:50

They had the morning Hiawatha and the afternoon Hiawatha.

0:25:500:25:53

And it's so interesting to see the way that luxury

0:25:530:25:56

has been developed for a fairly mass market here.

0:25:560:26:00

So, this was competing with the airplane?

0:26:000:26:02

Yeah, this was all about space, luxury, and speed,

0:26:020:26:05

and when you were travelling in 1948 on an airplane,

0:26:050:26:09

it was very cramped, it was very noisy,

0:26:090:26:11

and it was an unpressurised cabin that didn't go very far

0:26:110:26:14

between fuelling stops.

0:26:140:26:15

Frankly, I need no more persuading.

0:26:180:26:20

I'm booked on the afternoon Hiawatha out of Minneapolis,

0:26:200:26:24

which today is pulling a piece of railroad history.

0:26:240:26:27

-Hello.

-Good morning. Welcome aboard.

-Thank you.

0:26:280:26:31

And I've bagged the back seat for the ride of a lifetime.

0:26:310:26:34

Designed by famed industrial designer Brooks Stevens,

0:26:350:26:39

the Cedar Rapids car is one of only four

0:26:390:26:42

sky top observation parlour lounges ever built

0:26:420:26:46

and the only one still gracing the rails today.

0:26:460:26:49

And so, a dream come true.

0:26:510:26:53

Riding on the tracks of the old Milwaukee Road in a Cedar Rapids

0:26:530:26:57

observation car from 1948.

0:26:570:27:00

That moment in history

0:27:000:27:02

when the design of airliner and train collided

0:27:020:27:05

to produce this beautiful object.

0:27:050:27:08

The airlines won the war against the railroads.

0:27:110:27:15

But in the modern world, when the greatest luxury is quality time,

0:27:150:27:19

you're hard pressed to beat this.

0:27:190:27:21

The classic American locomotive had at its front a V-shaped grille

0:27:230:27:27

that was known as a cow pusher.

0:27:270:27:30

The railroads brought the immigrants who in fact pushed aside the buffalo

0:27:300:27:35

and the Native American.

0:27:350:27:37

The poet Longfellow, in his epic Hiawatha, included the Indian

0:27:370:27:43

in the national story.

0:27:430:27:44

He was ahead of his time,

0:27:440:27:46

in showing respect, even if a little patronising,

0:27:460:27:50

for a civilisation that was squashed as the trains rolled west.

0:27:500:27:55

Next time, on my travels, I immerse myself in Native American culture.

0:27:570:28:02

-How do you like it?

-I love it.

-Yeah?

0:28:020:28:06

Visit an extraordinary wildlife refuge...

0:28:060:28:10

Is it a healthy bald eagle colony?

0:28:100:28:13

At one point, we had single digits for eagle nests

0:28:130:28:16

and now we are up over 300.

0:28:160:28:18

..and take a crash course in lacrosse.

0:28:180:28:23

-Oh.

-That's all right. We got a helmet for a reason.

0:28:230:28:25

Didn't even see it.

0:28:260:28:27

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