Southeastern Minnesota is a beautiful part of our state. Recently we drove through green forested, rolling hills, along winding roads, dotted with small farms and small towns, to a cute, little camping cabin in a state park for a camping weekend.
One of the small towns we passed through was Houston, population 979. It is the trailhead for the Root River State Trail. The recreational trail (bicycles, walkers, runners) begins in Houston and has 42 miles of paved trail that leads through Lanesboro and on in to Fountain, MN. It connects with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail, which adds an additional 18 miles of paved trails, and makes for a great trail system.
One day we drove to Houston to begin a biking adventure, and during our brief time in Houston we discovered a few interesting things.
First, outside the trail center was a wooden bench carved in the shape of a mother owl spreading her wings over her owlets. It is a beautiful piece of art…and functional art for all to enjoy.
Then, right in the back yard of the center as we started down the trail we passed two sandhill cranes in the park. On our way back the cranes were in the same area so we stopped to take photos. Sandhill cranes are big, beautiful, sleek birds and are always a delight to see.
While looking at the cranes we noticed something else in the grass…a sundial of some sort. We quickly found the sign that explained it: an Analemmatic Sundial. We had never seen a “clock” quite like this…
On the ground is a cement square plaque with roman numerals indicating different hours. There is a rectangle plaque within the square with the twelve months etched in certain places. You step on the month and notice where your shadow falls and it indicates the hour of the day….and it was accurate! How does that work?
I had never heard of this word analemmatic. I looked it up and it means: a plot or graph of the position of the sun in the sky at a certain time of day at one locale measured throughout the year.
We enjoyed seeing these different sightings in Houston and we had a great bike ride on this end of the Root River trail.