Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Celebrating the bald eagle locally, elsewhere in Minnesota & now nationally December 26, 2024

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A bald eagle photographed in Faribault by the Cannon River. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo March 2018)

THE BALD EAGLE IS NOW America’s official national bird as of a bill signed into law on Christmas Eve. And that’s exciting, especially for Minnesota, home to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha and home to the second largest population of eagles in the US, behind Alaska.

The National Eagle Center in Wabasha. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2014)

I expect this designation will draw more visitors to Wabasha. I last visited the Eagle Center in 2014 and need to return as it was recently expanded and updated, building on an already impressive place to learn about eagles.

Up close with an eagle at the National Eagle Center along the Mississippi River in Wabasha. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2014)

Wabasha’s National Eagle Center not only houses rehabilitated resident eagles (used in programming), but also features eagles in art, history and more. I’m all about learning more about a bird which I never tire of seeing. There’s something about an eagle soaring that imprints upon me a sense of awe.

The Bicentennial Eagle by A. Giannelli inside the National Eagle Center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2014)

On Christmas Day, as Randy and I sat home alone eating French toast (instead of a ham dinner due to illness in the family), I looked out the dining room window to see a large bird flying directly toward our house. Even as high as the bird flew, I recognized it as an eagle. Soon I spotted a second trailing eagle.

Just south of Union Lake Trail along Rice County Road 46, a bald eagle watches me. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2018)

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen bald eagles simply by looking out windows in my south Faribault home. I’ve watched an eagle glide low past our picture window. I’ve seen one a block away flying at treetop level. Several blocks up the hill, an eagle flew above Fourth Avenue Southwest. I’ve observed an eagle following the course of the Straight River while dining at The Depot Bar & Grill. On Faribault’s north side, I’ve spotted eagles flying near the Cannon and Straight Rivers. On the way to Dundas, eagles perch in a nest visible from Minnesota State Highway 3.

Eagles perch in a tree near Waseca. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2012)

I’ve seen eagles in other areas of Rice County and in Waseca County. They are seemingly everywhere throughout Minnesota.

Glimpse of a bald eagle in a lakeside treetop south of Crosslake in central Minnesota. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

To the north in the Brainerd lakes area of Central Minnesota, eagles once nested in a tree at a family member’s lake cabin. The nest fell in a storm, but the eagles relocated along Horseshoe Lake. So there’s still plenty of eagle watching at the cabin.

Eagles suspended from the ceiling and a view of the Mississippi River from the second floor of the National Eagle Center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2014)

We once nearly hit a bald eagle south of Hackensack as it lifted off the shoulder just as our van passed. Let me tell you that seeing the massive wing span (from 5 to 8 feet) of an adult eagle passing across your windshield is not only startling, but scary. Fortunately, the eagle cleared the windshield. Near Kenyon another grazing-on-roadkill eagle took flight within seconds of our van striking it. Aside from those close encounters, eagle watching has proven pleasant.

My photo of an eagle and dove at the Rice County Veterans Memorial now hangs in the Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

I also appreciate how bald eagles are incorporated into many veterans memorials as symbols of America and of freedom. I’ve photographed many of those memorial eagle sculptures, including one right here in Faribault. Today that photo from the Rice County Veterans Memorial graces a wall at the new Minnesota Veterans Home in Bemidji. along with five other veterans memorial photos I took. What an honor to have my work displayed there for veterans and others to appreciate.

The bald eagle at the vets park in Morristown flanked by flags. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

The bald eagle symbolizes freedom and strength. Now to have this majestic bird as our national bird seems fitting. And long overdue. The bald eagle is a powerful symbol connected to democracy. To see an eagle soar is to see freedom soaring.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Oh, the places my photos go, including into a vets home in Bemidji August 19, 2024

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This photo, taken at the Grant Wood Rest Area along I-380 south of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was published in a book about architecture. It was converted to black-and-white in the book. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

THROUGHOUT MY 15 YEARS of blogging, I’ve sold rights to dozens of images sourced from Minnesota Prairie Roots. My photos have published on websites, in tourism guides, on album covers, on packaging for a toy company, in magazines and newspapers, on business promotional materials, on signs and banners, on the cover of a nonprofit’s annual report, in books…

Three of my photos published in this book. (Book cover sourced online)

I’m especially proud of the three photos published in The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder—The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books by New York Times bestselling author Marta McDowell. I grew up only 25 miles from Walnut Grove, Wilder’s childhood home. Wilder inspired me as a writer and photographer with her detail-rich creative style. I’m also proud of my two Grant Wood-themed Iowa rest stop photos printed in the book Midwest Architecture Journeys. I have copies of both books.

My Laura Look-Alike Contest photo displayed in a Chicago museum. My friend Laurel happened upon the photo while touring the museum and snapped this image for me. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo by Laurel Engquist)

Likewise, I had the honor of selling rights to photos displayed in a temporary Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit at the American Writer’s Museum in Chicago, at the Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul and at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Atherton Pictures purchased rights to a southwestern Minnesota farm site photo for a WWII video created for the museum. I’ve never visited any of the three museums.

The Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji, which can house 72 veterans, recently opened. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji)

Seldom do I see how my photos are used once I email the original high resolution digital images to the buyer. But this summer I had the joy of seeing my framed photos displayed in hallways of the new Minnesota Veterans Home in Bemidji. I was in town to bring my son, who lives in Boston and was in Bemidji for the international unicycling convention, home to Faribault. I knew I had to make time for a stop at the veterans home.

Me with two of my photos, a scene from the Northfield Area Veterans Memorial on the left and the other at the Rice County Veterans Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji)

So in between Unicon 21 events, Randy and I headed to the vets home in hopes of seeing my six framed art prints. We found four, thanks to Maryhelen Chadwick, public affairs/volunteer coordinator at the Veterans Home. When we showed up unexpectedly, Chadwick graciously led us through the sprawling Town Center in search of my photos. There, in the hallways of this public space, which includes a multipurpose room, theater, club room, learning studio, family dining room, therapy gym and meditation room, we located four of my photos.

This photo, converted to black-and-white, hangs in the Bemidji veterans home. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
My photo of the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall also hangs in the vets home. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

Curated by a St. Paul art company, the selected images are all veteran-themed. Oversized photos of veterans’ memorials in Faribault and Northfield anchor a hallway wall. Elsewhere in the public space are two more images shot in Faribault—a veteran playing taps at a Memorial Day program and a photo of items placed at the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall. Chadwick later found my photos of sculptures at the county memorial in Faribault and the Rock County Veterans Memorial, Luverne, in the residential wing of the veterans home.

My father, Elvern Kletscher, on the left with two of his soldier buddies in Korea. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo)

To see four of my six photos showcased in a public space where veterans, their families and friends, staff, and others can view my work is humbling. I am the daughter of a Korean War veteran. My dad, Elvern Kletscher, fought on the front lines in Korea as a foot soldier. He experienced the worst of war. The injuries. The killing. Atrocities so awful, so horrific that he was forever changed by his time in combat. He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (unrecognized at the time of his discharge). He endured much pain, heartache, trauma. Nightmares. Flashbacks.

My photo of a sculpture at the Rock County Veterans Memorial, lower right, is showcased in a group of images in the Beltrami Household. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji)

But, in his later years of life, Dad found solace among other veterans in a support group through the Redwood County Veterans Service office. I remember how hard officials worked to secure the Purple Heart that Dad finally got 47 years after he was wounded on Heartbreak Ridge. I was there for that emotional public ceremony.

My photo of a dove and eagle at the Rice County Veterans Memorial in Faribault graces a hallway of the Beltrami Household. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji)

Today emotions swell again as I think of my framed photos hanging in the Minnesota Veterans Home—Bemidji. To me these are not just veterans-related images procured as art. They are a photographic “thank you” to every person who has served our country. Because of individuals like my dad, I live in a free country, in a democracy. I never take that for granted. To be able to express my gratitude via my photos is truly an honor, a joy and deeply meaningful.

I hope my photo of a dove sculpture, symbolizing peace, and an eagle, symbolizing freedom, conveys my gratitude to the veterans living in the Minnesota Veterans Home, Bemidji. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

NOTE: Maryhelen Chadwick kindly found and photographed my eagle/dove and soldier sculpture photos per my request after I visited the home. They hang in the Beltrami Household, one of four 18-room residential areas, a space I could not tour due to privacy.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling