Ready for another long story? Good. This is the Toe River at the Toe River Hunting Club (a private club that let us come in and explore the old right-of-way). They have set up the rocks across the river here to make a holding pond of sorts for the trout that they stock and breed in here. Ok, this is also the place in the Toe River Gorge between Minneapolis and Newland where the river changed course and washed out the railroad and the railroad changed its right-of-way. See the bank on the left side of the river? That was the original right-of-way, and the river was on the other side of it. The holding pond was dry ground.

Well, during a heavy rain, the river shifted course to where it is now and the railroad had to relocate its tracks to where I am standing. The new right-of-way ran off the right side of the photo and then curved back to the left on the right hand side of the river. Is this clear as mud yet? Anyway, there is still some track on the abandoned part of the right-of-way. The club's land holdings go back toward Newland (behind me here) along the right-of-way and the river. The concrete Tank Bridge abutments are still there on their property. There supposedly was a water tank near this plate girder bridge. The train bridge is no longer there. I have photo of this spot in the Bridges section.