Diamond in the Bluffs

Wabasha is a mighty fine place to see an eagle. The city is a ninety-minute drive south of Minneapolis on U.S. Highway 61—yes, Dylan’s Highway 61—one of several old settlements wedged between the five-hundred-foot bluffs and the Mississippi River, built in deference to the commanding geography. Originally established as a fur-trading post in the 1820s, Wabasha was platted as a town in 1854, four years before Minnesota was incorporated, and named after Wapashaw, a Dakota Indian chief. The same scenery that drew early settlers—the montage of backwaters, the tall prairie grass and diverse wildlife, the steamboats docking along the river, and, of course, the eagle’s nests—is what keeps tourism and consequently the city’s economic base stable today.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the national bird also became Wabasha’s mascot, and it’s hard to imagine it featured more prominently around town. Eagles are painted on park benches, on storefront windows and shelves; they glower from the bumpers of trucks and are carved into tree trunks set by the river. The city’s annual festival is named Eagle Days. The local java hut is called Eagle’s Nest Coffee House.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to spot live eagles against nature’s backdrop, three of them reside at the National Eagle Center downtown, which is staffed by tour guides who teem with facts and trivia related to the birds. On a recent Saturday afternoon, as a tattooed Eagle Center guide led a small group through the museum’s exhibits, one visitor asked about the best time to view eagles.

“Winter is good,” replied the guide, standing next to a wall-sized photograph of nearly fifty eagles perched in a single area, among a few trees. “But you know, it seems like they’re always around.”

Still, there’s more to Wabasha than eagles, as the locals like to say. At a kimono shop called Wind Whisper West, one can peruse more than two thousand kimonos for sale and tour a private collection of wedding kimonos. There’s Book Cliffs, a used bookstore with an extensive selection of local histories as well as an amiable live-in mutt named Greta, who relishes her role as browsing companion. There’s the Arrowhead Bluffs Museum, with thousands of relics on display from the period when the Dakota Indians lived on the land, cultivating wild rice and hunting buffalo.

Food options include the upscale Nosh, with Mediterranean and French-influenced cuisine; a greasy spoon called the River Town Café; Chinese from the Fresh Wok; or sandwiches from the Little Jo Flour Mill and Bakery, which has back-porch seating on the river. If you’re planning an overnight visit, you can reserve one of five cats (Ginger and Arnold are popular choices) with your room at the Historic Anderson House, the oldest continually running hotel in the state. Or try the swanky, extended-stay lofts downtown—named, of course, Eagles on the River.