- Rapidan Dam, Rapidan Dam, Rapidan Dam.

Yeah, say that three times fast.

The original structure was built a hundred and nine years ago, but what we're actually interested in today is what lies below the damn, the beautiful river that's full of friendly rapids and hidden treasures.

It's gonna be a blast.

Let's go, Minnesota.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat music) - All right.

- [Ricky] Welcome to the Blue Earth River.

(whistling) - We just got on the Blue Earth River.

Everybody is climbing into their canoes.

I am front of the pack right now.

- [David] Is everybody in the water?

- Everybody is in.

Oh, look at you two, cruising.

Well, this is really I think all you could ever ask for.

Considering the fact that we started planning this trip roughly like two months ago or so.

The fact that we just selected this day out of the blue and it ended up being 85 degrees and clear skies and the river levels are just impeccable.

This is like a fairy tale of sorts.

- I can hear the rapids, they're coming.

- [Brenda] Is that a rapids I see right there?

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Brenda] Are we going to go over a rapids right away?

- We are, yeah.

- All right?

- Excited?

- I am kind of excited.

- I am too.

- Yeah.

- I always get excited.

- Yeah.

- It's a lot of years of a lot of exciting rapids.

- [Brenda] Is this like class five, class 10, class 25?

- At the end, we got there's a surprise at the end for everyone.

- [Brenda] Oh.

- It's nice so just keep your wits about you and try to get better as you go 'cause you're gonna need it.

(laughing) - [Brenda] Excellent.

- [Ricky] Biggest thing is just staying straight through the rapids.

Don't get your boat sideways.

- All right, here we go.

- We're going over our first rapids of the day.

- [Ricky] Things are getting a little choppy.

- So far, so good, minus that almost minor collision.

- [Ricky] Unfortunately, these canoes just pretty much plow through everything.

- Head for the V, they say, head for the V. - So you know, it gets a lot worse throughout the year.

- [Brenda] Ah, that wasn't so bad.

So far, so good?

- It's so gorgeous.

- I know.

- I'm good now.

(laughing) The rock formations is so fascinating to me.

Just from the carving perspective, it's just always cool.

- [Brenda] I felt one of my favorite parts about going down the river is seeing all the rock formations 'cause, you know, you just don't get to see it from-- - No, no you don't.

- What's up with the river name thing anyway?

Tell me about that.

- Basically, river names are something that you just organically earn.

- So how did you get, is it, what is your officially, a Swamp?

- The Swamp, the Swampy.

- The Swamp.

- Like a flood monster, really, really whatever you prefer, it's very flexible.

- So how did that happen, how did you get that?

- I took out a group of trainees, it was first float of the year with our new guides.

At the last set of rapids there's a wave, it's generally just recommended that nobody hits it because it's just, you're gonna flip, you're gonna swamp your boat.

- So you swamped?

- So yeah, so I just sent it as fast as I could 'cause I was like if I go fast, I think I can just go over it and I'll stay up and it will be really cool.

And maybe I was trying to show off for the new guides a little bit but, I mean, I think I got my just deserts there.

- So did you stand up on the other side and you were like, "Swamped!"

- No, I could not stand, the river was pretty high at that point, it was like at 7.5, 7.7 or something along those lines.

And so I actually went, I took a pretty good spill and gutted my leg open pretty good.

- Oh, that's legit.

- Yeah, so-- - That's earning it, you shed blood.

- Exactly, so then thus my name was Swampy 'cause I swamped my boat on the first ride of the river of this year, so.

- I've heard about the blue earth clay but I've never seen it.

- So it was said to be all gone, in all the old history books it said-- - Yeah.

- [Tyler] Pierre-Charles Le Sueur came here in 1700 with some French explorers, mined all the blue earth, thinking it was valuable, it wasn't.

- Well, in it's, actually, it's quite a holy clay for the Native Americans.

- [Tyler] Right, right.

- Yeah.

- [Tyler] So it was said to have just lined these shores.

- Really?

- And that's where it gets the name Blue Earth River.

Now, the native name for this river was Makato Osa Watapa, Makato, means Blue Earth, that's what the town Mankato is named after.

And you know the story?

They sent the name Mahkato to the capital but the "H" was smudged, so they read it as Mankato and the name stuck.

- I always wondered about that.

- So Mankato actually blue skunk.

- Argh, great.

- Fitting for a city.

- All right, so up here, we are approaching Devi's Gulch, which Fast Action Jackson, right, tells me that it's a huge limestone face that we are going to be walking behind?

- Behind.

- Behind, and then up, basically like a narrow galley, right?

- [Fast Action Jackson] Correct.

- Excellent.

- Devil's Gulch.

- Cool.

- All right, so here we are at Devil's Gulch, we are next to probably, I don't know, a 30 foot.

This is limestone, or is this sandstone?

- Limestone, correct.

- A limestone cliff.

- I wanna climb it.

(laughs) (ominous music) I don't know what's gonna happen, it's Devil's Gulch.

- It is Devil's Gulch, it says so up there.

- [Brenda] Wow, this is really cool.

Oh, this is interesting.

Wow.

- That's cool.

Mn, the textures on that is very fascinating.

Right up my alley.

- [Brenda] How's it going Dave?

- This is really neat.

- [Brenda] Yeah, this is pretty cool.

- Did you know you can actually eat this?

- [Brenda] You can eat that?

- Yes.

- [Brenda] Are you gonna eat a piece?

- If I'm lost and really hungry I'll eat it.

- [Brenda] Oh, okay.

- [Dave] But right now I don't think so.

- [Brenda] This is just amazing, isn't it?

Wow, look at that.

This is so cool.

Okay, don't get swept away.

- [Matt] This is perfect.

- [Brenda] Wow, this is insane.

A hidden treasure.

- When you look at the, I mean, the shape of this, it's prehistoric, really wondering what created this.

- Well, let me show you something.

So this is your blue earth.

And what's happening here is, if you think about your spine and then the cartilage between your discs that suspend your spine, one over the other vertebrae.

So here we have a vertebrae, here we have a vertebrae and then here, this is the cushioning that allows it to slide back and forth without cracking.

- Oh wow, (murmurs).

- So as it moves.

Yeah, 'cause this is all very young limestone, it was sandstone before it changed into limestone, much pressure has been on this rock.

And then the only way that this whole thing doesn't crumble is because there is, every now and again, there is layers everywhere, veins of the clay that keep the, moving.

- Moving, - Freely without breaking, otherwise this wouldn't be here.

- So this is the blue earth right here, that the river and the town were named after.

- We all have our individual way of expressing ourselves with the clay, so maybe one here and here or three here.

And then we'll go down to the next waterfall and then rinse it off.

And it's kind of a symbolism of time to connect with Mother Nature, connect with the Earth.

- [Brenda] Sounds like a rite of passage.

- It is.

And feel free to give it a go if you'd like, I know you probably play in clay all day so it's nothing new to you but.

- I just wanna touch it.

It's super smooth, it's like really creamy.

All right, let's see.

(soft sentimental music) I feel like I want a dot.

- Check it, spa treatment, in Mankato.

Time to go.

The devil didn't get us.

Actually, we had a good time, now we're out.

- We just left Devil's Gulch and now we are well on our way to go to Triple Falls, which is one of the most spectacular sites you'll see in all of Southern Minnesota in my opinion.

- You're going the wrong way.

- Dang it, I knew something felt funny.

(chuckles) - I dare you to go down the whole river backwards.

- It'd be nice for, Craig could be down with that.

- So we're gonna wanna come around wide here, just to avoid any possible strainers here on the bank.

- The strainer is a river term for when a tree has fallen in the water and so it acts as if, it acts like a strainer, like something you'd use in your kitchen but it's in the river and so it catches stuff.

And if it catches you then you're gonna get pressed up against a tree, going pretty quick and that is probably one of the most dangerous things that could happen on the river.

- So the rite of passage is to put the clay on at Devil's Gulch and then wash it off in this, what I'm told is a triple tiered waterfall, so let's go check it out.

(soft sentimental music) - You noodling?

(background noise drowns out speaker) - [Kevin] He's gonna pull a big ol' catfish out of there.

- Someone said we're doing lunch here so I just wanted to see, Hey, if I can add to the plate, I'm always trying to be a provider.

(soft sentimental music) - Can we stop on Mo, which by the way, we are making it on Mo today.

On Mo.

- Okay.

- Which is a team building activity.

- Yes.

- Can you build a rapid?

Is it a-- - Yes.

- Okay.

- It means we.

- As long as we don't have any risk of all the gear going in.

- We have all the risk.

- All the risk?

All right, let's take it.

- There's tons of risk.

- Let's do it.

- Yeah, that's why we're doing it.

- So it's called a glacial erratic.

And so it was the consequence of glaciation that was basically what all this area in this region was.

At one point I believe roughly like 12,000 years ago it was all glaciers.

And so they would basically just pick up and move anything that got in their way and that rock was one of those things that got picked up and then when the glaciers decided to melt, they plopped it right down here in the river.

- So are you feeling inspired today?

- I am.

- Yeah?

- Yeah, especially with the clay from the blue earth, that's pretty awesome.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- How so?

- It's just so slippery, it's just premium, prime clay, just so smooth, that's what I enjoy about this type of thing is that you life through texture which is so unusual compared to a lot of people who do color.

- So are you, can you envision what you might come up with after today, what?

- Yeah, actually I can.

The last waterfalls that we were at, the Triple Waterfalls, that one waterfalls that was through the rock.

- Yeah, yeah.

- On the far left over there, that was so cool.

- Yeah.

- And I'm starting to do more pieces that have holes in them so that's kinda of cool.

- Okay, all right.

- Yeah.

- I put my soul into every single piece that I do and they're very reverent pieces for me.

So then the question was, what audience is going to get that?

Who's going to appreciate the time that I put into that piece.

I decided to entertain the idea of working in urns.

And it has been one of the most meaningful, deeply enriching chapters of my life.

My name is Michelle Kaisersatt and I'm a sculptural clay artist.

I was 35 years old at the time that I started my first clay class.

And by 40 I had my studio and it was out in the woods in the back of my home.

So I remember taking a sumac branch and making a little stand and holding the sumac branch over the bowl and then shining a light over the leaves and then I would trace the shadow onto the bowl and that's how I first started carving.

As I got more involved in texture, I started looking at things differently.

Even in some of my pieces, there will be more of a soft texture, some others may have more of an abrasive texture because I'm trying to exude an emotion in the piece.

So it's important for me to marry the texture to what I'm trying to get across.

I have never been down that part of the Blue Earth River, I've ever canoed down a river before so between the river and the rapids, it was just a very heightened engagement with nature that I really just soaked up.

There was lichen growing along the side of the rock and so I was studying and how could I replicate that?

Or how could I replicate water?

I mean, the actual act of water, the flowing of the water and, it was just, it was really a very powerful trip for me.

I love being a sculptural clay artist because it gives me a voice, it gives me the opportunity to try to replicate the emotions that nature gives us and send out a message at the same time.

(soft melancholic music) - [Camera Man] So you guys, just for perspective for a second, this is a great opportunity to see how high the water was this spring, it's where that bark has disappeared to.

- Oh my goodness, wow, what?

- Wow, really?

Seriously?

- [Kevin] That's how high the water was earlier this spring.

- [Brenda] Kevin get that.

Is that a giant whale I see down there?

Is that Big Mo?

- [Kevin] That's Big Mom.

- Ah ha.

- Uh huh.

- So we're gonna sweep in behind the rock and it will be nice and mellow back there.

- All right, here we come.

We're going for Big Mo, which looks like a giant whale on the other side of these rapids.

- Getting excited about these rapids.

Yeah, oh, great, (murmurs) about this little guy.

I'm gonna come over there and say hi to you guys for a minute.

Oh boy.

Okay.

- [Brenda] All right, here comes Big Mo.

- That's all right.

- Here we go.

Now we gotta get over here.

- We're going for the backside Whoa.

- Whoo, whoo, whoo hoo hoo.

- That was nice.

(chuckles) - [Kevin] Oh yeah, oh, oh!

See it's gonna be easy, it's gonna be easy.

Spin around, rudder on the left, rudder on the left.

Oh-oh, whoa.

We gotta get-- - [Kevin] You got the seam, find your seam you guys, see, right here.

Once you're here there's hardly any current.

- Can you bring us in backwards (background noise drowns out speaker).

- [Kevin] Can I bring us in backwards?

- Whoa.

Yeah, no.

- [Matt] There you go, getting that slow moving current, there you go.

You guys are next.

- All right, hang on.

- [Tyler] Got some winds up here.

- Whoo!

Big Mo.

(laughs) Whoa.

Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.

You're paddle's in the water.

Oh, look at that, your paddle's going right to you, that's not even fair.

Nice.

Cheater.

- Get on there, Fast action.

- [Brenda] Cheater, Fast action.

- Sweet step in at a time and I'm just gonna (crosstalk drowns out speakers) this way and yep.

- All right.

And, oh, you have my paddle.

Sweet.

All right.

- And then I'm gonna cast you that way.

- Okay.

- [Matt] Just get you going a little.

- Thank you.

- Welcome.

- Not so bad, huh?

- Whoo.

Oh-ho, it's the swing, yeah.

- It's rope swing time boys.

- Do it!

Whoa that was, great, oh my.

Nice.

Yeah!

Whoo!

- How does that feel?

- Would have been terrible.

- [Brenda] Ah, sweet.

Action!

(screams) (gasps) Whoa, we saw it, whoa.

Oh my god, give me a high five after that one.

Did that hurt?

- I don't wanna bottom out, so I gotta land a little.

Kinda gotta crunch it 'cause it's like four feet deep out there.

- All right.

All aboard.

- [Camera Man] These rapids got a lot of fall to it, you guys see that?

Can you see the fall in this?

- Yeah.

- [Camera Man] It's pretty legit.

- So either left or right.

- This is a deep rapid, so you just do whatever you like to do.

- Okay.

- Jackson, there's a quasi-surfable wave up on the right side way out there.

Quasi-surfable.

All the way at the end.

Looks like a little ripper.

- Whoo.

Yeah.

That's what I'm talking about.

That is a legit wave right there.

I still need a river name for today.

We decided earlier that we can't force it.

- One who loses his camera.

- Yeah, I was gonna say.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

- That's a little too long.

- So we were both thinking it lost camera.

- Olympus.

- Olympus.

- Oh, that's good.

I like it, I'm gonna, I choose that.

- It was an Olympus camera?

- Yeah.

All right.

- Oh, okay, there it is.

- Olympus.

- I was looking for, (crosstalk drowns out speakers).

- Oh, there you go, there goes the eagle Kevin.

- [Kevin] It's really showing off for us.

- Yeah, he is.

- [Kevin] You see this.

- Have you seen the angry, squeaking frog that's become an internet star?

Well, Minnesota has its own singing sensation and I'm sure it's a sound you've heard.

Clarissa Schrooten from the Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo tells us more.

- So we have three kinds of toads in the state of Minnesota.

The most common that we see, and if you're in South-East Minnesota you're gonna see the American Toads.

They're an amphibian so their skin is semi-pervious, so they like to sit in water or be in moist climates or moist areas so they can actually bring that moisture in through their skin to keep them hydrated.

A myth that is not true is that you can get warts from touching toads.

That is completely a myth.

They have to worry more about what's on our fingers, if they absorb hand sanitizers, sun screen or bug spray through their skin into their body that's worse for them.

So we actually have to be more careful for the toads.

In the spring time when toads are getting ready to mate they make a trill and it goes kind of like, (trills), that's the toads telling the females that it's time for us to put some eggs in the pond.

I'm Clarissa Schrooten from the Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo and I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

- Well, thanks for joining for us today on "Let's Go, Minnesota!"

as we paddle the Blue Earth River near Mankato.

It was an absolutely spectacular day and I'm absolutely mind-blown by all the amazing hidden gems along this river.

I hope one day that you get explore them too, until next time, let's go Minnesota.

- All right, Kev Dawg, you ready to go brother man?

Yeah.

- D-A-W-G?

- That's exactly right.

- The spelling is important.

- Hey guys, keep your camera man dry, we're gonna go through Spring Island now, land on the backside of Mo.

This could be your proving grounds.

- Okay.

- It literally feels like you're entering another planet.

It's just lush green, it's like you've left Mankato at that point and you've entered some sort of weird galactic vortex.

- I love it, I love it.

I'm all about galactic vortexes.

- [Matt] Yeah, I really, it's my whole thing.

- [Brenda] You are surrounded by camera men on both sides of you.

(laughs) You're having this elegant description of your art and then there's one camera on there, one camera on there, there're everywhere.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.