Minnesota – Sakatah Singing Hills Bike Trail

For the next leg of our bike trip, we relocated to Mankato to ride the Sakatah Singing Hills trail. That meant that this was a rest day for us as we were relocating to a new town and a new trail. We had reservations at Moulin Rouge House in Mankato.

Mankato is mentioned in the Little House on the Prairie TV series, but it is not known whether Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family ever visited here. Mankato is situated at the edge of the “big woods” before the start of the prairie, and was an important supply stop for those traveling west during the pioneer times. Therefore, a stop for supplies by the Ingalls family is a very real possibility.

We found the Moulin Rouge House with only a little difficulty, Google maps directed us to arrive by back alley at the rear of the house, which turned out to be correct, since that was where the parking was located, but we kept trying to find the front entrance.

The house was built in 1886 and was beautiful. It has been lovingly restored by the current owners and is named after the Moulin Rouge beauty shop, which operated in the front parlor for 75 years!

The house was on the verge of being torn down so that an apartment building could be erected on the lot. Thankfully, the city of Mankato denied the request. Lizzie and Lewis Hunt lived in the house after its construction until 1908, and the home was locally known as the Hunt House.

Lizzie was quite a character for her time. A newspaper article described her as “tough-talking and mannish”. She was a building general contractor for this home and 4 additional homes in the neighborhood. She proved to be a successful businesswoman, and worked from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm overseeing her job sites. Her workers didn’t dare leave before she left, and I suspect better not arrive after she arrived. She was a force to be reckoned with and many people were afraid of her. She was often seen wearing an old felt hat and one of her husband’s discarded overcoats with her hands jammed deep into the pockets as she strode to the job site. But in the evenings, it is said that she preferred lace or velvet dresses and always wore diamond earrings.

An article written about Lizzie in 1946 (by a journalist that lived across the street from the Hunts), described her as “devoted to the nth degree to her husband…waiting on him hand and foot. She went with him everywhere.” It went on to say she could be ready to go to Europe on 5 minutes notice.

Lizzie laid out her husband’s clothing, washed his shirts just the way he liked and tied his ties. When asked about her habit of washing her husband’s back for him when he was in the tub, Lizzie said, “why sure, if I didn’t wash his back, it wouldn’t be done til the undertaker did it!”

The large bay window in the front parlor was Lizzie’s purchase for the house, and came from the Chicago World’s Fair where it hung originally in the French pavilion. The Hunts brought it to the house in 1893 as part of the front parlor remodel, overseen by Lizzie. The window arrived from Chicago by train and was paraded up the street with great fanfare and excitement by the residents of the community. Our room was located on the second floor, right above the parlor and was called the World’s Fair room. I took several pictures of the home, it was just so pretty!

We left our car at the B&B and rode out of Mankato to the edge of town to connect to the trail. It was a beautiful ride through the historic neighborhood on a dedicated bike lane.

The Sakatah Singing Hills trail is 39 miles long, so we’ve packed one night’s worth of clothing on our bikes and will stay the night and bike back. The trail traverses a section of the old rail line between what was once the “big woods” and the vast prairies. Remnants of tall grass prairie can still be seen along the old rail line. It was beautiful!

Our first stop was in the little town of Elysian where we came upon the mercantile and a sign beside the road letting us know they had freshly baked hand pies. We couldn’t resist a coffee break and a hand pie. They were delicious!

We continued on and were soon ready for lunch. We noticed from our trail map that Waterville was likely our best option for lunch. As we rode up the little main street to check out our options we saw there was a Mexican restaurant, a snack shack, and an old corner grill. Having checked out all the lunch options, we circled back down the street to pick a spot to eat. I noticed a police officer standing at the edge of the street in front of a church speaking to a gentleman in a suit. I pulled up beside them to get their recommendation on the best place for lunch. As they finished up their conversation, the police officer turned to me and asked if I needed to speak to her or to the gentleman. I explained that we were traveling along the trail and wanted a local’s recommendation for the best lunch in town.

At that point, the gentleman took a step forward and spoke up. He said, “you can eat here in our church basement! We’ve got ham and roast beef sandwiches and all the sides. It’s really good roast beef!” Apparently the two had been coordinating the police escort to the cemetery from the church, where a funeral was underway. The officer laughed and said something about funeral food. I think the gentleman from the church was sincere in his invitation. It was very nice, Minnesota nice! It was so kind of him to offer, and I was tempted just out of appreciation. I told him I didn’t feel right about eating funeral food for a person I didn’t know, but decided we’d better take the recommendation of the corner grill the police officer had made. He said, well that’s good too, lol! We enjoyed cheeseburgers and fries from the corner grill and ate them on a bench overlooking Main Street.

After lunch, we continued down the trail toward Faribault, taking in all the beauty of the trail.

We reached Faribault and used the bike overlay in Google maps to navigate to the historic Hutchison House. The “Hutch” House as the owners call it, is an 1892 Queen Anne Victorian, and was very easy to spot atop the hill in its periwinkle blue and pink paint! It was built as a private residence, served as a boarding house, and now a B&B.

A local doctor and his wife bought the house in 1915 and modified the floor plan to generate some extra income by taking in boarders. That floor plan was an easy transition to a B&B. Our room was spacious and comfortable.

For dinner, it was an easy walk down to the restored train depot in town, which has been converted to a restaurant. On our walk back from the restaurant, one of my shoes completely came apart, with the entire sole flopping as I walked. I had to take my shoes off and walk back in my bare feet. I had packed light since we had to carry everything we needed for this overnight stay on our bikes, and didn’t have an extra pair of shoes with me. We made it back to the B&B and mentioned to the owner that I’d had a problem with my shoe and didn’t have an extra pair. She provided 2 options for repairing the shoe, and said if one doesn’t work, you can try the other. I glued the sole back on with the liquid cement she’d loaned us, and it worked perfectly. It held through the rest of the trip!

The next day, we made the return trip back to our car in Mankato, retracing our route on the trail. As we pulled up in front of the Moulin Rouge, there was a bride having photos made in front of the beautiful old home. I know her wedding day photos will be beautiful, and I was happy to get one last look at the gorgeous old home.