Stuffies at Sea (10.5.22)

The world is wonderfully surprising. Case in point: this little video, unskillfully taken with a laughing soundtrack, resulting from a discovery on a small marine adventure up near Duluth. Don’t the best surprises stop you in your tracks and leave you largely speechless, just before they leave you largely helpless with laughter?

Zoom in if you can. Stuffies, a very long distance out of customary context, pinned to an historic railroad swing bridge, near the mouth of the St. Louis River at Duluth. The river is wide, rough, and commercial there, used as much by freighters and cargo vessels as pleasure boats. The Grassy Point Bridge spans the narrowest part of the harbor, which is not very narrow, and the display (is it a display? What IS it?) can only be seen from the water, which is often rough and cold. It can require a bit of caution to get close enough to take a look; my inexpert video shows that the boat was bouncing hard as we motored by, and that I was laughing hard, too, at the sight of clowns and bears and bunnies suspended by their ears or their paws, their plush bedraggled, sometimes soaked and certainly permanently damp. Iron, steel, and timber since 1912. Decorated with a considerable number of Beanie Babies, staring out across the bay. 

There’s a rather official-looking site called Historic Bridges that details the mass, the very long span, the technical specifications, and the commanding position of the Grassy Point Bridge. Zoom in closely on small colorful specks in the formal portraits. They are stuffies.

The originator? Purportedly, a long-gone bridge operator whose reasoning is lost to history. And the purpose? Well…surprised laughter, and a smile? That, I would argue, is a worthy intention. Well done, mysterious bridge operator, well done!