Updates & Stories

Split Rock Lighthouse is a North Shore icon. Built in 1910 in response to frequent shipwrecks during 1905, this historic landmark and the surrounding state… Read More

By: Danielle Yaste As the amount of months remaining in our term continue to wind down, my time spent reminiscing over… Read More

By: Kristina Beckham Headed back into Arkansas one last time for the year we make our way into Arkansas Post, five… Read More

By: Danielle Yaste “What’re you guys working on out here?” A… Read More

By: Danielle Yaste When working on a project, very rarely does a crew get to see the entirety of the project, from start to finish. … Read More

Mary Hammes’ path to her current job with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency traversed three Corps programs: she served on a seasonal Superior National Forest… Read More

As the end of this journey nears I am filled with trepidation, but also hope. The uncertainty of the future is what keeps the mind sharp in the present. We must march on towards the goals we set only to form new ones when the previous is reached, such is the engine of progress. In the final weeks of my term here I look back fondly on the people I have met and worked with, the places I have seen and the changes I have made on a landscape I have grown to love. Read More

Last time I left you all with the story of my pre-installation excitement. Now I can finally say that our mission is accomplished! Installation day has come and gone and the work went more smoothly than I had hoped. Ben and Roger from RREAL made the trek down to Anamosa, Iowa and showed some weatherization crew members and me what it means to be solar installation rock stars. You know that feeling you get when you hear your favorite guitar player lay down some tasty licks? That is what was going on inside my head as I stood in a dusty basement watching the whole thing go down. Read More

At first glance, this truck simply looks like any other work truck with a few dents and scratches for added character, but it really is the sixth and probably the most important member of the Three Rivers II crew. I decided immediately that I would call it Bench Seat (it’s not really a creative name since the front seat is an undivided bench seat), and was even the namesake of our crew during introductions at orientation. Sadly, the truck is an inanimate object. However, if this truck could talk, it would have plenty to tell from its time in the Conservation Corps. From this past term, there are plenty of stories to tell. Read More

We worked for a week at a site in Baudette, Minn. on a household property whose owner in the 1960s dumped trash into their yard, which sloped gradually downward into a lake. Random objects buried in shards of broken glass and rusty scraps of tin told of its age: blue and green mason jars, soft plastic doll limbs, simple fishing reels, shattered bakelite kitchenware. Where the land curved down into the lake, the trash was more deeply layered. Each shovel full of broken glass and metal revealed another layer underneath. I joked with a co-worker about discovering a new kind of geological stratum. We found more recent trash scattered about the property as well: bits of foam board insulation, plastic wrapping, beer and pop cans. Read More