Don 2005-11-14 01:13
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class="quotetop">QUOTE</div><div class="quotemain"><!--QuoteEBegin-->美国北疆奇特小城：爱恋家乡，不慕繁华<br /><br />VOA记者兰德菲尔报道／<br />在美国中西部的双子城明尼亚波利斯和圣保罗北边大约250公里远的地方，有个位置奇特的小城德卢斯。明尼苏达州的德卢斯，位于美国五大湖中最大也是最冷的苏必略湖沿岸。拥有8万7千人口的德卢斯，依旧眷恋那曾经身为美国内陆最大港口的光辉时代，以及身处大自然仙<br />境的幸运。<br /><br />*曾为货运中心*<br />由法国毛皮猎人建立的德卢斯，可以说帮助塑造了美国。北方的伐木工人一直砍伐到明尼苏达的森林几乎成了光秃秃的一片，这些木材被用来建造在芝加哥和纽约的住房；另外德卢斯丰富的铁矿，供应在克利夫兰和匹兹堡发展兴盛的钢铁厂。许多德卢斯的出口货物都是经由船只通过有时风雨交加的苏必略湖。<br />历史学家兰普说：“苏必略湖可以说是世界上最危险的湖泊之一。11月的大风更是恶名昭彰。运载矿产的着名货轮费兹杰拉德号就是因为遭遇这种大风而沉没的。”<br />兰普有一本着作，专门描述明尼苏达铁矿生产，里面就提到德卢斯作为一个货运中心的兴衰史。兰普说，那些受雇于伐木工、矿产、铁路和货运公司的移民，都是很刻苦耐劳的人。他们建设了德卢斯，还建造一艘艘像足球场那么大的载矿货轮。<br /><br />*兰普：德卢斯人对外界不信任*<br />兰普说：“那些来到这里的移民，身无分文，也没有田产，非常贫穷。他们来这里是因为他们是辛勤苦干的工人。那些拥有矿产，经营铁路的人，并不住在这里。他们都住在东海岸。因此住在德卢斯的工人都受到他们的控制。想想，那些你不认识的人控制你的生活。”也因此造成德卢斯人对外界的不信任。<br />在德卢斯，92%是白人，而且大多是身强体壮又固执的斯堪地那维亚人。德卢斯可说是美国种族最不多元化的城市之一。当地人亚德是一位电脑倡导者，曾经接受一家软件公司的咨询，谈德卢斯为何无法吸引许多高科技人才。<br /><br />*亚德：居民厌恶改变和游客*<br />亚德说，明尼亚波利斯和圣保罗有发展迅速的信息产业，罗彻斯特有世界知名的Mayo诊所，现在成了医学研究中心。但是德卢斯的居民却采取闭门政策。<br />亚德：“许多城市都不喜欢改变。但是德卢斯人却是痛恨改变，厌恶改变。这里有许多居民不喜欢游客，他们根本不想游客到这儿来。他们痛恨那些从明尼亚波利斯来的人来这里观赏湖泊，使用这里的设施。我认为，德卢斯人想把一切据为己有，只给自己用。”<br />德卢斯当地报纸新闻论坛报户外版的编辑库克这么说：“当人们有个好东西，就不想改变它，我觉得这样的想法是举世皆然的。而且如果变得太好，太美，或者太容易得到，那就可能招引许多人来这里。”<br /><br />*寒冬长，蚊子凶*<br />到底德卢斯的什么东西可以激发当地人这么强的占有欲？不可能是长达5个月的寒冬，那时气温可以降到冰点以下好几个星期。女服务生坎宁安说：“到了冬季的第5个月，真让人觉得沮丧了。”<br />德卢斯港口管理一部份的稻谷作物、木材和矿产，高薪的工作几乎很少。夏天在松树林里，蚊子多的吓人，而且这些蚊子又大又狠，明尼苏达州人称它们是明尼苏达州大秃鹰。<br /><br />*都市和野外的动态结合*<br />所以，到底是什么特别的东西让德卢斯人采取闭门政策？当地人说是都市便利与野外空间那种充满活力的结合，广大的都市公园，有些还有小溪，里面有鳟鱼游来游去。所有的公园都提供登山和自行车小径，以及越野滑雪的路径，这些路径穿越各个居住区。<br />另外在苏必略湖沿岸有渡假胜地。德卢斯也是通往一个叫边界河流的着名泛舟景点的入口。这里受到法律保护，不允许人工开发，也是全美国最受欢迎的自然保护区。<br />在德卢斯几乎每家居民都拥有渡假小木屋，就在数千个小湖泊中，没错，几千个小湖泊，距离德卢斯非常近。<br />新闻论坛报的编辑库克说，在德卢斯，你可以找到安宁，而且有时候就在你家的后院：“当你在办公室工作了一整天，忙得焦头烂额后，你回到家，可以沉浸在森林里，享受大自然，变成一个完全不一样的人，一个更好的人，你的世界再次有了目标。”<br /><br />*爱恋家乡，不慕繁华*<br />库克和其他人士都说，他们曾经有机会找到薪水更高的工作，可以搬到更大、更温暖的都市，但是他们拒绝了。他们说，还有哪里能像德卢斯，让他们找到好的工作、餐馆和戏院，还可以打猎、猎鹿、猎松鸡、在街道上滑雪，在结冰的湖面上钓鱼，欣赏数不胜数的鸟，还有在炎热的夏季从世界最吓人的湖泊中享受清爽凉快的微风呢？<br /><br />Deep Freeze Nears, but Duluthians Love It<br /><br />By Ted Landphair<br />Duluth, Minnesota<br /><br />Two hundred-fifty kilometers north of the twin Midwest cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul lies an oddly placed little city. Duluth, Minnesota, sprawls across 58 kilometers of a ridge along Lake Superior, the largest and coldest of America's five Great Lakes. Duluth -- population 87,000 -- clings to memories of its glory days as a mighty inland port, and to its good fortune as the nexus of a natural wonderland.<br /><br />Founded by French fur trappers, Duluth literally helped build America. Northwoods lumber, harvested until Minnesota's forests were nearly denuded, framed many a Chicago and New York home. And ore from its rich iron mines fed the roaring steel mills of Cleveland and Pittsburgh.<br /><br />Most of Duluth's exports moved by ship across the sometimes-stormy waters of Lake<br />Built in 1905, this aerial lift bridge has become a Duluth trademark. It could carry 60 tons of horse-drawn wagons, automobiles and pedestrians. (Photo courtesy of Carol Highsmith)<br />Superior. According to Marvin Lamppa, who wrote the book Minnesota's Iron Country: Rich Ore, Rich Lives, Lake Superior has some of the most dangerous water in the world. "The gales of November are well known. The ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, which has become legendary, suffered from one of those gales and went down," he says.<br /><br />Mr. Lamppa details Duluth's rise and decline as a shipping center. He says tough, hardy immigrants -- recruited by timber, mining, railroad and shipping companies, built Duluth and great ore boats that were as long as a soccer field.<br /><br /><br />Historian Marvin Lamppa writes of Minnesota's colorful history. (Photo courtesy of Ted Landphair)<br />"The people who came here came as people with nothing -- landless people, poor," he says. "They came in because of their backs -- hard, heavy work. And the men who ran the mines, who ran the railroads, didn't live here. They lived out East. And the people here were, therefore, subject to their control. People you don't know control your life."<br /><br />That bred a suspicion of outsiders in insular Duluth.<br /><br />With a population that is 92% white -- largely of sturdy, stubborn Scandinavian stock -- Duluth is one of the nation's least racially diverse cities. Duluth native Bob Jader, a computer pioneer who consulted on a corporate software village that failed to attract many high-tech tenants in Duluth, says that while Minneapolis-Saint Paul boomed in information technology, and Rochester, Minnesota -- home of the world-famous Mayo Clinic -- prospered as a medical center, Duluth's citizens turned inward.<br /><br />"Most places don't like change," Mr. Jader notes. "But Duluth just hates it, detests it. A lot of local people up there, they don't like tourists. They don't even want 'em up there. They resent the people from Minneapolis who come up and use the lake and all their Northland facilities. They want to have that all, I think, for themselves."<br /><br />Sam Cook, the outdoor editor of Duluth's daily newspaper, the News-Tribune, puts it<br />Sam Cook, the outdoor editor of Duluth's daily newspaper, The News-Tribune. (Photo courtesy of Ted Landphair)<br />another way. "I think it's almost universal that people who have a really good thing don't want it changed too much," he says. "And if it gets too 'spiffy' [slick] or too easy to get to, there might just be too many people comin'."<br /><br />What in remote Duluth could make people so possessive? It can't be the five-month-long winter, when temperatures can linger well below freezing for weeks on end. So bitter is the deep freeze that Marv Lamppa and other North Country folks joke about it: "My uncle used to say it was so cold last night, a dog was chasing a cat, and they were both walking!"<br /><br />But others, like waitress Dana Cunningham, aren't laughing. She says, "It can be really depressing after the fifth month of it [winter]."<br /><br />With Duluth's port handling a fraction of the grain, timber, and ore it once did, high-paying jobs are scarce. And in the summertime in the pines, mosquitoes are so thick -- and big and mean -- that Minnesotans call them the state vulture.<br /><br /><br />Even in generally liberal Minnesota, hunting is a treasured pastime. (Photo courtesy of Sam Cook, Duluth News-Tribune)<br />So, again , what's so special that Duluthians want to keep it for themselves? They say it's the area's invigorating blend of urban amenities and wild places. Vast city parks -- some laced with trout streams and all offering hiking and biking and cross-country ski trails -- cut through neighborhoods. Resorts line bracing Lake Superior. Duluth is the gateway to a remarkable network of trails and canoe streams called the Boundary Waters -- protected by law from development -- that are the nation's most-visited wilderness area.<br /><br />And it seems like everybody owns a cabin, however humble, on one of the thousands -- yes, thousands -<br />There are thousands of fishing spots in the state that's called "The Land of 10,000 lakes." (Photo courtesy of Sam Cook, Duluth News-Tribune)<br />- of smaller lakes within an easy drive of Duluth.<br /><br />In other words, says the News-Tribune's Sam Cook, you can find sanctuary, sometimes literally in your back yard. "When you've had a day at the office where you feel like you've been pulled in 50 million different directions," he says, "you go home, and you can disappear into the woods and come back a different person, feeling better, with your world put back in perspective."<br /><br />Sam Cook -- and others we talked with -- say they've had chances to move to higher-paying jobs in bigger, and warmer, cities -- but said no. Where else but Duluth, they say, could they find decent work and restaurants and theaters -- and still hunt deer and grouse; ski down the street; ice fish on frozen ponds; feed uncounted species of birds; and -- on the hottest summer days -- catch a stiff, cool breeze off one of Earth's most fearsome lakes? <br /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->