The Running Of The Elks

I only needed to hit one more bar before my visit to Woody's so I figured a good place to do it would be in the local Elk's Club where I could watch the Vikings play Tampa Bay.

776) Elks Club 1599



I made it up to International Falls on Thursday evening and then just hung out with my friends Bruce and Donna on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we drove into town to the Elks Club where we were also going to meet a couple more of my friends that were driving in from Minneapolis and Ely.

The bar has a dark reddish wood grained plastic top with a lighter tan wood grained plastic arm-rest and front. The foot-rest is black linoleum. The bar is good-sized and is kind of a squared-off horseshoe shapped thing with an island in the center for a couple of tiered shelves of liquor and glasses above coolers for beer. Little pink pigs sit on top of the bar. A decent sized television is against the wall behind and above the island and there is a good sized crowd watching the football game and groaning the Vikings on to defeat. The prevailing view seems to be that the reason for most of the Vikings' woes is that Daunte Culpepper, their quarterback, has stubby fingers.

To the left of the bar is a collection of photos of club members along with a shelf for candy, peanuts, and beer sticks. On the right side is a rack for chips. Black and white pictures of the area around International Falls at the turn of the last century line the wall on the left side of the bar. The wall opposite the blunt end of the bar has small bunker-like windows near the ceiling (got to be on the lookout for those Moose Club members from down the street). Through them you can see the town paper mill billowing smoke. In the sills are flowers in vases and a stained glass hanging of an Elk. Below them are patriotic posters and a few wildlife painting featuring, Elk. The other wall has a bulletin board listing club events and a transulcent plasic window decorated with a woody wreath and Christmas lights. There are a lot of small tables with chairs scaterred about and one table holding tailgate grub. Make a contribution and take what you want. They head great barbecued beef.

Track=lighting rings the bar and provides most of the light elsewhere although there is some recessed spot-lighting. The walls are a pale green and the floors are carpeted in gray. The the ceilng is covered in those white tiles like you would use to install a drop ceiling in your basement.

They have a large back room for dances and get-togethers. One end of the room is decorated with a large mural depicting the great outdoors and, hard to believe, a few elk.

The Back Room


My friends, who happened o be Moose, showed up and we moved from the bar to a table where we watched the rest of he dismal game on another televison mounted in the corner.

You could get a bucket of 6 beers for $10 so that is what we did. I had a few Miller Genuine Drafts.

Bar Man Having One Out Of His Bucket


Well, this is my last beer until the shindig at Woody's tomorrow. I only hit the one making 776 for the year and leaving 224 to go.