One long day north of the Twin Cities: Oliver Kelley’s farm at Elk River, Charles Lindbergh’s boyhood home in Little Falls and the Mille Lacs Indian Museum. Every road time below was measured; the time at each stop is our estimate and is labelled that way.
Start at 9:00 a.m. each day. The first and last drives are from and to Downtown Minneapolis. Road times come from OpenStreetMap routing and do not include traffic, closures, parking or walking. Pick the stops you want: the ones marked Optional can be dropped, which frees 1 h 15 min in all.
- 1Day
- 3Stops
- 5 h 39 minRoad Time, Measured
- 245 miRoad Miles, Measured
Day 1: Elk River, Little Falls and Onamia
- S
Start: Downtown Minneapolis (start)
44 min by road, 30.7 mi, measured
1Oliver Kelley Farm
What to see: 1860s farm life, Kelley homestead (NHL).
Type: Historic village, Elk River
Hours, as the operator states: Sat 9-3 (Sept 6-Dec 23, 2026)
Admission, as the operator states: $12 adults; $10 seniors 65+/veterans/active military/college students; $8 ages 5-17; 4 & under and MNHS members free
1 h 36 min by road, 72.7 mi, measured – a long drive
2Charles Lindbergh House
What to see: Childhood home of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh (NHL) and museum; trails.
Type: House museum, Little Falls
Hours, as the operator states: Trails open daily dawn to dusk; house: see official site
Admission, as the operator states: Free
1 h 22 min by road, 43.9 mi, measured
3Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post
What to see: Museum on the journey of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe; restored trading post.
Type: Museum, Onamia
Hours, as the operator states: Wed-Sat 10-5; Sun-Tue closed
Admission, as the operator states: $12 adults; $10 seniors/veterans/active military/college students; $8 ages 5-17; 4 & under, MNHS members and Native Americans free
1 h 57 min by road, 97.7 mi, measured – a long drive
SFinish: Downtown Minneapolis (start)
Day 1 map: 3 of 3 stops are pinned, numbered in plan order: 1. Oliver Kelley Farm; 2. Charles Lindbergh House; 3. Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. The start and finish points are off the map. Lines are straight and show order only, not the road. Each pin is an OpenStreetMap point for the named place, checked by eye; it is not a verified entrance or parking lot.
Read this first: This is a long day: the drives between Elk River, Little Falls and Onamia are over an hour and a half each way. Drop the Mille Lacs Indian Museum, marked Optional, to shorten the day.
If a Stop Is Closed or The Weather Turns
Drop an Optional stop first: together they are 1 h 15 min of the plan, and the road times for the others stay the same except where the dropped stop sat between two. Check each operator’s page before you go, because the hours above are copied from the operator on the date in our dataset and change by season.
What We Could Not Confirm
- Time on site, Essential or Optional, and the arrival clock are our own planning estimates, not operator figures. The 9:00 a.m. start is an assumption.
- Road times are OpenStreetMap routing for a car with no live traffic, closures, tolls, parking search or ferry waits. Real trips will run longer at busy hours.
- Opening hours: we did not check each arrival time against the stop’s hours. Some stops are closed on some weekdays or for the season; confirm with the operator before you go.
- Pins are OpenStreetMap points for each named place, not verified entrances or parking.
- Dog and child rules, accessibility and prices for stops whose operators do not state them are not confirmed here; ask the operator.
Questions People Ask
How long does the drive take on this itinerary?
We measured 5 h 39 min and 245 road miles in all across 1 day. That is routing without traffic; allow more at busy times.
Can I do it all in one go?
Plan on 9 h 09 min on the road and at stops for day 1 on our estimates. Optional stops can be dropped and free 1 h 15 min in all.
Are the hours and prices current?
They are copied from each operator’s own page as listed on Historic Sites, which we checked on November 1, 2026. Hours and prices change; use the Official page link on each stop.
More Minnesota Trips
Other itineraries: Twin Cities Weekend, The St. Croix Valley, Duluth and the North Shore, The Minnesota River Valley, The Iron Range. Back to all itineraries.
Related: Historic Sites, Drive Times, Central Lakes & St. Cloud events, Plan a Visit, Venues.
Sources
- Stops, hours and admission: the open dataset Minnesota historic sites (CSV), the same rows as Historic Sites, each with its operator link.
- Road times and miles: OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, run by us on November 1, 2026. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap.
- Checked November 1, 2026 by It’s Minnesota. Cite this page: It’s Minnesota (https://itsminnesota.com/itineraries/central-minnesota/), checked November 1, 2026. Free to quote with a link.