If you’re familiar with the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz, you would probably get the reference about the certain phenomenon that we are going to share with you.
On January 6, 2020, a Twitter user by the name of Mike Parker from Crystal, Minnesota, shared an image of the Canadian Pacific Railway train tracks covered in golden kernels of corn at a distance of 2000 feet.
The image shows bushels and bushels of corn fitting virtually to perfection within the tracks which created almost a stark contrast between the snow-covered ground from both sides.
Another thing that was oddly strange about this phenomenon was that in spite of its conspicuous presence, none of the animals nearby such as ducks or deers were flocking over to help themselves with what is possibly a meal that could last them many months.
The tweet – since being posted – has garnered over 1800 likes and 375 retweets. But it was Alex “Boreal” Forrest, an expert on anything and everything train-related with the Twitter handle @380kmh, with a larger fan following, that help the photo garner viral recognition on several social media platforms after sharing on his account. To this day the tweet has over 110,030 likes and 15,300 retweets.
Despite that, nobody could really tell at that point whether the tracks were actually covered in corn or if this was just one giant April Fools’ Day-esque Photoshopped prank.
On 7 January, Star Tribune posted a video on their Facebook page where reporter Adam Belz confirmed that the court-covered railroad track is in fact real.
The Mystery behind the Corn-Covered Tracks
It turns out that the kernels were spilled over the Canadian Pacific rail line between the Bottineau Boulevard bridge and the cul-de-sac of Scott Avenue, North.
Going on for over 2000 feet, and probably being about 1 1/2 inches deep all the way, was probably somewhere about 900 bushels or probably $3465 worth of corn that was spilled according to the prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
A Minnesota local name Gary Bates, who lives close to the tracks, surmises that the reason birds and other animals haven’t made an attempt to help themselves to these kernels is due to it being the hibernating season and will only come out when the weather starts getting warmer.
Bates gestures, “There are deer and raccoon in the area but they’re hunkered down, is my guess. They didn’t get the e-mail.“
Bates also says that he has seen grain previously spilled on the track before, but nothing to this degree.
He said, “I’ve never seen the track completely covered in corn.“
Another local was Ryan Hentges who just grabbed his supplies from a heating and cooling truck on a driveway about 100 feet away from the railroad tracks. Upon seeing the photo uploaded on Facebook, a smile appeared on his face when he learned that the tracks where the corn was spilled were only a couple of feet away from where he was standing.
He said, “It’s right there? I can’t believe it and suck it up already.“
As a matter of fact, the railroad workers were already starting to clean up the court while Hentges spoke. The workers were using a high rail vacuum truck that was slowly moving beneath the Bottineau bridge.
In spite of the discovery, the massive corn spill didn’t cause any traffic for other trains. In fact, two trains already gone past the corn spill before cleanup had begun.
Hentges believes that the photo is real but couldn’t bring himself to fully believe in it since “it’s hard to believe anything you see on social media.”
A Canadian Pacific Railway spokesman Andy Cummings told Fox News Thursday morning that the crew was “made aware” of the spill and were making efforts to clean it up.
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