Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis G.A.R. Picnic

[jeff of pa]

FROM :

Minneapolis Journal, WEDNSDAY EVENING, JULY 26, 1933

Postponed, But Probably Held.

What else was Held There ?

 

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[Scribe]

Hi there Jeff,

If you run "Minnehaha Falls" in Wikipedia you get a bunch of info, but here's the basics.
They were made popular by "The Song Of Hiawatha" written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
There have been social gatherings, weddings, picnics...etc, etc, since at least the mid 1800's.
That said, it's in Minnehaha Park and is also on the National Register for Historic Places.
There are probably some great finds there, but unless Hennepin County laws plus federal laws drastically change I would have to say that the area would be off limits to TH'ers.
Nice find in the newspaper archive though! I love digging through the old historic records looking for those tidbits.

 

[jeff of pa]

I got a Ton of old News papers here, & they are Falling apart.
See Photo.



So I'm going through them & then Burning Most.
Only Keeping the Historical Reviews.

I remember when I got them years ago they were already
in less then Poor Shape.
the pages on most tear & Shed on touch.

 

[Wetgreenie]

that is cool, thanks for posting that.

I have heard you can or need to get a licence to MD in Hennipen co parks.
It think it's $10-15 a season. it might be cool to check into That area though.
you can feel the history of the area when you are there.
It had to be a huge gathering place for many years. The buildings are very old.
I think there is a very old general mills plant next to the park.

Oh yea, and not to mention all of the Car and art shows they put on down there...... It's gota be hoppin'

gota ask about it being on the historical register, see if that is a factor keeping us out.

 

[Wetgreenie]

wooo weee......

Before Minnehaha was a park, it was a train stop with as many as 39 train trips a day from the Princess Station. In 1889, the State of Minnesota loaned the City of Minneapolis $100,000 to purchase the park from its private owners. The park was named Minnehaha, which means 'laughing waters', for the falls as they were dubbed in Henry W. Longfellow’s poem 'Song of Hiawatha.'

* 1889 - Acquired by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board
* 1894 – A zoo was established and turned over to R.F. Jones. In 1907 the zoo was moved to the adjacent Longfellow Gardens area.
* 1905 – The current Refectory Building was built, replacing the original one destroyed by fire, recently renovated.
* 1922 – A tourist camp was built in the park.
* 1932 – Steps, retaining walls & bridges completed by the WPA.
* 1994 – Present redevelopment began to improve Highway 55, build a 'tuck and cover' traffic tunnel, move the Longfellow House and other miscellaneous landscaping. Highway 55 (Hiawatha Avenue) was once the main path Indians used to travel back & forth between the 2 falls located in Minneapolis (St. Anthony – the big falls & Minnehaha – the little falls).

 

[George (MN)]

I'm really confused about the legality of detecting there. It is a city park and the city parks allow detecting. Some maps show it as Minnehaha State Park. The city thought the state should have it, but the state wasn't interested. It certainly isn't a National Park. But it's on the Nat'l Register of Historic Places.

It looks like what is actually protected is a couple historic buildings in the park. The falls are surrounded by rock cliffs, so nobody would even want to detect near the falls. The park has been detected I think tens of thousands of times & I've never heard of anyone getting booted out. According to the Nat'l Register of Historic Places, the park is 170 acres. It is designated HABS-Historical American Buildings Survey by the National Park Service.

I think it might be something like the HABS listing for Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. That park was closed to detecting, but they got most of it reopened but said no detecting within so many feet of the 1700s mansions. HH, George (MN)

 

[Wetgreenie]

I just heard that this park is not one of those
that I thought you had to have a permit.
i think it would be worth a try but as mentioned above.
I doubt I'd be the first to ever go through there...

 

[Scribe]

Well most people could be like me and assume that there's no detecting there so it may not be as hunted out as you might think.
I would try checking with some of the park employees to see what they know. I wouldn't ask them to make a decision because if they are not sure then they will CYA and say "no".

 

[Wetgreenie]

Good Idea, If they say no, it's not a huge deal.....
I'll just walk over to one of my favorite Sushi bars
in Riverplace.