Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society. - Lake Minnetonka

IMAGES
of America

LAKE MINNETONKA

1879 MAP OF LAKE MINNETONKA. Produced by surveyor and engineer George W. Cooley and published by Warner and Foote, this map shows the entire lake area, including many property owners names. It also details and promotes the Minnetonka Lake Park Association grounds, where the Lake Park Hotel was located. (Courtesy of the Westonka Historical Society.)

ON THE COVER: CHAPMAN HOUSE DOCKS, MOUND, C. 1896. Tourists gather around many of the lakes various watercraftsailboats, rowboats, and the steamers Mabel Lane, Helena, and Acte. This photograph was taken by Charles Zimmerman, who owned Bowlder Lodge on Enchanted Island, operated a fleet of steamers, and was a noted photographer with a studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Courtesy of the ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka Historical Society.)

IMAGES
of America

LAKE MINNETONKA

ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka Historical Society,
Wayzata Historical Society,
and Westonka Historical Society

Copyright 2015 by ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka, Wayzata, and Westonka Historical Societies
ISBN 978-1-4671-1334-2
Ebook ISBN 9781439650622

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930411

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CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

JOANIE HOLST. Joanie grew up on Lake Minnetonka and has been volunteering for the Wayzata Historical Society for many years. She can be found presenting programs on local history, researching in the archives, and contributing to the societys newsletter. Currently, she is the president of the organization.

LISA STEVENS. Lisa has served on the board and volunteered with the ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka Historical Society for many years. She has worked on several publications for the society, including Walking the Trails of History.

ELIZABETH VANDAM. Elizabeth is the treasurer for the Westonka Historical Society and History Museum in Mound, Minnesota, and contributes to the societys newsletter. She is the author of The Doors of Tangletown, A Historical Reflection of Washburn Park (2002), and Harry Wild Jones, American Architect (2008), winner of the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Silver Book Award sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book represents the first collaboration of the ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka Historical Society, the Wayzata Historical Society, and the Westonka Historical Society. These societies have used their extensive photographic and archival collections and have consulted many Lake Minnetonka historical organizations, historians, and primary sources to provide the most accurate portrait possible of lake history. The books scope is limited to the high-quality images of the lake area that are available, mainly from the 1860s to the 1950s, and includes images and information that are being published for the first time.

The authors wish to thank everyone who has donated, collected, and written history about Lake Minnetonka, particularly the following individuals and organizations who have been generous with their knowledge, image collections, and time: Mary Lou Bennis, Andy Bond, Doug Complin, Susanne Egli, Marty Gilbert, Drue Gisvold, Jeffrey Hatcher, Holly Holmes, Brian Holst, Bill Jepson, Susan Larson-Fleming, Paul Maravelas, Lori McCune, Mary McKenzie, Jon Monson, Pam Myers, Mary Opheim, Tom Rockvam, Dean Salita, Ginny Shafer, Sue Sorrentino, Don Stolz, Barbara Sykora, and Gerry Vandam. The authors would also like to thank everyone we have worked with at Arcadia Publishing for their guidance, patience, and support.

The authors would especially like to thank historian Scott D. McGinnis for countless hours of research, advice, support, and for generously sharing his collections and encyclopedic knowledge of Lake Minnetonka history.

The images in this volume appear courtesy of the Cottagewood General Store (CGS), Deanne Gray Straka (DGS), ExcelsiorLake Minnetonka Historical Society (ELMHS), the Elizabeth Vandam Private Collection (EV), the Hennepin County Library Minneapolis Collection (HCL), the Hennepin History Museum (HHM), Lori McCune (LM), the Minnetonka Historical Society (MTHS), Scott D. McGinnis (SDM), St. Martins-by-the-Lake Episcopal Church (SML), Tom Rockvam (TR), the Walden Collection (WC), the Westonka Historical Society (WTHS), and the Wayzata Historical Society (WZHS).

INTRODUCTION

Lake Minnetonka has always meant many things to many people. Today, we know that the lake located in western Hennepin County, Minnesota, covers 14,000 acres, with 121 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 113 feet. Geologists call it an ice block or kettle lake, created by melted blocks of ice from the retreating Wisconsin Glacier. The lake is fed by way of Six Mile Creek and Halsted Bay and flows out at Grays Bay into Minnehaha Creek, traveling 22 miles east to the Mississippi River.

Centuries ago, indigenous people camped here and built sacred mounds on the lakes shores. The Mdewakanton Dakota, who hunted and fished the area for many years, were said to have kept their knowledge of the lake to themselves. Soldier Joseph Brown heard the Indians speak about a large body of water towards the setting sun, in the big woods. In 1822, he set out to find it with William Snelling and two others from Fort St. Anthony. They traveled west, following Minnehaha Creek, and came to todays Grays Bay. Upon their return, their discovery was met with disinterest. The lake remained undisturbed until the land opened for settlement following the Treaty of Mendota in 1851. History has it that when Gov. Alexander Ramsey visited the lake in 1852 and was told that the Dakota called it Minnetonka, meaning large water, he made the name official. Soon, newspapers proclaimed, Perhaps no place in Minnesota is attracting more attention at present than Minnetonka.

Before photography came to the lake, its vistas were preserved with words. For the excited speculator, the pioneer filled with wanderlust, and the family anxious to learn about their future home, letters and newspaper reports were their only resource.

In 1852, John H. Stevens, one of the first settlers in what is now Minneapolis, wrote to George Bertram of the Excelsior Pioneer Association in New York:

This is a healthy country: we have no bilious fevers... and cases of consumption... are seldom known here at all. Next, our climate, in the summer, spring, and fall, is delightful. The beautiful autumn excels any part of the year, yet our winters are cold but pleasant, the sun shines nearly every day during the whole winter months, and while it is very cold, the atmosphere is so clear and healthy that persons do not feel the cold half as much as in Missouri. Yet the mercury often freezes. I have often travelled all day long when this was so, and not felt the cold, and I was as comfortable as in mid summer, in fact, the winters are not objectionable. Now for Minnetonka: Maple sugar can be made, enough to sweeten a colony of fifty thousand souls.... The wild game of the country is abundant enough to support any quantity of families and as the Indians recede the game will increase.... Any family can procure enough fish to last them year round.... In winter, we are about fourteen days from New York, in summer, half that time. Not wishing you to locate here against your will, because we know of plenty who wish and are now looking for suitable places to make a permanent home. I would advise you, if you want to secure the cream of the land or the lake, to see to it this fall.