The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-10


domination were acquired. To this, in
iSOI and 1902, were added fifty acres,
lncIudlng Goose lake, OF thirty acres,
purchased by the county and turned
over to the city, and forty acres pur-
chased by the board along it's western
boundary line. What remains to be
acquired outside the city limits, to car
ry out the plans of the board, has al
ready been indicated.
Art can add but little to the beau
tles OF this woodland park. Beyond
Few roadWays, including a boulevard
around the lake and pathways on It's
border and elsewhere, no costly sur
face improvements are needed. The
floral display appropriate to portions
of Como park would be out of harmony
with the wild beauty of this woodland
park. A flock Of sheep, with shep
herd and shepherd dog, would serve,
instead of mowers, to keep the grass
trimmed, and would add to the scene
a congenial element of rural life. The
board proposes to make the most of
the parks adaptation to aquatic recre-
alton. 1t has already provided for
the first installment of a future fleet
of roWboats and motor barges." (Sev-
enty-hve rowbOats and a sixty-foot
gasoline launch, carrying eighty pas
sengers, will be put in service at
Phalen park this spring.)
Must Have Car Service.
but the success of these arrange
ments will depend, Of course, wholly
upon the extension of the electric rail-
way to this park, now a mile and a
half distant from car facilities. AS
the ordinance and contract requiring
the street railway company to make
this extension long antedates the char
ter of 1900, the co1npanys obligation
to fulfill that contract is wholly indie
pendent of the questions involved in
its present controversy with the city.
The company may be reasonably eX-
pected, therefore, to fill it's promise to
extend its tracks and service to Pha-
len park this year, in spite of reports
to the contrary.
Indian Mounds park, four miles
south OF Phalen park, is unique among
American parks in it's admirable situa-
ton and in the exceptional character
of its attractions. Occupying the mar
gin and slopes of the lofty bluff at the
apex of the elbow Of the Mississippi
river, where it resumes it's sOutherly
course after running in a northeasterly
direction from the gray promontory
Of Fort Smelling to the white escarp-
ment of Daytons bluff, this park COM
mands far-reaching prospects Of the
hill-bound valleys Of the Mississippi
and Minnesota rivers which are hardly
Cquo1CO III America Tor C0G1f extent
and magnifcence. st. Paul has many
fine viewpoints and there are many
others along the course of the Mis-
s1sslpp1. But in it's Iange and variety
OF picturesque river scenery Indian
Mounds park is, par excellence, the
prospect park Of st. Paul and of the
Northwest.
Its local features add to it's interest.
The edge of the bluff, which takes in
this wide sweep of prospect and makes
IT a portion of the park itself is
crowned with five superb cone shaped
Indian moundS-the tumular monu-
mentS, not of a vanished race, but of
the chiefs and head men of the ances-
tors of the eXiled Dakota nation, in
which their remains were buried per-
haps centuries ago, in the belief no
doubt that to lay them in such con-
splcuous sepulchers was the highest
honor which could be paid them. AS
long ago as when Jonathan Carver Wis
TIED this. spot, then the seat Of the
annual councils of that ancient ma
ton, these mounds were here. In the
early days of st. Paul they were ran
sacked by antiquarian vandals and
robbed Of the Indian relics that were
buried with the warrior dead
one of the first moves of the park
board, after it's creation in 1887, was
10 undertake to acquire a spacious
park at this point. But, defeated by
the rapacity Of real estate spectators.
it was not until 1892 that a narrow
strlp OF land along the edge and slope
of the bluff on which the mounds are
situated, comprising only seventeen
acres, was acquired; partly by pur-
chase with an authorized issue Of bonds
In the sum of $4,000, and partly by
condemnation. This was absurdly in
adequate to the needs of a park of
such commanding character. But the
Doard had no power 10 Or means to en-
large the tract until the passage. in
1SOl, OF law empowering it to make
contracts for land to a limited amount.
we were able in that year to ac-
Qu1re by purchase tl1irty-five acres of
land adjacent to the state fish hatch
cry, and, later, to acquire about nine
acres more by condemnation, thus en-
larging the area of the park from II to
66.4 acres.
Meanwhile the fish hatchery was
enlarged by the state first to TWENTY
two acres, and, last year, to sixty-two
acres. AS the state fish and game
commissioners have agreed that the
hatchery grounds shall be treated. so
1ar as their ornamental features are
concerned, as a portion of Indian
Mounds park, this practically raises
the area of that park to 123 acres The
ponds, fed by streams of pure water.
gushing from the neighboring hills, has
Tor many years been an object Of great
interest to the public, but was ac-
cess1ble only by a steep and difficult
road, SUBJECT to frequent washouts, un-
I'll the adjacent lands came under the
jurisdiction of the park board, when It
at once set about the construction of
convenient road Of easy grade to the
fish hatchery. This road, planned and
constructed by Supt. Nussbaumer. I'M
folding a series of delightful views as
1t winds around the crests and slopes
OF the hill, is now nearly completed
and adds great credit to the skill of
the superintendent as a road engineer
and to his taste as a landscape archi
tect. 1t still remains to be adorned
with trees and shrubbery and along its
naked cuts with turf
Plan Beautiful River Drive.
"One Of the first acts of the park
board, after it was established in 1887.
was to cause the survey of a boulevard
zoo feet wide along the bluff of the
Mississippi river from the Minneapo-
lis boundary to Toronto street, over
three miles below Smelling bridge The
city council declined to condemn the
land as requested. Nothing more was
publicly or officially done about il until
1899, when, thanks to the liberal public
spirit OF Archbishop Ireland in donating
eighteen acres Of land for the purpose
called Shadow Falls park, from it's
including the picturesque ravine of
Shadow Falls-the board was enabled
TO enter actively upon the development