page_title: Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis)
section_title: Acquisition and development
hierarchical_section_title: Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis) / History / Acquisition and development
caption_attribution_description: Minnehaha falls with rustic bridge, circa 1908
context_page_description: Minnehaha Park is a city park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. Officially named Minnehaha Regional Park, it is part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board system and lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service. The park was designed by landscape architect Horace W.S. Cleveland in 1883 as part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system, and was part of the popular steamboat Upper Mississippi River "Fashionable Tour" in the 1800s.
  The park preserves historic sites that illustrate transportation, pioneering, and architectural themes. Preserved structures include the Minnehaha Princess Station, a Victorian train depot built in the 1870s; the John H. Stevens House, built in 1849 and moved to the park from its original location in 1896, utilizing horses and 10,000 school children; and the Longfellow House, a house built to resemble the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
context_section_description: When Minneapolis' Park Board purchased Minnehaha Falls and surrounding land in 1889, it became one of the first state parks in the United States; only New York had created a state park by that time. The next summer the Park Board began to furnish the park with tables, seating, and lavatories.  By 1893 a pavilion had been built and the park approved funding for two bridges "of a rustic nature", one above the falls and the other below.  A refectory was built in 1905 to serve "refreshments of a clean and wholesome nature at a reasonable cost."  In 1926 the park board designated the park to be a center for winter sports activities; plans were made to build a ski jump and the board purchased toboggans for rental.  Major improvements including retaining walls, bridges, and stairs were made by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews from 1936 to 1942.
  While on the campaign trail in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson and Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey visited the park.  Johnson would go on to win the presidential election that year with Humphrey as his running mate.  Their visit is commemorated with a plaque which reads:
  President Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and Governor Karl Rolvaag enjoy the spray from Minnehaha Falls.  On that day, however, Minneapolis was experiencing a drought.  In order to create the beautiful spray of the falls pictured here the city had to open many fire hydrants upstream and out of sight, to feed water to the creek.
  The park saw conflict in the 1960s when the highway department planned an elevated freeway between Minnehaha Park and Longfellow Gardens over Minnehaha Creek. The park board challenged the plan and brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Fortunately for the park a similar case was decided in favor of the preservation of park land, thus setting a precedent, and the elevated freeway was never built.  Eventually a highway was built in the late 1990s that routed the road through a tunnel over the creek and covered by a "land bridge". A new garden, the Longfellow Garden, was established on top of the land bridge.
  Major improvements were also made in the 1990s.  The Pergola Garden was created to feature native wildflowers and grasses.  The parking lot that once overlooked the falls was removed, replaced by a garden and a low circular wall inscribed with Longfellow's words. The old refectory was given a veranda and a bandshell was added.  In 2007 a new river overlook was built in the Wabun picnic area and included a children's playground.
  In 2011 major restoration work on the park was completed.  The crumbling historic retaining walls built by the WPA in the 1930s were reinforced, eroded stream banks were restored, natural seating areas made of limestone were added, and trails and paths were improved. Landscape improvements were also done: invasive plants were removed and replaced with native plantings with deeper roots to stabilize the stream banks and prevent erosion.
  More than 850,000 people visit Minnehaha Falls each year, and it continues to be the most photographed site in Minnesota.
  In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of protests over the killing of George Floyd, the park board passed a resolution permitting homeless encampments in city parks on an indefinite basis. Minnehaha Regional Park was one of several sites designated by the park board as capable of hosting an encampment for people experiencing homelessness.
caption: Minnehaha falls with rustic bridge ~ circa 1895
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