NATIONAL REGISTER of HISTORIC PLACES Clearwater INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM for NPS USE ONLY
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Form 10-300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE: (Dec. 1968) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Minnesota I COUNTY: N NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Clearwater INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY (Type all entries — complete applicable sections) COMMON: Itasca State Park AND/OR HISTORIC: Headwaters of the Mississippi River S'TREET AND NUMBER: #. ? ^^C^, 4 CITY OR TOWN: twenty-one miles north of Park Rapids COUNTY: 02S~ Minnesota 23 Clearwater CATEGORY ACCESSIBLE oo OWNERSHIP STATUS (Check One) TO THE PUBLIC District [JCj Building Public [X| Public Acquisition: Occupied K Yes: Site Q Structure Private Q In Process Unoccupied Q Restricted g] Both [ | Being Considered Preservation work Unrestricted Q Object 1 1 in progress Q No: Q U PRESENT USE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Agricultural | | Government Park 0g Transportation | | Comments 1 f Commercial | | Industrial Private Residence I I Other (Specify) Educational ( | Military Religious | | uo Entertainment || Museum n Scientific | | {lililllililillilliiii OWNERS NAME: ks LJJ STREET AND NUMBER: LJU CO CITY OR TOWN: STATE: St. Paul Minnesota COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC: Ramsey County Courthouse STREET AND NUMBER: CITY OR TOWN: STATE St. Paul Minnesota APPROXIMATE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY: 32,690 |||i||||||i||lill|i<lll:i;|i||lllii|lll;; TITLE OF SURVEY: DATE OF SURVEY: 1965 Fed State County Local DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: Minnesota Historical Society STREET AND NUMBER: 690 Cedar Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE: St. Paul Minnesota (Check One) CONDITION Excellent | | Good si Fair g£] Deteriorated | | Ruins n Unexposed a (Check One) (Check One) INTEGRITY Altered 53 Unaltered G Mo ved | | Original S te |J] DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (tf known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE The boundaries of the nominated property are the same as boundaries of Itasca State Park and include the following: Clearwater County All of T 143 N, R 36 W; Sections 1-36. SE% Sec. 34, and the SW% of the NE% and the S% Sec. 35, T 144 N, R 36 W. Hubbard County Sections 6, 7, 18, 19, 30, 31, SW^ Section 17, W^ Section 20, W% Section 29, W% Section 32, T 143 N, R 35 W; Section 6 and the W% of the W%, Section 5, T 142 N, R 35 W. Becker County Sections, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, T 142 N, R 35 W. CO m Because the area/is all state owned and because Itasca State Park rn is significant as the^oldest and one of the most important state parks in Minnesota the entire 32,690 acres have been nominated. The story of the search for the source of the Mississippi involves the entire Itasca basin not only the headwaters themselves. CO H Itasca State Park is roughly seven miles square and contains three •73 thousand acres of lakes and ponds. The land area is divided into twenty- seven thousand five hundred acres of upland and one thousand five hundred C acres of swamp. Most of the area is covered with a heavy growth of timber. n The forests of Itasca are varied but the trees that give the park its H character are the giant red or Norway pines, many of which are over two hundred years old. There are many good stands of jack pine, mostly younger trees which have grown up since the park was established. The white pine within the park are more scattered and seldom form pure stands. The bulk of hardwood is made up of birch and aspen, and there are a few fine stands of mixed hardwoods such as maple, basswood and oak. The swamps contain mixtures of spruce, balsam, and tamarack. Cedar are found in a swamp on the west side of Lake Itasca, one of the few places these trees exist in the whole area. Geographically Lake Itasca is the official source of the Mississippi River and is 1,475 feet above sea level and 2,330 miles by river from the Gulf of Mexico. The Itasca basin was formed by the action of stagnant glaciers which produced the lakes and hills that rise three hundred feet above them. The many potholes were probably formed by isolated ice masses that melted after the rest of the glacier had retreated. These small lakes bear no relationship to the terrain that existed before the glacier moved in, but Lake Itasca, Mary Lake, and Elk Lake appear to occupy the valley of a drainage basin that existed before the last glacier appeared. Some of the swamps and small lakes along the creeks were formed where beaver built dams for water storage. Form 10-300o THE INTERIOR STATE (July 1969) .CE Minnesota RIC PLACES COUNTY Clearwater N FORM FOR NFS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER DATE (Number all entries) 7. Description Evidences of^prehistoric habitation have been found in at least seven separate places within the park«_ The 'fertge TEgS'ea~STEe~ffii^NE%» Sec, 2, T 143 N, R 36 W) consists of a group of ten mounds., nine of which werj^excavated and reconstfucteoTTnT 1895..""""The Hill Point Site, a habitation site^at The"tip of Hill Point on the west side, southern end of the northern bay of Lake Itasca, and the Chambers Creek Site, a habitation site on the south and eastern side of the west arm of Lake Itasca, have both yielded a moderate amount oL cultural materiajL^ Large portions of both these sites remain undisturbed. v The Itasca Bison site is a bison kill site consisting of a deposit of bison bone and stone,tools lying at the base of a jpelat deposit. /This early archaic site was partially excavated in 1937 *and again in v)l963-65. Major portions of the site remain undisturbed. Two additional sites, one on the west side of Lake Itasca on Garrison Point, and one on the west shore of Itasca opposite Schoolcraft Island, were only briefly tested and yielded no definite cultural information. The headwaters themselves are located at the north end of Lake Itasca State Park where the river has its beginning in a stream small enough to jump across. At the headwaters a museum features exhibits on local plant and animal life and of the settlement of northern Minnesota, Additional displays in the recently constructed visitors' center recount the discovery of the Mississippi River's source. The Theodore Wegmann cabin is located one-quarter mile north of park headquarters on the east side of Park Drive and across from the park museum. Still standing on its original site in the park, the small log cabin is in deteriorating condition. Douglas Lodge is located near the east park entrance on the south side of the east arm of Itasca Lake, The structure is of log construction jandtwo stories in height, A porch runs half the length of the ground floor. The interior of the building consists of a lobby, a lounge with a large stone fireplace, gift shop and dining area on the first floor and sleeping rooms on the second floor. Slight modifications to the porch and an addition to the dining room are the only extensive alterations to the building since its construction. The pioneer cemetery is 'located along Park Drive on the north arm of Lake Itasca just north of the University of Minnesota Forestry and Biology Station. It has not been altered and is maintained in good condition. When the Forestry school opened in 1907 the students camped in tents along Lake Itasca. In 1910 two cabins and a barn were built but the students continued to live in tents. In 1912 the session opened with a new bunk house and four faculty cabins. By 1954 the school had expanded to fifty- Form 10-300o UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (July 1969) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES COUNTY Clearwater INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY (Continuation Sheet) ENTRY NUMBER MAY 7 (Number all entries) 7. Description five buildings including five laboratories. The Forestry school still sits on its original site. Remaining original buildings have been remodeled extensively. PERIOD (Check One or More as Appropriate) Pre-Columbian || 16th Century [ | 18th Century 20th Century 15th Century Q 17th Century Q 19th Century AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) Abor iginal Education n a Urban Planning II Prehistoric fig Engineering Other (Specify) ® Historic (XJ Industry Exploration Agriculture | | Geography Art D Commerce | | Communications | | Conservation [Xj STATEMENT OF SIGNI FICANCE (Inclu 'ts, Etc.) The Itasca State Park was created with two objectives in mind: first, to call attention to and preserve the headwaters of the Mississippi River; and second, to protect the natural and geologic features of the z area of the Itasca Basin, one of the most scenic areas in northern o Minnesota. Created by an act of the Minnesota Legislature in 1891 and consisting of thirty-five sections of land, it was the first action by the state to provide recreational areas, preserve wild life, retain u some of the virgin white and Norway pine, and take other steps to conserve soil, water, forests, natural wealth, and primevil beauty. Although the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto, discovered the lower reaches of the Mississippi in 1541, more than a hundred years passed before its upper waters were seen by Europeans. Raddisson and Groseilliers, two French traders, may have reached the upper Mississippi in the 1650s but historians do not agree on the extent of their journeys. Credit for discovering the upper river is generally given to Jacques LLJ Marquette, a Jesuit priest, and his companion, Louis Jolliet, who first LU entered the Mississippi at the mouth of the Wisconsin River in 1673. CO Other Frenchmen, La Salle, Father Louis Hennepin, Du Luth, and Le Sueur, traveled the upper river, but for three centuries after its discovery the true source of the Father of Waters remained a mystery.