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CHAPTER 2 Park Conditions, Analysis, & Opportunities Location and Context the river and East River Parkway on the east side of the river. MGRP is located along the Mississippi River, consisting of land in both the City of Minneapolis and the City of Saint Paul (figure 2-1). The Gorge is characterized by steep The park is lined by several South and Southeast wooded bluffs overlooking the river, a connected system of Minneapolis neighborhoods, including Cedar-Riverside, parkways and trails, floodplain forests in the river flats, and Seward, Longfellow, Cooper, Howe, Hiawatha, urban parks on the bluffs and in the flats. It offers residents University, and Prospect Park/East River Road. Adjacent and visitors an opportunity to enjoy nature in the City and neighborhood land use character ranges from single- the ability to access the Mississippi River. The Gorge is family residential, to multi-family residential, to mixed-use/ unique as the only river gorge along the entire length of commercial, to large scale college/university buildings. the Mississippi River, and has geological, cultural, and The University of Minnesota and Minneapolis Rowing Club historical significance in the Twin Cities region. both operate existing boathouse facilities within the park. MGRP in Minneapolis encompasses approximately MGRP lies within a unit of the National Park Service 132-acres and 5.5 miles of riverfront flanking both the system, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area east and west banks of the Mississippi River. It is part (MNRRA) - a 72-mile stretch of the river corridor reaching of a larger continuous regional park system along the from Dayton/Ramsey to just south of Hastings, MN. river, abutted by Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional MGRP is served by two National Scenic Byways – The Park to the north and Minnehaha Regional Park to the Grand Rounds and the Great River Road. It is also served south. It is bordered by Bridge No. 9 on its northern edge by the first and only state bikeway, the Mississippi River and Minnehaha Regional Park on its southern edge, and Trail. roughly bound by West River Parkway on the west side of MISSISSIPPI GORGE REGIONAL PARK MASTER PLAN PARK CONDITIONS, ANALYSIS, & OPPORTUNITIES 2-1 Study Area Map I-35 Bridge Bridge 10th Ave Bridge ¨¦§35W Number 9 LANGFORD TCF BANK BOHEMIAN FLATS PARK STADIUM PARK (PHASE 1 PARK) UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA WEST BANK SOFTBALL FIELDS 19th Ave S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA University Ave EAST BANK Washington Ave Washington EAST RIVER St Oak SE Bridge 280 FLATS PARK CURRIE PARK SE Huron Blvd Huron SE Fulton St SE HAMPDEN PRATT PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Riverside Ave MISSISSIPPI RIVER LUSTON PARK TOWER UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA RECREATION WEST BANK CENTER HILL PARK Cedar Ave S Ave Cedar ANNIE YOUNG SOUTH MEADOW LUXTON SAINT ANTHONY (PHASE 1 PARK) Ave 27th PARK PARK RIVERSIDE I-94 Bridge SAINT PAUL MURPHY PARK MINNEAPOLIS SQUARE Franklin Ave ¦¨§94 MERWYN Franklin Bridge TRIANGLE SAINT PAUL Franklin Ave Mississippi River Boulevard CHERGOSKY 280 PARK PARK SEWARD 26th Ave S Ave 26th MONTESSORI WEST RIVER EAST SCHOOL ¦¨§94 MISSISSIPPI RIVER PHILLIPS MATTHEWS PARKWAY RECREATION PARK CENTER West River Parkway SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR MATTHEWS CHILDREN-TWIN CITIES PARK East 26th St CEDAR Minnehaha Ave AVENUE MINNESOTA DESNOYER TRANSITIONS PARK FIELD MIDDLE SCHOOL Rail Bridge Pelham 55 WHITE MEEKER ISLAND SANDS LOCK & DAM ¦¨§94 BEACH HISTORIC PARK Boulevard MIDTOWN Cretin Ave S GREENWAY ANISHINABE BRACKETT THE TOWN & ACADEMY FIELD COUNTRY CLUB East 28th St MERRIAM TERRACE Cleveland Ave S MINNEAPOLIS PARK ROWING CLUB Lake Street / Marshall Lake Street Marshall Ave Bridge EAST RIVER Minnehaha Ave 36th Ave S PARKWAY MINNEHAHA UNIVERSITY ACADEMY LONGFELLOW OF SOUTH HIGH FIELD ALTERNATIVE 42nd Ave S (UPPER) HIGH SCHOOL ST. THOMAS HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC FIELDS 46th Ave S COOPER PAUL SAINT COMMUNITY MINNEAPOLIS SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SHADOW FALLS LONGFELLOW ST. THOMAS BEACH PARK CORCORAN PARK THE Summit Ave SEVEN MONUMENT LONGFELLOW OAKS PARK OVAL “Oak Savanna” East 35th Street SANFORD THE SAINT PAUL 23rd Ave S Ave 23rd MIDDLE SEMINARY SCHOOL SCHOOL OF DIVINITY Savanna FOLWELL Prairie SCHOOL MINNEAPOLIS Cretin Ave S HOWE GROVELAND PARK ELEMENTARY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Mississippi River Boulevard SCHOOL GROVELAND East 38th Street PARK 36th Ave S Cleveland Ave S 28th Ave S Ave 28th DOWLING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SIBLEY FIELD WEST RIVER 42nd Ave S PARKWAY Minnehaha Ave EAST RIVER ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL PARKWAY 46th Ave S 55 East 42nd Street HIAWATHA MINNEHAHA PARK ACADEMY HIAWATHA (LOWER & MIDDLE SCHOOL) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NORTHROP ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY LAKE ELEMENTARY WINCHELL HIAWATHA SCHOOL TRAIL HEAD PARK Ave Nokomis MAP KEY SUNNY HOLLOW MISSISSIPPI RIVER MONTESSORI SCHOOL LAKE STUDY AREA HIAWATHA CILAKETY OF MINNEAPOLIS BOUNDARY East 46th Street HIAWATHA GOLF Ford Parkway Ford Parkway MINNEHAHA Bridge CREEK PARK SEA SALT HIGHLAND GROVELAND HILLCREST RECREATION MINNEHAHA EATERY MINNEHAHA PARK PARK CREEK PARK / PARKWAY LOCK LONGFELLOW 0 0&.5 GARDENS 1 WENONAH DAM #1 N TRIANGLE Miles MINNESOTA LAKE VETERANS FORD NOKOMIS HOME LITTLE LEAGUE FIELD Figure 2-1. Study Area Map 2-2 DRAFT Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board Cultural and Historic bands of hunter-gatherers about 12,000 years ago, to denser settlements proficient in ceramic manufacturing Resources and corn-based horticulture by the 400s CE into the late 1700s. American Indians in what is now south-central This section provides an overview of the park area history, Minnesota demonstrated resiliency and a complex including cultural resources that have been identified within understanding of the ecological and social environments Mississippi Gorge Regional Park. Additional information in which they lived. The earliest Euro-Americans in the land about cultural resources within and adjacent to MGRP can that was to become Minnesota were French missionaries be found in Appendix A, including applicable legislative and fur traders during the mid-to-late 1600s, followed by requirements regarding cultural resource preservation and British, and later American, traders and explorers in the an overview of previous cultural resources investigations 1700s and 1800s. The arrival of Euro-Americans, who in the vicinity. The cultural resources of the area, and the within 200 years dramatically altered the environment and stories they evoke, informed the interpretive theme and social landscape through the fur trade, warfare, settlement, subthemes as a way of engaging visitors and enhancing and treaties, forced American Indians to find new ways their experience at MGRP. to adapt to an increasingly altered homeland. During the mid-1600s, the westward expansion of the fur trade and a Overview of Area History growing European presence, as well as conflict between tribes resulted in the migration of the Ioway and Otoe The lakes, rivers, and topography of Minneapolis are a south and west into Iowa and Nebraska. During this time, result of the movement of glaciers during a series of ice the Dakota more permanently settled in the area, due ages thousands of years ago. The Mississippi River once in part to the establishment of the Ojibwe in north and flowed through present-day South Minneapolis. The river central Minnesota, and maintained a strong presence until was diverted eastward to its present course because of treaties, war, disease, and forced removal diminished their a glacial advance some time before 35,000 BCE. MGRP numbers in the 1850s and 1860s. area has a long American Indian history and is tied to the industrial, recreational, educational, and residential development of Minneapolis and Saint Paul as well. The The pioneer settlers were drawn to the Mississippi river through the park area changed with the construction River and its potential to provide the power and access of the federal lock and dam system starting in the late to transportation for their developing industries. As a 1800s. Mississippi Gorge Regional Park and its associated result, they settled the first towns that would become St. parkways provide numerous views and experiences of the Anthony and Minneapolis on both banks of the Mississippi river and its bluffs and flats. River. Logs were cut in forests to the north and floated down the river to construct buildings as well as supply the burgeoning lumber industry. Additionally, waterfalls turned turbines that powered the flour mills, for which the area is well-known. The powerful St. Anthony Falls, however, proved challenging for steamboat navigation and hampered development of Minneapolis’ manufacturing industry. In the 1850s, industry and community leaders began talking about a lock and dam system. Shippers and civic boosters promoted the idea with the hope that such a system would make Minneapolis the Mississippi River’s head of navigation. However, the millers at St. Anthony Falls were concerned about competition from a new source of water power and lumbermen were worried they would no longer be able to float their logs down the river to booms above Saint Paul for collection. Meanwhile, Saint Paul businessmen and boosters were afraid their Painting of Fort Snelling city would lose its stronghold of navigational power to Minneapolis. For thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, ancestors of the Siouan people (including the Missouria, Otoe, Iowa, and Dakota) were living on the land that would After several decades of political debate and intercity later become known as Minnesota. From mobile, compact rivalry between Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in the 1890s, the federal government initiated the construction of a MISSISSIPPI GORGE REGIONAL PARK MASTER PLAN PARK CONDITIONS, ANALYSIS, & OPPORTUNITIES 2-3 lock and dam system. One lock and dam would be located near Meeker Island, which was proximate to the Minneapolis city limits, and the other farther south near the mouth of Minnehaha Creek. The Meeker Island Lock and Dam (originally called Lock and Dam No. 2) was completed in 1906, but abandoned in 1912 and partially demolished because it was too low to support hydropower.

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