![]() ![]() ![]() In 1885 the Minnesota legislature passed a bill that authorized the creation of a park at Minnehaha Falls. Horace Cleveland in his blueprint for the city’s parks in 1883 did not address specifically the development of the land around the falls, although he called it “exceedingly desirable.” The first park board focused instead on developing four neighborhood parks, as well as parks and parkways around the lakes in southwest Minneapolis and the Mississippi River gorge below St. The earliest plans of Minneapolis’s Board of Park Commissioners didn’t address the falls because it was located far outside city limits at the time. The city of Minneapolis put up the money to buy it and managed it from the beginning. But the state of Minnesota only paid for the park indirectly and never had a hand in maintaining it. ![]() Only New York had created a state park at that time. Minnehaha Falls and the land surrounding it became one of the first state parks in the United States when it was purchased by the state of Minnesota in 1889. The popular translation of “laughing waters” comes from a felicitous, but too literal Anglophone translation of “ha ha”. The name Minnehaha comes from words in the Dakota language that mean waterfall. ![]() In 1906 it was officially designated as a part of Mississippi Park, which included the parkways on both sides of the river and Riverside Park. Name: The park was officially named Minnehaha State Park when it was purchased by Minneapolis for the state of Minnesota in 1889. The statue portrays him in late nineteenth attire of knee-length coat, buckle shoes and cravat. The Gunnar Wennerberg statue (1915) by artist Carl Johan Eldh, located at 50th Street and Hiawatha Avenue, depicts Gunnar Wennerberg (1817-1901), a Swedish poet, scholar, composer and politician. The area is considered sacred to Native Americans. The chief was killed in the year following the 1862 Dakota conflict. Viewers can see the sky through the eyes of Taoyeteduta or Little Crow. The Chief Little Crow Mask by Ed Archie Noisecat is located near Minnehaha Falls. The sculpture, which rests on a small island in the creek, can be viewed from the water’s edge a short way above the falls. On exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, the sculpture was purchased with pennies donated by school children in Minnesota – an effort organized by Mrs. It bears the inscription: Over wide and rushing rivers In his arms he bore the maiden. Hiawatha and Minnehaha is a life-size bronze sculpture by Jakob Fjelde (also of Ole Bull and Minerva fame) that depicts the characters from the poem “Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Minnehaha Park is home to several sculptures. Let your dog run off-leash at one of our eight dog parks.Ĭelebrate 140+ years of Minneapolis Park history through community stories
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