Lake Minnetonka

Lake Minnetonka was formed around 10,000 years ago during the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet. The lake consists of interconnected kettle lakes, channels, and marshlands, along with 18 islands, giving it an irregular shape and 125 miles (201 km) of shoreline. Human habitation in the area dates back approximately 10,000 years, beginning with ancestral Indigenous peoples. Between 3500 BCE and 1500 CE, the Mound Builders era flourished; in the 1880s, 524 burial mounds and earthworks along the lakeshore were mapped and estimated to date from 300 BCE to 100 CE. By the 1700s, the Dakota people inhabited the area, utilizing the lake for hunting, fishing, harvesting wild rice, and setting up maple sugar camps. The lake holds cultural and spiritual significance for the Dakota people, with sacred sites such as Spirit Knob playing an important role in their traditions and beliefs. Following the Dakota War of 1862, the Dakota people were forcibly removed from the region.

European American settlement began in the 1850s, and with the advent of streetcars, trains, and steamboats, Lake Minnetonka became a nationally recognized vacation destination. Attractions like Big Island Park (1906) and the Excelsior Amusement Park (1925) contributed to its popularity. However, as resort areas developed in other parts of the country, Lake Minnetonka's national prominence as a vacation hotspot declined. It is a popular spot for local boaters, sailors, and fishermen.

History

Early history

The first people who inhabited the Lake Minnetonka area were Indigenous peoples who migrated to the region at the end of the last ice age circa 8000 BCE. Later peoples who inhabited the area between 3500 BCE and 1500 CE are commonly referred to collectively as the "Mound Builders" because they constructed large land features serving spiritual, ceremonial, burial, and elite residential functions. The Mound Builder culture reached its apex circa 1150 CE and ceased to exist circa 1500 CE. In the 1880s, 524 burial mounds were mapped around the lakeshore, estimated to have been made between 300 B.C. and 100 A.D.

By the 1700s, Lake Minnetonka was inhabited by the Mdewakanton people, a subtribe of the Dakota Nation. The Dakota traditionally moved their villages seasonally: wild rice harvesting in the autumn, hunting camps in the winter, and maple sugar camps in the spring. The Mdewakanton, based in the Minnesota and Mississippi River valleys, used Lake Minnetonka as part of this annual cycle to hunt, fish, and gather resources like wild rice and maple sap. Big Island served as a key maple sugar camp, while Spirit Knob, a peninsula near present-day Wayzata, holds spiritual significance for the Dakota as an offering site. An important fur-trade Dakota trail extended from Spirit Knob around the lake to the village of Chief Shakopee I near present-day Shakopee, Minnesota, following a route that corresponds to present-day Minnesota State Highway 101, also known as Bushaway Road. During the Treaty of Mendota negotiations, the brother of Chief Shakopee II asserted that Lake Minnetonka should be included within their Dakota reservation boundaries. However, following the Dakota War of 1862, the Dakota were forcibly removed from the region (the conflicts of the war did not reach Lake Minnetonka).

Despite interactions with European Americans at Fort Snelling, the Dakota kept the lake secret from them due to its cultural significance. The first white Americans known to have visited Lake Minnetonka were two teenage boys, Joe Brown and Will Snelling, who canoed up Minnehaha Creek from Fort Saint Anthony in 1822. However, few other Euro-Americans visited the lake or even knew of its existence for three subsequent decades.

Lake Minnetonka was officially named by Minnesota's territorial governor, Alexander Ramsey, in 1852. He had been informed that the Dakota used the phrase Mní iá Tháŋka (“the-water-they-speak-of-is-large” in the Dakota language) to refer to the lake. Excelsior, the lake's first white settlement, was established the following year. The first steamboat on Lake Minnetonka, a small side-wheel steamer named Governor Ramsey, was launched in 1861. Travel to Lake Minnetonka remained relatively difficult, however, until the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad extended a line to Wayzata in 1867.

Peter Gideon, an early Minnesota horticulturist, moved to the Lake Minnetonka area in 1853. In 1868 he successfully bred a species of apple that could withstand Minnesota's harsh winters and named it the "Wealthy" in honor of his wife. This breakthrough made possible the later developments of the Haralson and Honeycrisp apples in 1913 and 1974, respectively.

Resort years

The construction of hotels and boarding houses near Lake Minnetonka boomed during the 1870s and early 1880s. The first large hotel on the lake, the Hotel Saint Louis in Deephaven, was built in 1879 and boasted 150 guest rooms with private verandas. The larger Lake Park Hotel was completed in Tonka Bay later that year. The largest hotel ever built on Lake Minnetonka, the Hotel Lafayette in Minnetonka Beach, opened in 1882. At nearly 800 feet (244 m) long and five stories tall, the Hotel Lafayette could accommodate over 1,000 guests. Many guests hailed from the Deep South and spent entire summers on the lake to enjoy its scenery and cooler climate.

Large steamboats also proliferated on Lake Minnetonka during this time. The first inland steamboat ever to be equipped with electric lights, City of Saint Louis, was assembled in Wayzata in 1881 and began servicing lakeside communities and resorts later that year. The largest vessel ever to operate on Lake Minnetonka, Belle of Minnetonka, was launched and put into service in 1882. At 300 feet (91 m) long, Belle of Minnetonka could purportedly accommodate up to 2,500 passengersat

The lake's first yacht club, the Minnetonka Yacht Club, was founded in 1882 in Deephaven. Hazen Burton, one of the club's original co-founders, is credited for commissioning the development of the racing scow. When he debuted the first racing scow, Onawa, in 1893, it was disqualified for winning nearly every regatta it entered. The rules were eventually modified, however, and racing scows became popular within the sailing community worldwide. Onawa is currently displayed at the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society Museum in Excelsior.

Many of Lake Minnetonka's visitors began finding new places to vacation as the railroads expanded westward in the 1890s, causing most of the lake's hotels and steamboats to suffer financially and cease operations. Some hotels burned during this time, but most were demolished or dismantled. By 1900, however, an increasing number of families had begun to construct private summer cottages around Lake Minnetonka. Permanent homes and grand country estates also began to appear around the lake as the Twin Cities metropolitan area grew. Some of these homes and cottages still exist, including the Thompson Summer House in Minnetonka Beach.

Golden years

In 1905 the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) extended a streetcar line to the village of Excelsior on Lake Minnetonka's southern shore. The lake saw dramatic change in 1906 as TCRT also opened Big Island Park on Big Island and debuted its Express Boat service. The Express Boats, casually referred to as “streetcar boats,” were essentially floating streetcars that served the lake's summer residents. Six (and later seven) of these steamboats connected 26 landings around the lake to Excelsior, where passengers could transfer onto streetcars bound for the Twin Cities. Many streetcar boat passengers were lakeside residents commuting to their jobs in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Tourists, on the other hand, could board one of three large ferry boats bound for Big Island Park, where they could picnic, enjoy live music, and ride several attractions. However, TCRT closed Big Island Park in 1911 due to its excessive operating and maintenance costs.

Ridership on the streetcar boats began to plummet when roads were improved in the area in the early 1920s. Steamboat service on Lake Minnetonka grew evermore limited during this time, and by 1926 TCRT had suspended all steamboat service on the lake. To rid itself of the vessels, TCRT scuttled three of the seven streetcar boats in deep water north of Big Island that summer. Three of the other boats were scrapped shortly thereafter, and one was sold and used as an excursion boat until it, too, was scuttled in 1949. Streetcar service to Excelsior continued until 1932.

Crane Island, an island near the western shore of the lake, was organized as a summer cottage retreat in 1907. The Crane Island Association platted a number of lots around the perimeter of the island and dedicated a commons area at its center. Many of the island's original cottages remain, and today it is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Several of the area's most prestigious country clubs, including the Lafayette Club, Minnetonka Country Club, and Woodhill Country Club, were also founded during this period.

Late 20th century

Fred W. Pearce, a well-known amusement park operator, opened Excelsior Amusement Park in Excelsior in 1925. Attractions included a fun house, the Silver Streak, the Scrambler, a carousel, picnic accommodations, and a roller coaster called the Cyclone. The Rolling Stones performed live at the park's Danceland pavilion in 1964 for a crowd of approximately 300. Excelsior Amusement Park continued to be a tourist destination until it closed in 1973. Today the site is occupied by a condominium complex and Maynards Restaurant.

In 1926 architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Olga Hinzengberg were arrested for allegedly violating the Mann Act while vacationing at a cottage in Tonka Bay. The charges were soon dropped after allegations against them were found untrue.

Before gaining national fame in the early 1940s, LaVerne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters spent their summers with relatives in Mound, a town in an area known as Westonka. The trio often returned to the area later in life as well.

In 1946 Mound Metalcraft was established in Mound. The company changed its name to Tonka Toys in the 1950s, when it became known for manufacturing toy trucks. Tonka Toys was purchased by Hasbro in 1991 and is no longer based in Minnesota.

Two F4 tornadoes ravaged the Lake Minnetonka area during the tornado outbreak of 1965, causing much damage in the communities of Mound, Navarre, and Deephaven. Hundreds of homes and many local businesses were destroyed during the outbreak.

The steamboat Minnehaha, one of the streetcar boats scuttled in 1926, was raised from the bottom of Lake Minnetonka in 1980, restored, and returned to service by 1996. Now operated by the Museum of Lake Minnetonka, Minnehaha once again carries passengers between the communities of Excelsior and Wayzata as she did over a century ago.

National Historic Districts and Places

The Lake Minnetonka area is home to two National Historic Districts: the Crane Island Historic District and The Water Street Historic District in the community of Excelsior. It is also home to 6 National Register of Historic Places sites.