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    Lake Minnetonka
    Lake Minnetonka
    Lake Minnetonka
    Ebook201 pages1 hour

    Lake Minnetonka

    By Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society, Wayzata Historical Society and Westonka Historical Society

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    About this ebook

    Known to native peoples for centuries as a sacred place and hunting ground, the ninth largest of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes remained unchanged until its shores were opened to settlement in 1851. The following year, New York promoter George Bertram wrote, "For healthfulness of climate, fertility of soil, beauty of scenery and nearness to markets [it] cannot be surpassed by any other locality in the country, being within twelve or fifteen miles of two of the most important towns in the territory . . . navigable for steam and other boats over forty-one miles, its waters clear as crystal and abounding with fish." Settlers began to flock to Lake Minnetonka's 120 miles of shoreline, clearing the "Big Woods" and building new lives in the wilderness. Soon, the lake became a tourist destination; thousands traveled across the country to stay in its lavish hotels, ride in massive steamboats, and enjoy the lake's beauty.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMar 30, 2015
    ISBN9781439650622
    Lake Minnetonka
    Author

    Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

    For the first time, the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka, Wayzata, and Westonka Historical Societies have collaborated to illustrate the history of "lake life" using their extensive archival and photographic resources. Images of America: Lake Minnetonka takes readers on a journey around the lake with many never-before-published photographs: from posed professional shots to family candid images that record everyday life right down to the smirk on a young boy's face.

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      Book preview

      Lake Minnetonka - Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

      (WZHS).

      INTRODUCTION

      Lake Minnetonka has always meant many things to many people. Today, we know that the lake located in western Hennepin County, Minnesota, covers 14,000 acres, with 121 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 113 feet. Geologists call it an ice block or kettle lake, created by melted blocks of ice from the retreating Wisconsin Glacier. The lake is fed by way of Six Mile Creek and Halsted Bay and flows out at Grays Bay into Minnehaha Creek, traveling 22 miles east to the Mississippi River.

      Centuries ago, indigenous people camped here and built sacred mounds on the lake’s shores. The Mdewakanton Dakota, who hunted and fished the area for many years, were said to have kept their knowledge of the lake to themselves. Soldier Joseph Brown heard the Indians speak about a large body of water towards the setting sun, in the big woods. In 1822, he set out to find it with William Snelling and two others from Fort St. Anthony. They traveled west, following Minnehaha Creek, and came to today’s Grays Bay. Upon their return, their discovery was met with disinterest. The lake remained undisturbed until the land opened for settlement following the Treaty of Mendota in 1851. History has it that when Gov. Alexander Ramsey visited the lake in 1852 and was told that the Dakota called it Minnetonka, meaning large water, he made the name official. Soon, newspapers proclaimed, Perhaps no place in Minnesota is attracting more attention at present than Minnetonka.

      Before photography came to the lake, its vistas were preserved with words. For the excited speculator, the pioneer filled with wanderlust, and the family anxious to learn about their future home, letters and newspaper reports were their only resource.

      In 1852, John H. Stevens, one of the first settlers in what is now Minneapolis, wrote to George Bertram of the Excelsior Pioneer Association in New York:

      This is a healthy country: we have no bilious fevers . . . and cases of consumption . . . are seldom known here at all. Next, our climate, in the summer, spring, and fall, is delightful. The beautiful autumn excels any part of the year, yet our winters are cold but pleasant, the sun shines nearly every day during the whole winter months, and while it is very cold, the atmosphere is so clear and healthy that persons do not feel the cold half as much as in Missouri. Yet the mercury often freezes. I have often travelled all day long when this was so, and not felt the cold, and I was as comfortable as in mid summer, in fact, the winters are not objectionable. Now for Minnetonka: Maple sugar can be made, enough to sweeten a colony of fifty thousand souls. . . . The wild game of the country is abundant enough to support any quantity of families and as the Indians recede the game will increase. . . . Any family can procure enough fish to last them year round. . . . In winter, we are about fourteen days from New York, in summer, half that time. Not wishing you to locate here against your will, because we know of plenty who wish and are now looking for suitable places to make a permanent home. I would advise you, if you want to secure the cream of the land or the lake, to see to it this fall.

      Hezekiah Brake, one of Bertram’s association members, arrived soon after and wrote, We were greatly pleased with our new home. There were no enormous rents as in the East, and we had laid in a stock of provisions that lasted some time. The Lake abounded in fish and in the forest any amount of game could be had for the shooting. Hunger is always a good sauce, but our appetites here were truly voracious.

      In 1853, Brake was marooned on Big Island during an icy spring storm and wrote with a more uncertain tone, There were noises of all sorts about us. Besides the roaring waters, wolves howled, and the woods seemed full of sounds; as I sat smoking by the blazing fire, brooding over our danger, and my wife’s fears for my safety, I wished most heartily that I had never undertaken the life of a pioneer.

      Indeed, Brake’s wife, Charlotte, pleaded with him to leave: When will these uncertainties, anxieties and forebodings cease? It is hastening me into insanity. Do let us leave this terrible lake country, and put an end to this interminable trouble and worry.

      Brake granted his wife’s wish in 1858; years later, he wrote, My work as a pioneer was not in vain. When I landed on the lakeshore, the surrounding region was a wilderness. . . . Wild beasts infested the forest and civilization seemed far off. Now the country was being transformed into a fertile farming community. . . . Excelsior, a thriving village now stood. A church, schoolhouse, hotel, dry goods and merchandise stores, and a post office were here, and fifty-five persons might be counted as residents.

      This same story could be told of many of the settlements around the lake. George Day remembered, Pioneer days with scattered populations of honest, whole-souled, hard-working settlers, who, notwithstanding the fact that they were held in the grip of poverty and privation, left the latch-string of their humble doors always hanging out; and the man looking for a claim, or a family moving in, was always welcome; for no cabin was too small to shelter the strangers.

      As photographers arrived at the lake, a new record of its beauty, settlement, and everyday life was created. Representing over a century of preserved history, the images in this book bring clarity to the way we perceive the lake’s past and shape its future.

      One

      HOMESTEADS AND

      NAMESAKES

      By 1855, all of the Lake Minnetonka shoreline was claimed. Many of the settlers were well educated Easterners seeking adventure, and word spread quickly about the desirability of the lake area. The first Lake Minnetonka settlement in Minnetonka Mills was founded by Simon Stevens and millwright Calvin Tuttle in 1852. Sawmills turned the woods into the towns of Excelsior, Minnetrista, and Wayzata. Excelsior, meaning ever upward, was founded by New Yorker George Bertram and his Excelsior Pioneer Association in 1853. Wayzata was platted by Oscar Garrison and Alfred Robinson in 1854. As the northernmost community on the lake, its name is commonly translated to mean north shore

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