Minnesota’s Urban National Park
Can you name the national park in the Twin Cities?
By Kate Havelin
Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and the Statue of Liberty—all are treasured national parks, and so is the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities. “The Grand Canyon is a grand national landscape, and so is the Mississippi River,” says Park Ranger Dan Dressler. Dressler admits that many people who stop by the National Park Service ranger station, tucked just inside the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul, don’t know that Congress designated the Twin Cities’ Mississippi a national river and recreation area in 1988.
Although the Mississippi spans 10 states, from Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico, Dressler says Congress selected the 72-mile Twin Cities stretch of the river as a national park for two key reasons. Within the metro area, the Mississippi is almost three different rivers: Above St. Anthony Falls, the Mississippi is like a small volume prairie river. After the falls, it’s a stunning gorge river. From downtown St. Paul and downriver, the river is what Dressler calls “the classic Mississippi River, with a big, wide floodplain.”
The river’s key role in history also helped make it a national park in the Cities. Dressler notes that for hundreds of years, St. Paul was the head of navigation—the northernmost point where boats could travel the river. In Minneapolis, the explosive force of St. Anthony Falls jump-started Minnesota’s logging and flour mills, and as Dressler says, “changed the way the world ate.”
Dressler says St. Anthony Falls and the Stone Arch Bridge are among the park’s most popular spots. But walkers can find great views along many stretches of Minnesota’s secret gem, its urban national park. From Anoka to Hastings, the Mississippi winds past the only waterfall and gorge in the river’s entire 2,350 miles. The national park includes public and private land, as well as five dams, 33 bridges and at least a few hundred miles of walking and biking trails.
Stone Arch- Hennepin Avenue Bridge loop
The only true waterfalls in the entire Mississippi, St. Anthony Falls could be considered the birthplace of Minneapolis. People line the Stone Arch Bridge to watch, and listen to, the roaring water that the Dakota people called HaHa Tanka, big waterfall. From the pedestrian-and bike-only Stone Arch Bridge, hikers can stroll the scenic and storied 1.8 mile St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail. The trail includes the Hennepin Avenue Bridge, and passes Water Power, Father Hennepin and Mill Ruins Parks. Also nearby are the Mill City Museum and Guthrie Theater, as well as a planned memorial to the victims of the 2007 Interstate 35 Bridge collapse.
River Gorge Loop
For truly gorgeous views, hikers can explore the Mississippi’s only gorge, which ranges 8.5 miles from St. Anthony Falls to Fort Snelling. The river drops more than a hundred feet along the gorge.The trails atop the river’s cliffs offer great views of eagles, herons and other birds, and in fall, a dramatic view of riverbanks’ flashy foliage. Popular gorge trails stretch from the Franklin Avenue and Lake Street Bridges to Lock and Dam #1 by St. Paul’s Ford plant. The trails pass under the oldest remaining bridge along the river, the Short Line Rail Road Bridge, built in 1880. Along the east side of the river, at St. Paul’s northern border, hikers can view the 1907 remnants of the river’s first lock and dam at Meeker Island. On the river’s west side, in Minneapolis, walkers can explore the newly paved Winchell trail. Named for geologist Newton Horace Winchell, the trail tracks an old Native American path roaming from the bluff to the riverside. The trail squiggles through a maple-basswood forest and oak woods. By the Franklin Avenue Bridge, a plaque on a Mesabi Iron Range boulder tells more about Newton Horace Winchell, the geologist who discovered the iron ore that helped shape this state.
Fort Snelling’s Pike Island
Fort Snelling State Park’s treasure, Pike Island, guards the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. The Dakota who once lived on the island considered it the center of the world, sacred land. Named for Army Lieutenent Zebulon Pike, who camped here during his 1805 expedition, Pike Island is worth visiting in every season. Three miles of trails circle the island and are open to hikers and in, season, cross country skiers. In winter, walkers can still savor the snowy island’s center walking trail, and likely catch a glimpse of some of the island’s many deer and wild turkeys. In his diary, Pike noted that he paid the Dakota $200 for 100,000 acres land worth $200,000. Above Pike Island stands imposing Fort Snelling, originally a frontier fort, and in turns, a prison camp, country club, WWII induction site, and Miliary Intelligence Service Language School where Japanese speakers translated war documents.
Mounds Park
Dressler says when he wants to show the river to newcomers and visitors, he takes them to Mounds Park, an off-the-beaten-path area above downtown St. Paul. “The views from the top of the bluff (at Mounds Park” are unmatched in the Twin Cities,” he says. Along with amazing views of the river, walkers can also see six large burial mounds where long ago Hopewell and Dakota natives laid their relatives to rest. Dressler says Mounds Park also boasts out one of the nation’s few remaining light towers, used to guide airplanes before more modern navigation.
From bluff top to the water’s edge, the Mississippi’s trails are a treasure, an national park, open to walkers and bikers, as well as boaters. Dressler says, “The Mississippi River has really been transformed here in the Twin Cities. It’s turned around into this wonderful green space. We have this great, great natural area right here. ”
For more about the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, click
www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit