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Lake Minnetonka History
There is a true story about how they became the first European Americans to witness the beauty of that enormous lake. Surrounding the sparkling waters they found a tall virgin forest of Oak, Elm, and Maple. They said the trees were growing so close one could barely pass through them, much like the forested islands in Superior National Forest.’
Their names were Joseph Renshaw Brown, the Fort Snelling bugle boy, and William Josiah Snelling , son of the future Commander and namesake of the Fort. Joe was looking for adventure in May of 1822, and he and his friend Will had heard rumors from some Indian friends that there was a large lake about a days journey into the ‘Big Woods’ towards the setting sun. So he convinced Will and two unnamed soldiers to venture up the creek by canoe without permission into Dakotah Indian Territory. At the time traveling more than nine miles west of the Military Reservation at Fort Snelling meant entering lands never before seen by white men. In 1805 Lt Zebulon Pike acting for the US Government had acquired most of present day Minneapolis in a contract with the Dakotahs for 2000 dollars. That included the eastern end of Little Falls Creek, (present day Minnehaha Creek), from where it flows into the Mississippi, but not the western end where it flows out of Lake Minnetonka.
When they set out that morning they first would have portaged around Minnehaha Falls, which was known then as Little Falls. They also had to go around a cascade that was located at Penn Avenue South today and found a place to camp for the night. The next day, further upstream they encountered another cascade that decades later would provide the waterpower for the lumber and flour mills of Minnetonka Mills. The four young men continued paddling upstream until they reached the source of Little Falls Creek; the vast lake that is now called Lake Minnetonka. They entered the lake at what was later called Outlet Bay and now is called Grays Bay. As they paddled through the wild rice and water lilies they must have been amazed when they went around the bend and laid their eyes on Wayzata Bay. That evening they journeyed into the Lower Lake past Spirit Island, which was a sacred place to the Dakotah. The teepees of the tribe headed by Chief Shakopee were nearby on the north end of Wayzata Bay. The next bay to the west is now called Browns Bay, after Joseph Brown, who with his friends set up camp that night on Big Island in the middle of the lake. Joseph was a smart and good-natured young man but lacking in any formal education. His mother died young and he ran away from his strict minister father in Maryland. He joined the army under Colonel Leavenworth who was assigned to establish the fort at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers for President James Monroe. William Snelling had a quite different upbringing. After spending two years as an undisciplined cadet at West Point he traveled to Fort St. Anthony to live with his doting father and step mother. He was allowed to spend time living with his Dakotah friends in their teepees, enough to learn their language and become a translator.
In 1822 Fort St. Anthony (two years later to be named Fort Snelling ) was under construction and only occupied by a few troops including Colonel Josiah Snelling who was concerned that the boys had not shown up as expected that evening. In those days there was the real danger of encountering bears, wolves, and unfriendly Native Americans who didn’t appreciate trespassers. So the Colonel sent out a search party, some of who followed the stream all the way into the lake. There they found Joe and Will, sitting on the shore eating fish and wild strawberries. They brought them back downstream to the fort in one day, half of the time that it had taken the boys to paddle the twenty-two miles upstream. The Colonel was not happy about their escapade, but there apparently is no record of any punishment that was given to the boys, and the affair was kept quiet.
The Native Americans hoped to keep their sacred lake a secret from the encroaching European Americans. They had many burial mounds near the lake which they did not want disturbed and they treasured its’ bountiful hunting and fishing grounds. The discovery of the lake seems to have been lost for three decades because it did not appear on three different maps of the time by Long in 1823, Nicollet in 1836, and Pope in 1849. The US government didn’t allow settlement in the area until 1851 with the signing of the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux which allowed settlement west of the Mississippi.
So in 1852 Simon Stevens, Calvin Tuttle and several other St. Anthony businessmen, including Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey, traveled up Minnehaha Creek to rediscover the lake. They decided to name it Lake Minnetonka after the Dakotah words for ‘big water’, and to build a dam and saw mill at the rapids of Minnetonka Mills. In the spring of 1852 their friend James Shaver staked out the first claim on Lake Minnetonka at Grays Bay where he built a log cabin and later started his family.
From the days when Dakota Indians inhabited her shores, leaving behind ancient burial mounds which are still visible today, to the era of the steam locomotive and the paddle wheeler when grand Victorian hotels and amusement parks stood proudly on her banks, there has always been something alluring about this enchanted body of water.
Babe Ruth was a regular visitor, as was Clayton Moore (better known as the "Lone Ranger"). Thurlow Lieurance made the lake famous with his song, "By the waters of Minnetonka." The Lake Minnetonka area is also the birthplace of Tonka Toys and Minnetonka Moccasins.
A very unique area once dubbed "Big Waters" by the native Americans
Each of the towns nestled on the shores of Lake Minnetonka has it's own unique history. Deephaven, Excelsior, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, Mound, Minnetrista, Navarre, Orono, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, and Wayzata
Homes by Joel is brought to you by Joel Hentges of Counselor Realty. Helping people buy or sell homes and real estate in the Greater Lake Minnetonka area. Especially in Chanhassen, Deephaven, Excelsior, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, Mound, Orono, Tonka Bay and Wayzata MN Minnesota. Offering many Minnetonka Lakeshore homes for sale.
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