Lake Minnetonka Information
DISCOVERY: Lake Minnetonka
was discovered, for the white man, by two 14 yr. old boys living at
Ft. Snelling in 1822. ( Ft. Snelling is located at the confluence of
the Mississsippi and Minnesota rivers, near the airport.) Joe Brown,
a drummer boy, and Will Snelling, the son of the Commandant, decided
one day to canoe up what is now Minnehaha creek and found the
headwaters at the lake.
The discovery was hushed up because the land
still belonged to the Dakota Sioux tribe headed by Chief Shakopee.
The fort was built to keep the settlers East of the Mississippi and
they didn’t want news of the lake to become general knowledge.
The high area on the West of Wayzata bay, now
called Ferndale, was sacred ground to the Sioux and also the little
island just off the tip of the peninsula, "Spirit Island", visible
from the Wayzata Yacht Club. It forms part of the gateway from
Wayzata Bay to the Lower Lake.
The Indians kept the lake a secret. It wasn’t
until about 1852 that a party from New York visiting St. Anthony
(Minneapolis) and St. Paul ventured up the creek and made it general
knowledge.
SHORE TOWNS: The area West of
Ft. Snelling was opened up to settlers in about 1853 and five towns
sprung up around the lake. MINNETONKA MILLS started life as a
rough-hewn sawmill. EXCELSIOR was born in New York City on a piece
of paper and today is one of only two cities to have a, "Commons",
the other is Boston. WAYZATA came into existence in the center of
Chief Shakopee’s Indian village. MOUND was born among the dead, near
Indian burial grounds. ST. ALBANS was on St. Albans bay.
WAYZATA NEIGHBORHOOD
INFORMATION
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