Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis

The fifty-three-foot-high Minnehaha Falls was purchased by Minneapolis in 1889. It was the centerpiece of a new state park. The falls remain one of the state's most popular attractions for both residents and visitors. Their name is derived from the Dakota words mni (water) and gaga (falling or curling)—literally, water fall.

Dakota people considered the falls an important place where all could gather in peace. It did not have the spiritual significance of other nearby sites, such as Bdote (the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers) and Owamniyomni (the Falls of St. Anthony).

Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike bought the land for the U.S. government from the local Dakota in 1805. The confluence of the two rivers (where Fort Snelling was established in 1820) and the Falls of St. Anthony were most important to him. Pike didn't care enough about Minnehaha Creek, the little tributary with the falls, to discover its source: Lake Minnetonka, twenty-two miles west.

Settler-colonists referred to Minnehaha Falls as "Little Falls" to distinguish it from the much more impressive and important cascade on the Mississippi River. It was also known as "Brown's Falls," likely for Major General Jacob J. Brown. He was commanding general of the U.S. Army in the 1820s.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha" transformed the falls into an icon. The poem, published in 1855, became known around the world. It made the falls famous, even though Longfellow himself never visited.

In the 1850s, a gristmill was built below the falls on Minnehaha Creek. However the creek's unreliable water flow made it unattractive for industrial purposes.

As early as 1868, St. Paul and Minneapolis considered creating a park at the falls together but decided it was too far from either city. That view prevailed until 1885, when Minneapolis sponsored legislation to acquire the falls and surrounding land as a state park. The state legislature passed the bill. Governor Lucius F. Hubbard appointed Minneapolis park board president Charles Loring to lead the commission selecting land for the park.

By 1889, 173 acres of land for a park and a home for indigent soldiers had been chosen and appraised. However the legislature did not appropriate money to purchase the land. A group of Minneapolis citizens, led by Minneapolis park commissioner George Brackett and real estate investor Henry Brown, raised the money to loan to the city to give to the state to buy the park land. The legislature gave Minneapolis title to the land, and Minneapolis property owners were taxed to cover the cost of acquiring the park.

Landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland proposed leaving the falls and the creek below it in their natural state. Despite later suggestions to build a parkway down the glen to the river, the glen has not been developed, except for stairs, hiking paths, and bridges. The park board did build a pavilion in 1892 on land beside the falls. They also constructed a parapet wall near the rim of the falls and bridges over the creek the following year. Later buildings included a refectory and a bandstand.

Over the years, the Minneapolis park board introduced various attractions in other parts of Minnehaha Park. For example, from 1892 until 1907, it operated a zoo there. In 1896, the first permanent settler's home in Minneapolis, built in 1849 by John Stevens, was moved to the park. A statue of him was placed nearby in 1935.

The most famous landmark in the park other than the falls is Jacob Fjelde's bronze statue Hiawatha and Minnehaha. Swedish musician and poet Gustav Wennerburg was also honored with a statue in the park, created in 1915. A mask of Dakota leader Ta Oyate Duta (His Red Nation, also known as Little Crow) was placed overlooking the falls in 1992.

In 2011, Minnehaha Park drew more visitors than any other park in the Twin Cities area, except for Como Park, which has year-round indoor attractions.