WPA works at Minnehaha Park – The Laughing, Leaping Water

WPA in 1935: soup line to “alphabet soup”

The Great Depression. Something like 25% of the work force had no jobs. Soup kitchens provided a hot meal, maybe the only one these people would get. Work relief programs were started by the presidents of the day, Hoover and then Roosevelt. These job-creation agencies worked on America’s infrastructure. And someone named Walter B. Dahlberg, possibly an employee of the parks, compiled some terrific reports on the works accomplished in the Minneapolis park system. These are available on-line for 1936-1942. (Perhaps any earlier reports were lost, or haven’t been put on-line yet.)

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The WPA, 1936. Part 7 & The Tourist Camp, Part 3: Cabins

One of the handiest and most visible results of the W.P.A. works in the park was the construction of more cabins for the tourists to camp in.

Campers paid a modest amount to rent the cabin, and could possibly include bedding if they needed it.

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The WPA Works in Minnehaha Park, 1936. Part 6: Sand

The WPA workers in Minnehaha Park accomplished lots of small tasks. They repaired playground equipment, trimmed trees and painted and repaired “stationary settees,” traffic signs, and fences. One of their efforts was to erect a ten-foot fence across the faces of the sand caves in the glen as a safety measure.

The existence of caves in the park might come as a surprise to today’s urban explorers. Stories exist of actually room-like caves, but no photographs have been found. This picture of a “cave” is no more than a shallow indent in the sandstone cliff.

Three people from the late 19th or early 20th century, standing in a shallow cave. — “Sugar Cave Minnehaha Glen,” in an undated photograph (a Real Photo Postcard) from the early 20th century. This cave does not seem deep enough to keep the rain off.

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The WPA Works in Minnehaha Park, 1936. Part 5: Picnic Shelter Maintenance.

PicnicPavilion01 — The Picnic Shelter in Minnehaha Park, designed by Harry Wild Jones in 1892. The design is reminiscent of a similar, much larger pavilion at Lake Harriet. This photograph is of unknown provenance and was published in a 2013 research report for the Park Board. It appears to be (but isn’t) a cropped and horizontally flipped copy of the image further down in this post, which was published by the Park Board in 1936. These pictures are both cropped (and one is flipped) from a single larger image.

Minneapolis and her Park Board, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had a complicated relationship with the word “pavilion.” The word means “an ornamental building, usually of light construction and designed for temporary shelter, refreshment, etc., esp. in a park […] used as a place of entertainment or recreation.”

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The WPA works in Minnehaha Park, 1936. Part 4: A Spring in the Park.

There’s a lot of groundwater just below the surface in the Minnehaha Falls area. This is hardly a surprise to anyone who takes winter walks in the park.

Frozen ground water in Minnehaha Park. This was taken below the Wabun Picnic Area, standing on the driveway at Lock and Dam #1. — Frozen ground water in Minnehaha Park. This was taken below the Wabun Picnic Area, standing on the driveway at Lock and Dam #1 on January 24, 2016.

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The WPA works in Minnehaha Park, 1936. Part 3: Driveway and Sidewalk.

WPA work in Minneapolis parks included engaging fun like puppet shows for children. But their enduring efforts were the mundane and necessary improvements in infrastructure. Here, the driveway leading into Minnehaha Park from Minnehaha Avenue has been given curbs and a sidewalk:

The original caption was: "Looking east from entrance to Minnehaha Park, showing curbing and walk installed by W.P.A." — The original caption was: “Looking east from entrance to Minnehaha Park, showing curbing and walk installed by W.P.A.” The original photo comes from “The Story of W.P.A. and Other Federal Aid Projects in the Minneapolis Parks, Parkways and Playgrounds, for the Year 1936, Minneapolis, Minnesota.” Courtesy Minneapolis Park Board.

Minnehaha Park cannot be said to have an entrance today. Years ago, when the streetcars and the trains dropped people off at the Minnehaha Depot, or nearby it, the crowds moved towards the Falls from the west. Or, they drove their carriages or automobiles down this driveway to pause in between the Refectory and the Falls and see the waterfall.

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The WPA works in Minnehaha Park, 1936. Part 2: Groundskeeping.

From the earliest years of Park Board ownership of Minnehaha Falls, they worked to grow the grass. For most people, a park implies green grass lawn under mature trees. Certainly this was the accepted ideal in the infancy of landscape architecture, around the time the Minneapolis Parks system was created. Picturesque contemplation of the natural (though created) terrain was more important than playing ball, flying kites, or flower-picking.

The Park Board gained control of the Falls in 1889, the same year it created ordinances outlawing all these activities in the parks. They had a point, because back then, the falls were surrounded by barren dirt, and neither the landowners nor the businesses who rented from them cared much about growing grass.

Minnehaha had for decades been the most famous spot in Minnesota, always attracting large crowds. All those feet made growing grass unpredictably difficult for the Park Board, even with great expenses for seed and with placing “Keep Off The Grass” signs. This was a struggle every year.

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The WPA works in Minnehaha Park. 1936. Part 1: Retaining Wall.

The WPA (Works Progress Administration, which became the Works Projects Administration in 1939) provided the dignity of a job to the unemployed of America’s Great Depression, while supplying rural communities needed public infrastructure and giving art and amenities to the cities.

The WPA improvements in Minnehaha Park were invaluable, and many of those–staircases and such–still serve 80 years later.

At some point between the late 1920s and 1936, the Park Board's giant viewing platform was finally removed. It was replaced by... whatever this is. — At some point between the late 1920s and 1936, the Park Board’s giant viewing platform was finally removed. It was replaced by… whatever this is. The original photo comes from “The Story of W.P.A. and Other Federal Aid Projects in the Minneapolis Parks, Parkways and Playgrounds, for the Year 1936, Minneapolis, Minnesota.” Courtesy Minneapolis Park Board.

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