Some early stone retaining walls are shown in this picture of the first landing on the south side of the Minnehaha gorge.
This landing was rebuilt sometime after 1958. The flooding shown may be from recent heavy rains, or it might be an unsolved groundwater engineering problem.
By 2011, the retaining walls had been covered over with something like stucco, and the railings had been changed out for new ones. There’s a slump where the land has collapsed into the creek.
It’s a very different situation than 53 years before. And from 100 years before.