The behemoth platform built by the Park Board lasted for decades. Really a surprisingly long time.
Here’s a snapshot dated June 30, 1922 of the top of Minnehaha Falls:
Tag: iron railing
Viewing the Falls, 1900’s part 4
The Park Board seems to have gotten the groundwater problem under control here, as the catchbasin is gone and the surface looks dry. This rare look at the sides and edges shows just how gigantically inappropriate this viewing platform was.
viewing the falls in the 1890’s, part 3
viewing the falls, 1900’s, part 3
Here’s another nicely posed tourist at Minnehaha, on the Park Board’s large stone platform. During the 1890’s, the Park Board also built the boulder wall that still exists today on the north side of the gorge.
Meanwhile, in 1958
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.
viewing the falls, 1890’s, part 1
This undated photo from some time in the 1890s shows a place to sit built into the edge of the park board platform. That seating seems not to have lasted into the 20th century (see images in older posts, below).
Stone construction is hard, heavy work. Probably this was rebuilt because of the basic instability of the site.
viewing the falls, 1900’s: part 2
This photo is was taken on June 11, 1904, and shows that the Park Board’s viewing platform wasn’t holding up as well as one might hope. This looks like a combination of vandalism and deterioration, with groundwater probably playing a part in the crumbling edge. The land where this platform was looks like this today:
viewing the Falls, 1900’s: part 1
We can’t get this view of Minnehaha Falls today. After the Park Board took ownership of Falls, they built a huge stone platform just where the photographers used to have people pose. Not everyone liked this behemoth. Charles “Father of the Parks” Loring wrote: