September 10, 2015: Wood Lake Park Hike (Richfield)

Join us for a hike around the varied environs of the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield.

Wood Lake is a lake that has turned into a freshwater marsh over recent decades. The Wood Lake Nature Center is a 150-acre park operated by the city of Richfield. The park boasts several walking trails of varying lengths. The nature center also has a 600-foot long floating boardwalk that winds its way through the marsh. The park is a prime retreat for wildlife, with more than 200 different kinds of birds and 30 different mammals.

Among the earliest settlers of Richfield was Riley Lucas Bartholomew (1829-1894), a former General in the Ohio Militia, who became a Justice of the Peace and a Minnesota State Senator. General Bartholomew built a home on the east shore of Wood Lake in the Spring of 1852 or 1853, after Congress reduced the size of the Fort Snelling Military Reservation. The Bartholomew House is now a historical museum and is the headquarters for the Richfield Historical Society. The house, owned by the Richfield Public School District, has been restored in keeping with the character of Minnesota farm houses between 1850 and 1900. It is listed on the National and Minnesota Registers of Historic Places.

The original township was first named “Harmony,” but was later renamed in recognition of the excellent farming land from which they largely drew their livelihood. Early residents were Germans, Irish, families from the New England area, and immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Richfield incorporated as a village in 1908. The nearby Wood Lake School, a log building, was built by Bartholomew and his brother-in-law, Cincinnatus Gregory. Richfield lost a considerable portion of its original area, with three annexations by Minneapolis, the formation of Edina as a separate community, and a series of annexations for the subsequent developments of Fort Snelling and the National Cemetery and by the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

Directions: Take County Highway 62, exit on Lyndale Avenue, and go south on Lyndale Avenue to Lake Shore Drive, which is the first left turn after the intersection with West 66th Street. Turn West (left) on Lake Shore Drive and proceed about 400 feet to the Nature Center (at 735 West Lake Shore Drive) on the south side of the road. Meet in the parking lot by the main entrance to the Nature Center.

Map to the hike start point: 735 Lake Shore Drive W
Richfield, MN 55423-2222

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The webpage was last updated on August 30, 2015