06/11/2015: Trout Brook Trail Hike (St. Paul)

Join the hiking group for a hike along the Trout Brook hiking/biking trail in St. Paul, another "rails to trails" trail development. Trout Brook flows through St. Paul, was a tributary to Phalen Creek, and is the outlet of McCarron Lake in the former Rose Township.

John E. McCarron, a farmer who lived beside the lake, was born in 1839, came to Minnesota in 1849, served in the Fourth Minnesota Regiment in the Civil War, and died in St. Paul, in 1897. Trout Brook was named after Edmund Rice's Trout Brook Estate, which was sold to the Northern Pacific in 1883. Edmund Rice (1819-1889) was born at Waitsfield, Vermont, came to Minnesota in 1849, was a lawyer with the firm of Rice, Hollinshead & Becker from 1849 to 1855, was president of the Minnesota & Pacific RailRoad and of the St. Paul & Pacific RailRoad from 1857 to 1872, and died at White Bear Lake.

Trout Brook and Phalen Creek, which drains Lake Phalen, joined together, and once formed a wetland at the Mississippi River. The bridging of this wetland was a costly headache for the City of St. Paul in the mid and later Nineteenth Century. Baptist Hill, an unwanted mound of glacial drift 50 feet high, in what is now Mears Park, was carted away to fill this wetland. In 1893, city engineer George Wilson undertook the task of burying the lower reaches of these streams, even though some other segments had been roofed over before this. Wilson's handiwork still exists, distinguished by its Platteville Limestone rubble masonry walls and steel beam ceiling.

Directions: Take I-35E north out of downtown St. Paul to the Maryland Avenue exit. Go west (left) on Maryland about 1/2 mile to Jackson Street and turn north (right) on Jackson Street. Proceed on Jackson Street approximately 1/2 mile to Arlington Avenue. Turn west (left) on Arlington and go about 1/8th mile and park at the U. S. Post Office Rice Street Station, 40 Arlington Avenue East, parking lot, on the south side of the street.

NOTE: The southbound ramp off I-35E to Maryland may be closed. If you are heading south on I-35E I recommend exiting at Larpenteur and heading west to Jackson. You then take Jackson south to Arlington.

Map to the hike start point: 40 Arlington Ave E
St Paul, MN 55117-3936

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This webpage was last updated on May 31, 2015.