Join the hiking group for a hike up along the scenic eastern portion of Minnehaha Creek from the western edge of Lake Nokomis Park in south Minneapolis. Minnehaha Creek is the only outlet of Lake Minnetonka, and the lake was not discovered until, in the year 1822, a young drummer boy from Fort Snelling, Joseph Renshaw Brown, and his young friend, William J. Snelling, son of the commander, went into the Indian Country up Minnehaha Creek in their canoe. The creek became known as "Brown's Creek" and later the creek was renamed "Minnehaha Creek." The Dakota name for Minnehaha Creek was "Wakpa Cistinna", meaning little river. By 1852, a period of rapid settlement began, and crude boats went up the creek to Lake Minnetonka. Mills were built on the Creek (also called Little Falls Creek), which was much more powerful then than it is today, including Schussler’s Mill (1874), located off of Excelsior Blvd. by the Hopkins border, and the Waterville Mill (1857), located at 50th and Browndale in Edina. A dam on Lake Minnetonka at Gray's Bay now controls the flow of the creek, but doomed the mills. Urbanization in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed over the past century has led to the degradation of the stream's flow regime, habitat and water quality, but the creek still has high potential for restoration.
If driving: From Highway 62 (Crosstown), take Cedar Avenue (Highway 77) about a mile and one-half north, past the bridge over the west end of Lake Nokomis, to the parking lot of Bergen's Supervalue, 4715 Cedar Avenue South, just north of the intersection with Minnehaha Parkway. Park on the east side of the parking lot, towards the Hiawatha Golf Course property.
