Inside of the municipal forest is an almost forgotten historical remnant. Its first mention appeared in the St. Paul Park Department records at the turn of the last century: “The grove will be known as the Past Matrons Grove of the Order of Eastern Star and will be used as a gathering place for members of the order." It was created in a section of the Municipal Forest, a short hike south of where today’s Burns Avenue and Point Douglas road come together in an area once referred to as “Six Corners” because of the earlier intersection of three roads.
The trees of the grove were placed in the shape of a star, the emblem of the O.E.S., a Freemasonry organization. From records, it appears that the group initially planted ten hackberries as memorials to past matrons, their presiding officers. Others trees were dedicated at different times as additional memorials. It seems to have been years since it has been visited by the O.E.S. and, while deteriorated, hikers with careful eyes can still find the remnants of the Past Matron’s Grove if they head into the edge of Municipal Forest.
]]>One of the remaining walls runs from the scenic overlook and heads west along the bluff line behind the Indian Mounds. The second of the WPA work is a more dramatic curved limestone wall that follows the turn of Mounds Boulevard as it leaves the playground area.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federal jobs initiative that employed people during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. They created local projects including public buildings, roads, sidewalks and these walls.
The WPA was a centerpiece of Franklin Roosevelt’s economic stimulation programs and was aimed at smaller-scale projects that could be quickly undertaken and completed. WPA dollars began to reach Minnesota in late 1935. At its height in 1938, 68,000 Minnesotans were enrolled. The program lasted for eight years, ending in 1943.
]]>Just beyond the easternmost Indian Mound, there is a scenic outlook that gives a nice view of Mississippi River below. In 1954 The Geological Society of Minnesota and the city of Saint Paul placed a plaque on a limestone structure that gives a brief summary of the area’s geology.
It points out that the steep slopes of the park were caused by the channeling of the River Warren, which drained historic Lake Agassiz as the glaciers melted. The massive flow of water created the broad valleys that now contain the Minnesota River and the Mississippi River below Fort Snelling. This spot in Indian Mounds Park sits on the northeastern edge of the valley where the Mississippi turns to the south.
]]>Today, there are six remaining Indian Mounds found on both sides of the current pavilion. At one time there were thirty nine, found in two separate areas along the bluff, but they were destroyed by early farming, houses and park development. These burial sites have been researched, photographed and written about extensively. However, there are still many unanswered questions about their origin and significance. There is an informational plaque behind the pavilion, but it is filled with questionable assumptions. The information contained here includes some confirmed facts as well as a few uncertain statements.
One of the first questions to ask might be, "when were they built?" No one knows for sure. An educated guess would be that they were constructed-probably a few at a time-between 200 BCE and--400 AD. They are certainly the oldest remaining examples of human works in Saint Paul. Many scholars see them as part of what they call the Hopewell culture, a concept that includes the beliefs and practices of Native American peoples who built mounds in many area of the country.
Another query: "who built them?" Again, there is uncertainty. The park plaque says that they were the handiwork of Hopewellian people who moved eastward into the area. However, there is no proof of this and it could be that the local residents were just influenced by the Hopewell practices. One source said that the mounds here are the sole archeological example of Hopewellian characteristics in Minnesota. The Dakota, who were here when European settlers arrived, made use of the mounds for some burials, but may not have been the original builders. One of several sources on the matter include a note in an 1849 issue of the Pioneer Pres, which stated that “mounds… are a subject of wonder and admiration... their ancient and inscrutable origin, baffle even conjecture. The present race of Indians, know as little of them as ourselves.” The truth is, we may never know who the mound builders were.
What do we know about the people or peoples who created the mounds? Once again, small bits of information allow a few speculations. Early excavations suggest the mound builders may have had a structured society with art that included figures with religious implications. The mounds that were examined contained carved animals on the utensils and pottery possibly used for feasts and rituals.
Artifacts that were found included stone knives, copper axes, a variety of carved pipes, pottery vessels, and ornaments made of copper and shell. Some items were made of material not available locally. There was volcanic glass from Wyoming, copper from Lake Superior area, mica from the Appalachia and marine shell from saltwater oceans. This suggests the existence of an extensive trade network.
We are also not sure who got buried there. Probably not everyone, or there would have been hundreds of mounds. Perhaps some leaders or prominent people. Several types of burials were discovered. Most were simple internments accompanied by mussel shells or projectile points. There were log tombs at the base of some mounds and two others contained seven inch high thin limestone slabs set upright. Human remains found there were accompanied by more elaborate grave offerings, including shells, perforated bear teeth and a hammered sheet of copper. Small bundle burials were found in the upper parts of several mounds and may have been placed there in more recent times.
Only four complete skeletons have been found in Dayton’s Bluff. On September 20, 1895, city park workers, razing Mound number eight “to improve the view from the park road”, came upon what they called “a gruesome find” after several tons of earth had been removed. The sets of bones were in the center and on the bottom of the burial mound.
While city residents were fascinated by the Indian Mounds, they were far from reverential in their actions. For years there were spiral paths cut into the burial sites so people could easily walk up to see the scenery. For many years there were poles for electric wires going through the area and even imbedded in the side of a mound until the utility company was forced by law to remove them.
Attitudes were changing by the 1980’s and this made for changes in the area around the Indian Mounds. In 1981 the city removal of roads between the burial sites and the bluff were completed, improving the setting and relationship of landscape to the topography. Around the same time, the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council led a successful effort to place decorative fences that still remain around the mounds to protect them from thoughtless visitors.
]]>The story of Dayton’s Bluff begins on top of the bright white cliffs over-looking St. Paul, where the great Mississippi River cut hundreds of feet downwards into the sedimentary rock, forming the bluffs. This natural landmark attracted the first inhabitants who built burial mounds that can still be found upon this sacred site. Later, the Dakota would call the area Imniza Ska, meaning white cliff and their large seasonal village of Kaposia could be found just down river.
This bluff also stands on top of the sacred Wakan Tipi cave or “Dwelling of the Great Mystery” later called Carver's Cave, after Jonathan Carver, the first British explorer to visit and witness the impressive site.
Soon after the coming of the first explorers, and the U.S. achieved independence, other immigrants began to arrive, including fur traders and soldiers from Fort Snelling.
Claims were made, farming land was established and homes were built atop the bluff, by wealthy speculators such as Lyman Dayton and his wife Maria, for whom the area is named.
Before the railroad cut through a portion of Carver’s cave and filled the land below, the area was a vast swamp that separated it from downtown St. Paul, before bridges connected these two points. Phalen Creek, which fed this swamp, attracted many of the first flour, feed and lumber mills and here working-class neighborhoods grew.
The 1860's saw the growth of German and Irish communities, and businesses, churches and cultural institutions began to flourish. The wealthier began to build large houses higher on the hills - the most prominent being the Hamm’s mansion which overlooked his large brewery below.
Industries like the Hamm’s Brewery and the railroad provided new economic opportunities for the waves of immigrants coming into the area. Neighborhoods like Swede Hollow and Connemara Patch, separated by the 7th Street improvement arches, flourished along the Phalen Creek Ravine.
Soon, businesses like 3M and Whirlpool brought additional economic prosperity and housing flourished, up and beyond the ravine.
While Phalen Creek has since been placed underground and many of the mansions that topped the bluff no longer stand, much of Dayton’s bluff remains the same.
Today, Dayton’s Bluff is alive with vibrant insitutions like Metro State University and a more recent immigrant population that continues to build the character of the East Side of St. Paul.
But at any moment, you can travel back...
As you walk the bluff you can imagine the first indigenous peoples looking out across the marshy valley and vast river below, see yourself as an original pioneer hunting deer and meeting with the Dakota people, listen to the steamboat whistles and chugging locomotives coming up from the river valley, and watch the first aeroplane fly over the light tower, as you look down, seeing St. Paul for what it truly is, a gateway to our past and our future, flowing with the ever running river current below.
For more (including 5 images & 1 video) view the original article
]]>The Carver’s Cave overlook at the western end of Indian Mounds Park is known for its vista and is one of the most photographed river scenes in the metro area. The overlook was rebuilt in 1995-96, including some low decorative walls, ornamental lights and a central limestone structure with an interpretive plaque explaining the history of the famous cavern located on the river flats below. There is also a drinking fountain, so if it’s a hot day, you may want to fill your water bottles.
The Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) has been working in the surrounding landscape since 2011 with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department and community volunteers to remove invasive species and restore the native bluff prairie on the west side of this historic park's overlook. Scores of people have hauled and stacked invasive brush, including European buckthorn, on the overlook slope. They also weed and tend native shrubs planted on the west side of the overlook.
]]>On October 16, 2006, two new sculptures were officially dedicated in Indian Mounds Park. They were part of the Minnesota Rocks! International Stone Carving Symposium. It was a Public Art Saint Paul program which brought sculptors from around the world to spend six weeks educating the people about sculpture and creating works of art to be placed in public spaces. The two works described below were created at the event and came to rest in this local park.
- Usumacinta Meets the Mississippi -
According to its artist, "Usumacinta Meets the Mississippi" is meant to represent the ties between the waters of Mexico City and the waters of the Mississippi River. The sculpture is located just off Mounds Park Boulevard near the intersection with McLean.
Javier Del Cueto’s is well-known for his work in both ceramic and stone and teaches sculpture in Mexico City. He studied in Spain and also took sculpture courses with ceramic and stoneware masters in his homeland. He started his work in stone sculpture in 1988 with a famed Japanese sculptor.
When Javier came to the symposium he was not familiar with Saint Paul, but he became enamored by the Mississippi River and it became the inspiration for this work. The sculpture is made up of two pieces of limestone from the Vetter Quarry in Kasota, Minnesota. The main sculpture is attached to the base with four steel rods.
Javier explained that “Mexico is a country with a strong tradition in stone carving from Pre-Hispanic and Colonial times to the present.” One of his goals is to carry on and help add to the appreciation of this art form in his homeland.
“I am very interested in revitalizing stone carving for contemporary sculpture. I consider stone an ideal material for sculpture with unlimited possibilities and great potential, and it lasts forever.” Del Cueto was not able to attend the dedication but the Mexican and Aztec culture were well represented by the local Aztec Mecia Cuctemec dancers.
- The Sacred Dish -
This sculpture is a representation of a Native American woman made of dolomitic limestone. It was originally slated to be in another part of the park, but when Duane “Dewey” Goodwin, the artist, saw the Indian Mounds, he felt that it belonged on the knoll across the boulevard, just west of Earl Street. He wants people to see Sacred Dish as representative of both the strength and the giving of the Native American people and make them aware of the area’s rich Native American history.
Goodwin dedicated Sacred Bowl to his eighty-seven year-old mother. At the event, a number of rituals highlighted the artist’s Ojibwa heritage. One man played Native American flute, while Goodwin burned sage and held a traditional pipe ceremony.
Goodwin, who lives in Bemidji, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. He studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, which, he said, brought a contemporary perspective to his work. Dewey had a dream just before he was finishing his work. In it he saw a tear coming from the statue. He decided to imbed a pipestone tear below the woman’s eye. It represents the sorrow that has been experienced by women of all backgrounds.
He believes that the stone itself will determine the final piece of art. It contains an inner spirit and “as I carve,” he said, “I seek to glean not only the hidden spirit of the stone itself, but also the essence and wisdom of Native America. I chisel spirits from stone, evoking animals, birds and faces that emerge to speak of the harmony and dependence we share.”
]]>The Saint Paul Municipal Forest is located at the eastern edge of Indian Mounds Park. Most people in the city and even in Dayton’s Bluff know that it exists as a separate entity. The twenty-five acre site is located along Burns Avenue and is centered in the general vicinity of Point Douglas Road. This tree covered area has an interesting history.
In January 1915, Senator Dunn who represented Dayton’s Bluff in the State Legislature asked the City Council to push legislation for a state appropriation providing that part of the current fish hatchery tract be procured “for the nucleus of a municipal forest for St. Paul.” In a sense, he was just asking for a return of previous city land.
A few decades earlier, Saint Paul had given the state 200 acres for a fish hatchery. It turned out that the state never needed that much acreage. As Dunn remarked that the section that had been procured to protect the springs was hilly and “would make an ideal forest.” The senator got his way and the St. Paul Municipal Forest became a reality. Beside trees, the area included trails and, at one time, a serpentine road that connected the park with the fish hatchery below.
The fish hatchery is still there, but is no longer the visitor attraction it once was, and the road is overgrown, although parts of it can be seen if people look carefully. The city web site does not include much information about the landmark, saying only that "the St. Paul Municipal Forest lies in the eastern end of Indian Mounds Park. Some twenty acres of the site was a gift from the state and was acquired in 1915. It had been a portion of the fish hatchery property that was not usable because of its high location.
]]>Air travel was changing from a novelty to a serious form of transportation by the 1920’s. The federal government supported this new industry by paying to have planes deliver mail. Over 600 airway beacons were constructed by the post Office and the Department of Commerce between 1923 and 1933 to help pilots find their way on night flights by following lights from city to city.
In 1929, a one hundred foot high steel tower for an airway beacon was constructed in Indian Mounds Park a little west of Earl. It was designed to light the route between St. Paul and Chicago, and ever since has been a local landmark. Ironically, in that same year, low frequency radio range system began to replace the visual system.
The rotating beacon features a twenty-four-inch mirror with a one kilowatt lamp mirror that spins at six revolutions per minute. The pilots of old and people in the park today see a flash every ten seconds. In clear weather they could be seen for forty miles. The Smithsonian wanted to move the Indian Mounds Park beacon- the last of its kind- still standing- to their museum back east but it’s still here. The lamp still works and revolves, bringing its light to the surrounding neighborhood.
People were fascinated with the development of flight and according to a newspaper, “large crowds of onlookers throng the bluffs overlooking the airport.” On June 24, 1929 they gathered near the park to gaze at a plane. Unfortunately, it was a Northwest Airlines passenger/air mail plane that had lost power and crashed near the intersection of Mounds Boulevard and River and today’s Wilshire Street. The veteran pilot died in the initial impact and the plane caught fire, but all of the seven passengers escaped.
The beacon was restored between 1994 and 1995. The revolving light was taken down and refurbished. A modern red and white color scheme on the tower was stripped off and was replaced by the original black and chrome yellow color scheme was restored. An interpretive marker now sits near Mounds Boulevard and, after more than seven decades, the spinning light continues illuminating the bluff above the St. Paul Airport across the river.
]]>In 1900, because of large attendance in the park, a small refreshment pavilion was built at Earl Street. It was sometimes used for concerts. Unfortunately, it was burned down the next year “evidently the work of vandalism.”
The current pavilion at Earl and Mounds Boulevard was completed in 1916. A city report called it a "commodious and well designed building” meant “to serve the public as a refreshment stand, a concert pavilion and comfort station, all of which were for a number of years requested by the public.”
This Prairie-style structure, with its low-hipped roof and horizontal feel is a rarity in the Twin Cities since most other Prairie style buildings are houses or commercial buildings. It was designed by Charles H. Hausler, who was born in Saint Paul and apprenticed with Louis Sullivan in Chicago before getting a Minnesota architect’s license in 1908. Six years later he became the first City Architect and designed many municipal buildings and other structures some of which are on the National Register of Historic places. In 1923 he started a political career and served eight terms in the Minnesota Senate, afterwards returning to private practice.
]]>Some 12,000 years ago, groups of people followed the big game up the Mississippi River as the glaciers melted. If they happened to stop in what is today’s Indian Mounds Park they must have been awed by the panorama. There was a huge waterfall that stretched from bluff to bluff. This scenic site contained a variety of trees and shrubs found in oak savannas.
The First People recognized it as a special place and, although they lived below near the Mississippi River, chose the area for burial mounds. The early European settlers comment on the beauty of the area and often walked up to the bluff line to experience its majesty.
After a St. Paul Park Board was created in 1887, the city decided to buy land in Dayton’s Bluff. However, as a report said, “defeated by the rapacity of real estate speculators, it was not until 1892 that a narrow strip of land along the edge and slope of the bluff on which the mounds are situated” was acquired. It initially comprised around seventeen acres and, after a time, additional land was procured, enlarging the park to sixty-six.
With its history and spectacular views, Indian Mounds Park, was popular from the outset. It became more heavily used when, in 1894, the Streetcar Railway Company started a special service to bring people into the local landmark. Visitors were now able to travel from downtown St. Paul in around fifteen minutes and often stayed for a full day.
The St. Paul Parks Department Report for 1895 proudly stated said that “Indian Mounds Park… is but 17 acres, but… at the top of the high bluff at the apex of the grand elbow of the Mississippi valley… it takes in a prospect of such magnificent extent and picturesque variety as has few, if any, equals in any American City.”
In 1896, the city started grading streets for carriages through the area and as a result, eleven mounds were removed. In 1903 thirty-five acres were added to the park and by 1912 the total amount of land was 135 acres after the nearby state forest reserve on the east was officially added to the park land. Around the same time a series of “parkways” were created to allow carriages to go from park to park. Johnson Parkway, for example, linked up Indian Mounds Park to Phalen Park. In a decade these roads were used by automobiles and in 1912 Saint Paul removed the ban on motor vehicles in Indian Mounds Park and now horse-drawn vehicles were no longer allowed.
Quite a few minor changes were made in the late “Teens and Twenties.” Various facilities were put in the park--a ski slide, a refectory house, tennis courts, a warming house, six horseshoe courts.. In the 1920’s Mounds Boulevard was paved through the park to Earl Street. The Indian Mounds “were reseeded and put back in their original shape."
During the Great Depression the park only operated during the summer. There was little concern for having a playground and few, if any, child-oriented features were added. There was a single brick building, toilets, a stove, two tennis and six horseshoe courts. There were no ball fields, sand boxes or swings and an almost complete absence of play equipment.
The first major park renovation in many years was undertaken in the 1980’s. Using "Great River Road" funds, the city made improvements, including restoration of the pavilion and removal of the road behind the mounds. The last two houses on the west side of Mounds Boulevard were purchased and removed. Picnic tables, rest rooms and a new children's play area were built. Partly as a response to the increase of joggers and bikers, major new trails and beautification of the bluff line was begun.
A new organization named Friends of Mounds Park (FOMP) was started in 2009 to speak up on the area’s needs and to sponsor events. Two years later, members of FOMP and other local organizations convinced the city to undertake the first comprehensive plan for Indian Mounds Park. Their suggestions for improvements which included a new children’s play area and the creation of a small open-air amphitheater were begun in 2013.
]]>