Between Wirth Par 3 Golf Course and Twin Lake: What’s the Story?
I recently received a question from a reader that I can’t answer, so I thought maybe someone else could. I am not a golfer and I have never explored the area west of the Wirth Par Three golf course. Here’s the question:
“I am wondering if you know any of the history about a seemingly out-of-place beautiful meadow/clearing just west of the 3rd hole of the Theodore Wirth Par 3 golf course. You cannot see it from the golf course but it’s easily accessible by the trails in the area.
Nestled in the meadow is a grass trail with remnants of an old asphalt trail in a tiny section, which makes me wonder if the area has an interesting “lost” history. A bit further west within those woods are remnants of an old wooden staircase built into the hillside leading down to Twin Lake. I speculate that over 50 years ago that it might have been a popular swimming area for Minneapolis residents.
Any information you may have on that meadow, as well as the history of the staircases down to the lake would be very intriguing.”
Thanks, Derek. If anyone can shed light on the landscape there and its history, please jump in. Any memories of the place?
Did you know that at it’s largest Theodore Wirth Park, previously Glenwood Park, was bigger than Central Park in New York? Park acreage was reduced when Highway 12, now I-394, cut off the southern part of the park. Part of the land south of the highway was sold to The Prudential Company for an office building in the 1950s. That was the largest ever loss of Minneapolis park land in one chunk, although the Ford Dam flooded many acres of park land along the river in the 1910s and freeway construction sliced off pieces of parkland in all parts of the city since the 1960s.
David C. Smith
Derek sent the following photos to illustrate the meadow and path. Thanks!
Minneapolis Park History 
Also…Andrew, thanks for that background!
Great photos, Derek!
Hey David! This is Andrew, I work for the natural resources department at the park board. We refer to this meadow as “the back 40” at Wirth Park and at the moment we provide occasional care and management to maintain the habitat there. It’s a surprisingly productive prairie for big bluestem. I’m currently looking for more information about that prairie’s history, and will follow up if I can learn more. Initial assumptions are that it was former farmland, and in my 1940 aerial image it appears that the surrounding land was largely unforested north of the railroad tracks at that point in time. It’s hard to tell if it was being used for agricultural purposes. I’ll check in with our archivist and see if we have any more information, but it seems likely that this was part of the purchase in 1910 of the “north and west to Twin Lake” section of the park. Based on the biological diversity in the area, however, it would be extremely surprising if there wasn’t human intervention in the prairie restoration of this site at some point in time. As far as the Twin Lake staircase goes, I have much less information!
Thanks, Andrew. Great info. And great work!
Thank you, Andrew! That is super interesting, and I’m very curious to find out what more you can glean from the archivist. Farmland would make sense. Perhaps even an approximate age (if anyone knows) of all the surrounding trees/forest might also hold some clues.
Hopefully still, others have additional history they can share here.
I also wonder if the city or park board would still have somewhere any records of the construction of that staircase and the small cement retaining wall built into that same embankment down by the Eastern shore of Twin Lake.
And thank you, David, for posting this and for getting this conversation started!
Still popular with swimmers. The meadow was once maintained as prairie by MPRB using periodic burning. Last time I was there is close to 20 years ago the stairs were usable then.
Thanks for information, Joe. I’ve added a few of Derek’s pictures of the meadow to the original post.
Thanks, Joe!