Park Puzzlers: Wirth, Gross and Minnehaha
Metal objects have been found in three places which have puzzled people. What are they? Do they serve park purposes?
Michael Fleming asked a question I can’t answer. Maybe one of you can. He sends these two pictures of metal posts in Theodore Wirth Park across Golden Valley Road from the Golden Valley Fire Station near the intersection of Bonnie Lane.
If you know what these are, leave a comment.
I also found another marker on park land similar to the one described by Craig Johnson in a post a few years ago. This marker was found along the sidewalk on the west side of Gross National Golf Course in St. Anthony, presumably on another park boundary. Gross is one of three golf courses owned and operated by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) that are wholly or partly outside of Minneapolis city limits. The others are Wirth and Meadowbrook. A fourth golf course operated by the MPRB outside of city limits is on leased land at Fort Snelling. (The park board is the only Minneapolis government entity allowed to own land outside of city limits, which is also why the park board owned and developed the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from 1926 until the Metropolitan Airports Commission was created by the legislature to operate the airport in 1943.)
Finally, Rene Rosengren sent another picture of old machinery near the dog park at Minnehaha.
Based on the information Rene provided, I am quite certain that this is on former Bureau of Mines land and not part of Minnehaha Park. I think it unlikely that this was left behind by limestone quarry work in the park and was part of Bureau of Mines project.
If you have other ideas or can identify these objects, we’d like to hear from you.
David Carpentier Smith
Minneapolis Park History 
Hi David,
Those look like old street light bases to me. I found a few of these along Cedar and maybe along TW Pkway on the west side of the lake. It looks like they just abandoned the bases instead of ripping them out when the lights were removed.
Andrea S. Weber
David – The Washburn Water Tower has a metal pipe with a company name on its side that looks exactly like the ones in your picture at the base of the stairs up to the tower. The inner part of the pipe is full of cement. It is my understanding is that the pipe, which was part of the original water tower built by the Washburn Orphanage in 1893, was used along with a twisting tool to turn on and off the flow of water from the tower to the orphanage. The water originally came from the Minnehaha Creek. The tower was converted by the City of Minneapolis to be part of their system in 1916 to serve the residences surrounding the tower for a few blocks as a local head for water pressure. As population growth filled the neighborhood in as the 1920s, the old water tower proved to be inadequate for both pressure and amount. It was replaced by the Minneapolis Water Department in 1932 by the current Washburn Water Tower.
I don’t know why the Water Department chose to leave the pipe above ground, but it is an interesting historical artifact. The cement in the pipe is clearly visible, but It’s too bad that there is no cap.
I hope this helps your puzzler and that your Minneapolis Park History work keeps on going strong.
Tom
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Thanks, Tom. Great info. Good to hear from you.