Garrison Concourse | |
Location | Junction of U.S. Route 169 & Minnesota State Highway 18, Garrison, Minnesota |
---|---|
Coordinates | 46°17′39″N93°49′26″W / 46.29417°N 93.82389°W |
Area | 6.3 acres (2.5 ha) |
Built | 1936–1939 |
Built by | Civilian Conservation Corps, Minnesota Highway Department |
Architect | Edward W. Barber (architect), Arthur R. Nichols (landscape architect), Harold E. Olson (engineer) |
Architectural style | National Park Service rustic |
MPS | Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933–1941 |
NRHP reference No. | 13000882 [1] |
Designated | December 3, 2013 |
The Garrison Concourse is a roadside park on Mille Lacs Lake in Garrison, Minnesota, United States. The site consists of a wide parking area and scenic overlook projecting out into the lake, plus landscaped parkland along the shore in both directions. It was built from 1936 to 1939 as the centerpiece of the Mille Lacs Highway Development Plan, a major New Deal project to create a scenic parkway along the lakeshore. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 for having state-level significance in the themes of landscape architecture and politics/government. [2] It was nominated for being the premiere structure of the most extensive roadside development project undertaken by the Minnesota Highway Department and the Civilian Conservation Corps, and for its blend of formalism and National Park Service rustic design. [3]
The Garrison Concourse stands on the northwest shore of Mille Lacs Lake, a major destination for recreational fishing. It was built on U.S. Route 169—which runs between Minneapolis–Saint Paul and the Iron Range cities—at its junction with Minnesota State Highway 18, leading toward Brainerd and several other major fishing lakes. [3]
The principal feature is the overlook, a D-shaped platform with a paved driveway and parking area surrounding a central island, and a curving stone walkway around the periphery. The platform measures 335 feet (102 m) north to south and 190 feet (58 m) east to west, and projects 160 feet (49 m) into the lake. [3]
The overlook wall consists of large blocks of granite, roughly finished and laid in a random pattern. The walls are two feet (61 cm) thick and rise three feet (0.9 m) above the inner walkway. Three-foot (0.9 m) stone piers are spaced at intervals. The inner walkway widens in three places to provide space for sightseers to congregate. A 120-foot (37 m) bay is centered on the lakeward side of the platform, while 70-foot (21 m) bays stand at both landward corners. [3] [4]
The central island was designed with formal plantings delineated by a grid of walkways. A 16-foot-square (4.9 m) flagstone plaza in the center surrounds a stone monument, which serves as a mount for an interpretive plaque and the base of a flagpole. Six-inch-high (15 cm) stone curbing once defined much of the grounds. The only surviving original sections, however, are around the central island and a 230-foot (70 m) stretch along the highway shoulder south of the overlook. Native trees and shrubs pepper the open space on either side of the overlook. [3]
The National Register listing is broken down into four contributing properties: one site (the designed landscape itself) and three structures (the overlook wall, the monument, and the granite curbing). Two elements built in more recent times are considered noncontributing properties: a fiberglass statue of a giant walleye erected around 1980 and a small visitor information booth built around 1990. [3]
Mille Lacs Lake arose as a popular visitor destination in the early 20th century, first through rail access but then by automobile as a scenic highway was designated along its western shore in 1917 and as cars became affordable for middle-class families. It was the first large lake encountered by motorists traveling north out of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. By the 1920s the highway along Mille Lacs Lake was the state's most traveled, providing access to a growing number of tourist amenities nearby as well as destinations just beyond it in the directions of Brainerd and Aitkin. The road became U.S. Route 169 in 1931. [3]
In the 1930s the Minnesota Highway Department began an ambitious series of improvement projects to realign roadways and establish scenic waysides, taking advantage of federal funds and labor provided by the New Deal to combat the Great Depression. The work was intended to improve highway aesthetics, increase safety, and aid the nascent automobile tourism industry by providing scenic areas for motorists to relax, eat, and use restrooms in the years before gas stations and convenience stores became commonplace. [3]
The Garrison Concourse was designed on a large scale, both to accommodate the number of visitors it would see and to match the scale of Mille Lacs Lake. It is the third largest of more than 50 overlooks built by the Minnesota Highway Department during the New Deal, and the only one to project into a body of water. [3]
The Mille Lacs Lake Highway Wayside Camp, or SP-15, was established just outside the small town of Garrison. It housed a rotating population of 200 men employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The camp was operated by the U.S. Army, while the work projects were directed by the National Park Service and the Minnesota Highway Department. Of the 120 Civilian Conservation Corps camps established in Minnesota, only four were attached to the Minnesota Highway Department. SP-15 was the longest lived of the four—active for four and a half years—and produced the most extensive accomplishments. The camp laborers were initially 18–25-year-olds, but later it hosted a company of older men who were veterans of World War I. [3]
Work on the Garrison Concourse began in spring 1936. First they relocated to the north a small monument to William Tauer, a local hotelier who had drowned while trying to save boaters in distress during a June 1927 storm. During the summer of 1936 the Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees built a cofferdam to hold back the lakewater and laid the footings of the overlook wall. Extreme heat and a reassignment to help fight forest fires up north slowed progress, but the following year the overlook wall was mostly completed. The overlook plaza was built up with gravel, clay, and stone fill. The men also created a 350-foot (110 m) sandy beach north of the overlook to complement the natural beach on the south side. From 1938 to 1939, the workers completed the central plaza and its monument, stonework, benches, landscaping, and planting. [3]
In addition to the Garrison Concourse, Camp SP-15 widened the highway from two lanes to four for 10 miles (16 km), realigned a section, constructed two other wayside rests and four stone-faced bridges, and landscaped the right-of-way. This fell far short of the original hope to develop a scenic highway all the way around the lake, but it was still Minnesota's most extensive highway development project of the New Deal era. Camp SP-15's other projects in the area include the Kenney Lake Overlook, Bridge 5265, and Bridge 3355, and the St. Alban's Bay Culvert, each of which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [3]
The Garrison Concourse was extensively restored beginning in 2011. Ice and wave action had taken a toll on the overlook wall, and the plaza had deteriorated. [3] The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota had placed it on their 2010 "10 most endangered historic places" list. [5] The state highway department—now renamed the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT)—performed the work to meet federal standards for historic properties. Loose stones were reset and missing stones replaced with similar material. Several stones knocked out of the overlook wall were recovered from the lakebed and fitted back into place. Repairs were made to the plaza and flagpole monument. [3] The walleye statue and information booth, which had been placed in the middle of the plaza in the late 20th century, were moved a short distance to be less visually obtrusive.
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in east-central Minnesota. The Band has 4,302 members as of 2012. Its homeland is the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, consisting of District I, District II, District IIa, and District III.
Cascade River State Park is a state park near the northeastern tip of Minnesota, US. The park is in a rocky and rugged location where the Cascade River descends to meet Lake Superior. It has many different types of wildlife including various birds and mammals.
Jay Cooke State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, protecting the lower reaches of the Saint Louis River. The park is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Duluth and is one of the ten most visited state parks in Minnesota. The western half of the park contains part of a rocky, 13-mile (21 km) gorge. This was a major barrier to Native Americans and early Europeans traveling by canoe, which they bypassed with the challenging Grand Portage of the St. Louis River. The river was a vital link connecting the Mississippi waterways to the west with the Great Lakes to the east.
Camp Release State Monument is located on the edge of Montevideo, Minnesota, United States, just off Highway 212 in Lac qui Parle County, in the 6-acre Camp Release State Memorial Wayside. The Camp Release Monument stands as a reminder of Minnesota's early state history. The Minnesota River Valley and Montevideo were important sites in the Dakota War of 1862.
The St. Croix Boom Site is a historic and scenic wayside on the St. Croix River in Stillwater Township, Minnesota, United States. It commemorates the location of a critical log boom where, from 1856 to 1914, timber from upriver was sorted and stored before being dispatched to sawmills downstream. The site was developed as a roadside park along Minnesota State Highway 95 in the 1930s. In 1966 it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its national significance in the theme of industry. It was nominated for being the earliest, most important, and longest serving of the log storage and handling operations that supported Minnesota's major logging industry. Virtually no traces remain of the site's original buildings and structures.
The Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center, also known as the Depoe Bay Ocean Wayside, is an Oregon State Parks-staffed visitor center in Depoe Bay, Oregon, U.S. to help visitors observe whale migration and provide information about whales and other marine mammals, including history, economics, and their environmental and ecological influences. The wayside provides a sheltered platform from which to view the ocean. First established as a wayside parking area on the Oregon Coast Highway in 1930, the wayside building was built in 1956 as a restroom facility for the popular spot. It is located just to the north of the Depoe Bay Bridge, also on the National Register.
Rim Village is the main area for tourist services in Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon, United States. It is located on the southwest rim of the caldera overlooking Crater Lake. The National Park Service designed Rim Village to concentrate park services at a location that provided easy access to rim trails and view points. Because of the unique rustic architecture of the Rim Village structures and the surrounding park landscape, the area was listed as Rim Village Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Preston Overlook is a historic scenic overlook in Preston, Minnesota, United States, North America.
The Stillwater Overlook is a scenic overlook in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, United States, just south of the city limits of Stillwater, near the junction of Minnesota State Highway 36 and Minnesota State Highway 95. The overlook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 for having state-level significance in politics/government and landscape architecture. It was nominated as a leading example of the early wayside rests developed by the Minnesota Department of Highways Roadside Development Division, as well as for its sophisticated and well-preserved National Park Service rustic architecture, and for being an important work of Minnesota landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols.
Arthur R. Nichols was a landscape architect who practiced in New York City and Minnesota in a long career from 1902 through 1960. He was a very productive landscape architect who was instrumental in bringing the field of landscape architecture to Minnesota.
The Craigie Flour Mill Historical Marker is a wayside rest on Minnesota State Highway 78 in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. The site was designed by landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols and built by the National Youth Administration and the Minnesota Highway Department. The style is National Park Service Rustic architecture.
Bridge Number 3355 in Kathio Township, in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, is a concrete slab bridge that carries U.S. Route 169 (US 169) over Whitefish Creek near Mille Lacs Lake. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance, especially the ornamental stonework as designed by the National Park Service and built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Pine-Hickory Lakes Roadside Parking Area is a wayside rest located along U.S. Highway 169 in Farm Island Township, Aitkin County, Minnesota. It straddles both sides of the highway just north of where it passes between Little Pine Lake on the west and Hickory Lake on the east. It is one of the largest wayside rests developed by the Minnesota Highway Department during the New Deal, at 35 acres (14 ha). Arthur R. Nichols, collaborating with engineer Harold E. Olson, designed the rest area in the National Park Service rustic style. The wayside rest was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2016.
The St. Alban's Bay Culvert is a historic bridge in Garrison Township, Minnesota, United States. It carries the four-lane U.S. Route 169 (US 169) over the head of a stream flowing out of Mille Lacs Lake. It was built from 1938 to 1939 as part of a major New Deal project to create a scenic parkway along the lakeshore. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 as the St. Alban's Bay Culvert at Mille Lacs Lake for having state-level significance in the themes of architecture and politics/government. It was nominated for being a well-preserved example of the Minnesota Highway Department's earliest scenic improvements, its rare status as a highway bridge built by the department's Roadside Development Division—a unit usually focused on overlooks and waysides—and for its fine National Park Service rustic design.
The Kenney Lake Overlook is a historic roadside park in Garrison Township, Minnesota, United States. Adjacent to the southbound lane of Minnesota State Highway 18 (MN 18), the two-acre (0.8 ha) site provides a parking area and an overlook of a small lake. The wayside was built in 1939 as part of a major New Deal project to create a scenic parkway along the shore of nearby Mille Lacs Lake. The Mille Lacs Highway Development Plan was the largest highway improvement project in the state constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The Kenney Lake Overlook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 for having state-level significance in the themes of landscape architecture and politics/government. It was nominated for being a key component of a major highway improvement project, for representing the work of the Veterans Division of the CCC and the earliest scenic improvements of the Minnesota Highway Department (MHD), and for its fine National Park Service rustic design.
The Reads Landing Overlook is a scenic overlook on U.S. Route 61 in Pepin Township, Minnesota, United States. It was built from 1939 to 1940 as a New Deal project to provide motorists with a scenic view of Lake Pepin. It was designed by landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols and constructed by the National Youth Administration. The overlook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 for its state-level significance in the themes of landscape architecture and politics/government. It was nominated for exemplifying the early highway waysides built in Minnesota with federal work relief aid, and for exemplifying as well National Park Service rustic style and the work of Nichols.
The Orr Roadside Parking Area is a roadside park on U.S. Route 53 in Orr, Minnesota, United States. It was built from 1935 to 1938 as a New Deal project to provide motorists with recreational access to Pelican Lake. It was designed by landscape architect Arthur R. Nichols and constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Highways. The overlook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 for its state-level significance in the themes of landscape architecture and politics/government. It was nominated for exemplifying the early highway waysides built in Minnesota with federal work relief aid, and for exemplifying National Park Service rustic style and the work of Nichols.
Minnesota Scenic Byways are a system of roads in the U.S. state of Minnesota which pass through areas of scenic, cultural, or recreational significance. There are currently 22 scenic byways in the system with a total length of 2,948 miles (4,744 km). Eight of these byways are also designated as National Scenic Byways, and the North Shore Scenic Drive is further designated as an All-American Road.
Inspiration Point Wayside Rest is a state highway wayside rest located along Minnesota State Highway 16 southwest of Lanesboro, Fillmore County, Minnesota. Minnesotan architect Arthur R. Nichols designed the wayside and it was built between 1934 and 1937 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 2015, Inspiration Point Wayside Rest was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a well-preserved example of the National Park Service rustic architectural style with good historic integrity, and the only surviving Minnesota wayside to have been built by a CCC soil erosion control camp. Major renovation work was undertaken that same year to restore degrading masonry and clear invasive buckthorn that had blocked several of the wayside's viewpoints.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)