Steamboat Minnehaha in Excelsior, Minnesota | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Minnehaha |
Owner |
|
Route | Lake Minnetonka |
Builder | Twin City Rapid Transit Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Launched |
|
In service |
|
Homeport | Excelsior, Minnesota, U.S. |
Identification | MN 1906 GF |
Status | Temporarily out of service |
General characteristics | |
Type | TCRT Express Boat |
Displacement | 55 short tons (49.9 t) |
Length | 70 ft (21.3 m) |
Beam | 14 ft 10 in (4.5 m) |
Draft | 5 ft 7.5 in (1.7 m) |
Decks | 2 |
Installed power | 127 hp (94.7 kW) [1] |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Capacity | 101 persons [1] |
Crew | 3 (Pilot, Purser, Engineer) [1] |
Minnehaha (steamboat) | |
Location | 140 George Street, Excelsior, Minnesota |
Coordinates | 44°54′11″N93°34′28″W / 44.90306°N 93.57444°W |
Built | 1906 |
NRHP reference No. | 100007073 |
Added to NRHP | October 25, 2021 |
Minnehaha is a steam-powered excursion vessel on Lake Minnetonka in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The vessel was originally in service between 1906 and 1926. After being scuttled in 1926, Minnehaha was raised from the bottom of Lake Minnetonka in 1980, restored, and returned to active service in 1996. [2] The vessel operated uninterrupted on Lake Minnetonka until 2019. It is currently stored in a maintenance facility in the town of Excelsior. [3]
Minnehaha was built by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) in 1906 and provided fast and reliable transportation for the residents of Lake Minnetonka during much of the early twentieth century. [4] She ran alongside five identical sister vessels named Como, Harriet, Hopkins, Stillwater, and White Bear. [5] TCRT had commissioned boat builder Royal C. Moore to design these "Express Boats" in 1905. Each were 70 feet (21 m) long, 14 feet 10 inches (5 m) wide, drew 5 feet 7 inches (2 m) of water, and were powered by a single coal-fired boiler and triple-expansion steam engine. The sleek, launch-style hull of the craft, modern for the time, made the boats exceptionally stable and efficient as they cut through the water at a speed of approximately 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). [1] The boats were designed in Wayzata and assembled at TCRT's streetcar shops in south Minneapolis. [6]
Express Boat service first began on May 25, 1906, from Minnetonka Beach. Later that year a streetcar transfer terminal was completed in Excelsior, and all routes (four in total) embarked and disembarked from there. The primary function assigned to the Express Boats was to provide fast and reliable transportation for the seasonal residents of Lake Minnetonka who commuted to work in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. The boats stopped at 26 designated landings around the lake. They were designed to closely resemble TCRT's streetcars from the internal details to the exterior yellow and red paint scheme. Because of their appearance and the fact they were named after busy TCRT streetcar stops, they were nicknamed the "streetcar boats." [4] [6]
The streetcar boats proved to be very successful and economically solvent for many years. A seventh vessel named Excelsior was added to the fleet in 1915 because of high ridership. [4] However, ridership plummeted when roads were improved around Lake Minnetonka in the early 1920s. TCRT made cuts to steamboat service after 1921 and discontinued all steamboat service on Lake Minnetonka in 1926. [2] Three of the streetcar boats were scuttled that summer, including Minnehaha. Three others were scrapped. One of the vessels, the Hopkins, was sold to a private entity and used as an excursion boat until 1949 when it was also scuttled. [6]
In 1979 a diver named Jerry Provost located the wreck of Minnehaha on the bottom of Lake Minnetonka. One year later, Provost and his underwater construction company raised Minnehaha to the surface with the intent of restoring and returning her to passenger service. However, due to a set of legal circumstances, Minnehaha sat in dry dock for 10 subsequent years. After much litigation, ownership of the vessel was ultimately transferred to the Steamboat Division of the Minnesota Transportation Museum in 1990, and a six-year restoration effort began. [6] Minnehaha finally returned to passenger service on May 25, 1996, and operated on Lake Minnetonka as an excursion vessel until 2019. [2]
Minnehaha is currently owned and operated by the Museum of Lake Minnetonka, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization formed in 2004 and based in Excelsior, Minnesota. [7] The museum lost access to Minnehaha's launch site at the end of 2019 and the vessel has been out of service since then. Minnehaha was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. [3]
Deephaven is a small city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The community is on Lake Minnetonka, centered on the Cottagewood General Store, which has been serving the Lake Minnetonka area since 1895. Deephaven is 14 miles (23 km) west-southwest of downtown Minneapolis. The population was 3,642 as of the 2010 Census, down from 3,853 as of the 2000 census.
Excelsior is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. Excelsior's historic commercial district along Water Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the town has many Victorian-era houses. On Lake Minnetonka's southern shore, the community serves as a local tourism destination for shoppers, boaters, and restaurant-goers.
Minnetonka is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about 10 miles (16 km) west of Minneapolis. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 53,781.
Wayzata is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 4,434 at the 2020 census. The city is about 12 miles west of Minneapolis and is situated on the northern shore of Lake Minnetonka, the ninth largest lake in the state.
A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. The term steamboat is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels working on lakes, rivers, and in short-sea shipping. The development of the steamboat led to the larger steamship, which is a seaworthy and often ocean-going ship.
The Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT), also known as Twin City Lines (TCL), was a transportation company that operated streetcars and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Other types of transportation were tested including taxicabs and steamboats, along with the operation of some destination sites such as amusement parks. It existed under the TCRT name from a merger in the 1890s until it was purchased in 1962. At its height in the early 20th century, the company operated an intercity streetcar system that was believed to be one of the best in the United States. It is a predecessor of the current Metro Transit bus and light rail system that operates in the metro area.
Lake Minnetonka is a lake located about 16 miles (26 km) west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin and Carver counties and is surrounded by 13 incorporated municipalities. At 14,528 acres (5,879 ha), it is Minnesota's ninth largest lake. It is a popular spot for local boaters, sailors, and fishermen.
The Minnesota Transportation Museum is a transportation museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line (CHSL) is a heritage streetcar line in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which follows original streetcar right-of-way between Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska and is operated by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. The heritage line was originally developed in the 1970s by the Minnesota Transportation Museum which spun off streetcar operations in the winter of 2004–2005.
Minnehaha is a Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha and comes to a tragic end. The name, often said to mean "laughing water", literally translates to "waterfall" or "rapid water" in Dakota.
Big Island Park was a popular tourist destination that existed near Minneapolis, Minnesota between 1906 and 1911 on Lake Minnetonka's Big Island. Today the property is a municipal nature park owned by the City of Orono, sometimes referred to as Big Island Nature Park to distinguish it from the former amusement park.
Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare between 29th and 31st streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota United States. From its western most end at the city's limits, Lake Street reaches the Chain of Lakes, passing over a small channel linking Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, and at its eastern most end it reaches the Mississippi River. In May 2020, the Lake Street corridor suffered extensive damage during local unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In August of the same year, city officials designated East Lake Street as one of seven cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth.
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) is a transport museum that operates two heritage streetcar lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the western suburb of Excelsior.
The steamboat Ticonderoga is one of two remaining side-paddle-wheel passenger steamers with a vertical beam engine of the type that provided freight and passenger service on America's bays, lakes and rivers from the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries. Commissioned by the Champlain Transportation Company, Ticonderoga was built in 1906 at the Shelburne Shipyard in Shelburne, Vermont on Lake Champlain.
The Minneapolis Streetcar System was a proposed streetcar system for the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Extensive studies and plans for the new system were completed in 2007 and presented to the Minneapolis City Council in January 2008; on April 2, 2010, the Council voted to approve the plans and seek funding. On December 21, 2010 the Federal Transit Administration granted $900,000 to further study the Nicollet and Central Avenue corridors. In June 2021, after no further development on the system, a bill authorized the Metropolitan Council to use funds collected for the Nicollet-Central line to be spent on bus rapid transit funding.
Lake steamers of North America include large, steam-powered non-government vessels with displacement hulls on American freshwater lakes excluding the Great Lakes. They may have served as passenger boats, freighters, mail-boats, log-boom vessels or a combination thereof. The construction of such vessels posed unique problems on water bodies located away from established dry-docks and marine railways, or connecting canals to such facilities.
The steamboat Acme operated on Lake Washington and also on the Sammamish Slough to Bothell, Washington from 1899 to 1910, when it was destroyed by fire.
The Lyndale Railway Company later renamed the Minneapolis, Lyndale, & Minnetonka Railway Company operated the Minneapolis, Lyndale and Lake Calhoun railway, also known as the Motor Line.
Minnehaha was a sternwheel-driven steamboat which was built in 1866 on Oswego Lake, then known as Sucker Lake, in Oregon, United States. Minnehaha was later transferred to the Willamette and Columbia rivers where it operated for the first part of the 1870s.