Nokohaha

While most of the visitors to the Norenberg Gardens, Three Rivers Park spend their time on the south side of North Shore Drive admiring the garden on Crystal Bay, I usually hop across the road and take a hike past the water tower and through the woods on the edge of Maxwell Bay. There’s a beautiful path cut through thick patches of a strange, rubbery, segmented grass that I still don’t know the name of. If you follow the trail to the end of the peninsula you’ll be treated to beautiful view at the top of a little hill.

Grain Belt Brewery founder Frederick Noerenberg and his family built their estate on the shore of Lake Minnetonka in 1890. Influenced by English Landscape Style, the property featured tiered rose beds and impeccably manicured lawns. As world travelers with an appreciation for natural artifacts, the family accumulated an assortment of natural specimens that appeared in the garden, including a collection of trees, plant materials and rocks.
Lora Noerenberg Hoppe, one of the five Noerenberg children, acted as chief horticulturist on the gardens for a number of years. She bequeathed the estate to the Park District when she passed away in 1972. At her direction, the home was razed and the estate was transformed to a garden for the public’s enjoyment.

Check out some related posts:

• Mound High Then and Now
• By the Waters of Minnetonka
• Skinny Dipping and Water Skiing on Stubbs Bay