The name Minnesota means ” sky-tinted waters,” and within the limits of the city of Minneapolis may be found more beautiful lakes, streams, and waterfalls than in any other city in the world. In this pamphlet will be found illustrations — both summer and winter views— embracing some of these most charming interurban fairy scenes.
Commencing, there is the beautiful winter scenery upon the lake in Loring Park, followed by other summer scenes on Calhoun and Minnetonka. The city itself is divided into two unequal parts by the Mississippi River — “The Father of Waters” — with the Falls of St. Anthony, Loring Parky in the very heart of the manufacturing centre. Two miles south of the falls, and within the city limits, is Lake Calhoun, a sheet of water cover ing nearly one thousand acres, skirted on one side by Lake of the Isles, and on the other by sylvan Lake Harriet, both of these being nearly as large as Calhoun. These lakes are filled with all of the varieties of fish known to our northern climate, and their shores fringed with magnificent forests of white birch, maple, linden, and other beautiful native trees — not set in stilted rows by the hand of man, but standing in beautiful groves where nature planted them.
Minnehaha Creek meanders through beautiful meadows within the limits of the city and its suburbs, finally furnishing the everlasting music to the beautiful lines of our American poet — Longfellow — who was the first to interpret the beauty of this most charming natural scene to the outside world :
” Where the Falls of Minnehaha Laugh and gleam among the oak trees, Laugh, and leap into the valley.”
Still within the city limits are innumerable smaller lakes and streams of crystal, ” sky -tinted waters ” — Crystal Lake on the north, Cedar Lake on the west, and Powderhorn Lake on the south — all within the city limits and reached by the various suburban electric lines. On the shores of these beautiful sheets of water in summer are held picnics and various social and family reunions. All are supplied with sail- and row-boats, bathing houses, and every convenience.
These lakes are a unique municipal feature — no other city in the world possessing them in such lavish profusion as Minneapolis.
Minneapolis : an art study of the city and its surroundings
Minneapolis Realty Company 1891