The State Park is the largest improved area of park land, A small section is laid out in conventional fashion, but the greater part of it is in its natural state. The attraction of the spot is the falls of Minnehaha. Down a descent of fifty feet they leap, shivering into filmy spray. From the basin below runs a wanton little brook, swirling in mimic whirlpools. As you follow the glen down toward the Mississippi, the scenery becomes more wild and beautiful and romantic. The valley is narrow and the sides precipitous. In spots they rise in imposing walls of bare rock; while in others they are clothed with thick and tawny forests, and stand out like battlements scaled by the feathered warriors who once were masters of the glen.
The brook runs here and there like a wild thing at play, throwing wide its arms to embrace a little island, curving shore-ward in mimic bays and harbors, then rushing onward, echoing the laughter of the falls. Ferns and brakes and wild flowers cushion the bank with dewy verdure and fill the air with the sweet and spicy odors of the forest. A park it is in very truth, such a park as all the arts of man could never reproduce.
Art Glimpses of Minneapolis, the City of Homes :
For the Better Exploitation of the Beauties of Minneapolis.
-MinneapolisTimes Newspaper Co., 1898.
