River Stories # 2
Hi Readers,
In the last blog I mentioned the impact of the Cottonwood and Minnesota Rivers on our development and thought I would offer a few more “riverine tidbits.”
Did you know that we had a recreational lake in New Ulm? In the 1930s a reservoir dam was created on the Cottonwood River that created a recreational lake accessed through the then-named Cottonwood State Park (since 1945 it has been called “Flandrau State Park.”) The park borders New Ulm’s southwest city boundaries and so is often considered “in” New Ulm. The lake was big enough for water skiers, fishing boats and pleasure craft. After the dam was damaged in 1947, 1965 and finally in 1969, it was removed, but the lake was a cool thing to have while it lasted! I remember swimming and inner-tubing on it as a youth and it was very popular.
Plans were discussed to create another pleasure lake in the late 1970s on the Minnesota River. Local optometrist and City Councilman, George German, led the charge for a few years, but the dam was never installed. As a result of Dr. German’s efforts toward the river, a more developed fishing landing was created. Today Minnecon Park serves as the primary boat landing spot. It is accessed from 6th North and Front Streets. Riverside Park at Center and Front Streets and Eckstein Landing on County Road 37 offer smaller boat landing spots.
New Ulm’s location is the result of the rivers being located where they are. In 1854 a scouting party charged with finding a suitable location to develop a new town was advised by French fur-trader, Joseph LaFramboise, to locate their town where the Cottonwood and Minnesota Rivers join. There they would find a series of natural terraces that allowed them to use the river without a fear of flooding.
LaFramboise’s advice has served us well all these years, although due to being landlocked in the river valleys with a resultant shortage of housing tracts, some newer developments have seen houses being built close to the river and getting flooded. With valley-wide increases in urban build-up, different farming techniques, more paved roads and other social changes, flooding is likely to continue. The recent sandbagging efforts and temporary clay berms have been short-term efforts that need a better long-term solution.
Finally, did you know that New Ulm was a major source of buttons in the late 1800s? Clam shells harvested from the Minnesota River were sent to Muscatine, Iowa to be drilled out to make buttons that adorned clothing across the country. Today, most buttons are plastic, but clam shells were a common source in years past and we supplied some of that trade. There are photos of huge mounds of shells stacked along the river at the Regional River History and Information Center in Riverside Park.
“T” Sveine
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
