Minnesotan Connections

While attending the Univeristy of Minnesota: Duluth I absolutely fell in love with that northern city. Where else in the middle of the country are you in an ocean port?

Likewise, I have now been the site manager of the Warden’s House in Stillwater through four seasons and have been completely swept up in the history of this town.

After spending a fair time in both locales, I’ve noticed a number of interesting parallels between Duluth and Stillwater.

Just to name a few: they’re both built on a hill, htey’re both just across the water from Wisconsin, and obviously, they both feature iconic historic lift bridges.

When comparing their histories you’ll see that both enjoyed moments of being major industrial and commerical centers.

At the same time the Zenith City was projected to outgrow Chicago; Stillwater’s lumber industry was literally building the nation. But, in another parallel, eventually the Iron Range dried up and Minnesota’s old growth forests were depleted.

Today, these former industrial titans have been forced to adapt by shifted their focus to tourism. Thousands flock to Duluth every year to tour the elegant Glensheen Mansion and Stillwater’s historic downtown district is packed with “day-cationers” every summer.

Through highlighting the history of their former glory days, both cities have discovered ways to flourish in the modern world.

The following article discusses a trip to Duluth by notable founding fathers of Stillwater including her first mayor – John McKusick.

Stillwater and Duluth – Stillwater Republican – December 1, 1870

Messrs. McKusick, McCluer, Proctor and others, who took a pleasure trip to Duluth last week, returned on Saturday, much delighted with their journey, and impressed with the sights they had seen. They report that all talk in Duluth is of Stillwater and the approaching Railroad connection with this city. They look upon Stillwater as destined to be, in the future, a more important point than St. Paul. Duluth, and the Superior Railroad company, are exceedingly anxious for a connection with the Tomah road via Stillwater, and will unite with us to bridge Lake St. Croix at this point, and make the connection directly east. And one at all familiar with the country can see at once that this would give Duluth a much shorter eastern and southern connection than any she can get through St. Paul, and a much more direct one that to rundown the Lake here and cross at Hudson.

John McKusick says he never had any great ideas of Duluth until he had seen it and looked it over for himself. But he is now convinced that an immense city must arise somewhere about the head waters of Lake Superior – the probabilities are rather in favor of Duluth than of Superior City, Bayfield or any other point. They propose at Duluth to the wholesale trade and grain shipping of all this region, and in our opinion she can control both next season, if she and the Philadelphia parties interested in her growth will put in the required capital and energy.

Stillwater and the country tributary are greatly interested in the growth of Duluth for a great metropolis there will give us advantages which could not accrue to us from any other source. If Duluth can control the commerce of the Northwest north of the line of central Iowa, or even north of the southern line of Minnesota, Stillwater must become the gathering point of a large trade which might otherwise center at points below us. The interests of Duluth and Stillwater are closely interwoven, and both cities will work together for mutual welfare.

Oak Park Heights

from the WCHS Community Histories Online Exhibit

Oak Park Heights was platted in 1938 and incorporated as a city in 1959, but its story began much earlier, when it was known as Oak Park. The first 10-block plat—entered by John Parker, William Dorr, Gold and Mary Curtis, Olive Anderson, and William M. McCluer in 1857—was soon followed by four more plats. Located in Baytown Township, between Stillwater and South Stillwater (Bayport), the new townsite had high prospects for sale of residential lots and, because of its river frontage, for industrial development. Most of the community founders had an interest in the lumbering industry.

Early settlers were David Cover, a river pilot who came to Oak Park in the 1840s and dealt in logs and lumber, and John Parker, who relocated from St. Croix Falls in 1850.

Early development centered around Mill Street, which led to the river and the milling townsites just to the south. In the 1880s, a sawmill was constructed along Oak Park’s riverfront, along with a barrel-making company. About 1890 Jewish settlers Moritz and Bertha Bergstein settled in Oak Park. They operated a waste materials yard with a warehouse and “shoddy” mill, where waste fabric was recycled into stuffing for mattresses. The rubble stone mill building and warehouse still stand but are in the path of the new bridge construction, and are slated to be moved.

Oak Park’s nearness to Stillwater and the main road to St. Paul encouraged a number of well-to-do residents to build impressive homes on the bluff overlooking Lake St. Croix. Still, only a few hundred people called it home in 1910. By 1914 the new Minnesota State Prison had been built next to Oak Park, bringing new economic activity to the area, but there was little new construction in the 1920s and 1930s.

Oak Park, today known as Oak Park Heights, has been considerably changed by recent development. Highway 36 was cut through in the 1930s, dividing the community. Improvements to Highways 36 and 95 and construction of the Allen S. King generating plant and its power lines in the 1970s had considerable impact on the residential community. In the late 1990s, a portion of the original townsite including many of the mid-19th-century bluff homes was razed in preparation for a new river bridge.

When Highway 36 was extended to Stillwater in the 1930s, automobile tourists flocked to the river valley. One old vestige of this era is the Club Tara Hideaway. This log cabin style roadhouse, built in 1932 as Lynch’s Chicken Shack and still in business as a restaurant today, is typical of the establishments that sprang up to cater to motorists. Another artifact of the automobile culture is the limestone wayside overlook on Lookout Trail, constructed in 1938s by the National Youth Administration. Both are on the original alignment of Highway 36.

Little commercial or residential growth occurred in Oak Park Heights until 1960 when construction started on the St. Croix Mall. Oak Park Heights has become highly commercial, at least along the Highway 36 corridor, which features dozens of businesses and eating places. Considerable development has taken place on the south side of the highway, extending past Highway 5. Krueger’s Christmas Tree Farm has been replaced with big box stores, restaurants, apartments, and two large malls. Stillwater Motors, the Post Office distribution center, the Stillwater Area High School, and Boutwells Landing Senior Living Center are also in Oak Park Heights. The Minnesota Correctional Facility–Oak Park Heights on Orleans Street opened in 1982 as a maximum security prison.

The community has numerous parks, including Brekke Park, which overlooks the large Bayport Wildlife Management Area. Although sometimes overshadowed by its neighbors, this growing community of more than 4,000 residents is still thriving.

Oak Park was replatted in 1938 as the village of Oak Park Heights and incorporated in 1959. Its growth has sped up, adding more than 1,000 residents since 1990, to about 4,795 in 2014.