Bernard "Ben" Simons (1912-1995) discusses the fishing barge at Lake City, Minnesota. He also discusses being the Lake City harbormaster, replacing the fishing barge, excursion boats, recent development of Lake City, the ice skating rink, Vietnamese fishers, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's visit to Lake City.
Blaine Baesler (1920-2015), a three-sport player in high school, including making All Conference as a football player, discusses growing up and playing football, basketball, and baseball in Lake City, Minnesota, and ice boating on Lake Pepin. He also discusses how his father, a harness maker, helped Ralph Samuelson, the inventor of waterskiing, experiment with making straps for water skis.
Jim Stubstad (1922-2011) describes the development of Central Point in Lake City, and his life on Lake Pepin. He discusses his career in the US Navy and in rocket science, and boating, ice boating, boat building, sailing, and climbing Maiden Rock at Lake Pepin. He mentions the Sea Wing Disaster, water pollution, Zump Adolph's popcorn stand, the Old Goats Club, and renovation of the Lake City State Bank clock.
Marvin Howatt (1941-), of the Cliff and Coulee Climbers Club, presents the history of snowmobiling in Lake City and Wabasha County, Minnesota. Marvin also discusses snowmobile registration, grant-in-aid funding, trail building, landowner permits, landowner liability, trail signage, trail maintenance, and trail maps.
Formal flower gardens at Highcroft overlook Lake Minnetonka. This was the home of the Peavey grain milling family in Ferndale. House was razed in the early 1950s.
This rectangular building with a wall of windows on all four sides was located next to the Hotel Del Otero, on the shore of Lake Minnetonka in Spring Park, postmarked 1909.
The Pleasure Park at the Hotel Del Otero includes tennis court and croquet lawn, as well as swings and benches, color added, postmarked 1910. The printed message reads: Minnetonka is a Sioux word for "big waters;" here was the scene of Hiawatha's wooing, and out of the lake flows the stream on which is located the beautiful falls of Minnehaha--"laughing water"--made famous by Longfellow.
Copy of 1892 map of Lake Minnetonka area shows names of property owners, bays and railroad lines, as well as the elevation of the lake, and the latitude and longitude of the Lafayette Hotel. The inset depicts the Twin Cities from Lake Minnetonka to Ramsey and Dakota Counties. This map was printed with compliments of the Del-O Cafe, Pat and Evelyn Kullberg, Spring Park, Minnesota.
This view from the porch of the Excelsior casino shows patrons in hats, both female and male. The message describes the view of Lake Minnetonka as "simply fine."
This interview view of the Excelsior Amusement Park convention and picnic auditorium shows the curved roof of the room and a gathering, some people seated at benches and some at picnic tables. The printed message describes the park as "the family playground that's clean and wholesome. Ideal for church and school picnics."
