This aerial view shows the roller coaster and fun house at Excelsior Amusement Park, on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. The amusement park was built in 1926.
The aerial view shows the three-story hotel with its four-story octagonal tower and many porches, its water tower and wooded grounds, and the railroad tracks behind the hotel.
This often created card shows a fisherman with a hypothetical catch of many fish, including Northern, Walleye and Bass. This card is labeled Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, postmarked 1909.
This steamboat seems to have stopped at a dock at the Narrows. This was the scene before the bridge was built across the Narrows. The north side of this channel is in the town of Orono, and the south side is in Tonka Bay. Printed message gives description of Lake Minnetonka, postmarked and dated 1918.
Wooden boats are pulled ashore and picnic baskets appear in this generic beach scene, with a black and white inset photo labeled Steamer Excelsior, Minnetonka. The writer mentions the large number of advertisements in the paper for fine horses for sale. The Bureau of Engraving's logos is printed on back, color added, postmarked 1910.
Entrance to Big Island Park shows the path through the grove of trees. Message says this pleasure park is 18 miles out by trolley, and that the tower, peristyle, etc., are all concrete, dated and postmarked 1909.
Visitors enjoy the shade in a grove of trees at Big Island Park, color added. Card is addressed to Hoke Smith, United States Senate, Washington, D.C., postmarked 1913. Message reads: Lithography is the working man's art. Don???t destroy American Art! Help us develop American art! Why not lithograph these in Amerika? More of these cards than ever are being lithographed abroad! I receive 25 dolls per week as a lithographer. Please don't cut this down. German lithographers get only one third of the wages Americans do.
Visitors to Big Island Park arrive and depart on steamboats such as the Saint Paul. Message describes white water lilies and mosquitoes, color added, postmarked 1909.
Two boats are at the Veterans Camp dock on Big Island. Message mentions cooking enough apples to get two quarts and one pint of lovely apple sauce for winter use, postmarked Excelsior, 1938.
Bridge crossed the dry creek bed of Minnehaha Creek after a long dry spell. Writer watched for President Taft to cross the bridge in an auto during his visit to Minneapolis, but missed seeing him, dated November 12, 1909.
The Buena Vista Hotel sits on a hill above its dock and boathouse which advertises boats, bait and tackle, in the neighborhood called the Highlands, postmarked 1901.
This generic photo advertises the good old summer time on Lake Minnetonka. The colorized, wooded scene includes tents, a woman sitting on a hammock, and a fellow fishing from shore, postmarked 1910.
View of Casco Point from Lake Minnetonka shows two boat houses at the shore, and homes hiding in the trees at the top of the hill. Space for message is on front of card, postmarked 1906.
Collage of Minneapolis photographs includes Regatta Day on Lake Minnetonka, Court House and City Hall, Boulevard at Lake Calhoun, Loring Park, St. Louis Bay on Lake Minnetonka, Library at State University, Flour Mill District, Minnehaha Falls, and St. Anthony Falls and Exposition Building, dated 1906.