About Minneapolis' Minnehaha

Fox Spotted in Minnehaha Park... by Twin Cities Homes for Sale

I was waiting for a client yesterday by Minnehaha Parkway, I saw a fox come close to the road.  I scrambled getting my camera out  before he ran away.

Recent heavy rains in Minneapolis found us walking along lower Minnehaha Creek to Minnehaha Falls to see the raging torrent. Minneahaha Falls Park was packed on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, as it has been for decades. Normally the falls are a trickle in mid-summer, and not nearly this dramatic. In a 1967 visit from President Lyndon Johnson during a severe drought, city officials ordered local fire hydrants opened up fully to create a more scenic waterfall via the storm drains that lead to the creek. Certainly it was nothing like this.

But the falls weren't the only attraction. The park happened to be hosting Swedish Heritage Day. Tabitha's maiden name is Nord, so she felt right at home in the Svergie blue and gold. We ate Swedish meatballs and lingenberries; normally we'd have to trek to Ikea for such a delight. And we heard an acoustic rendition of the Abba tune "Fernando", sung in Swedish. Who would have thought I'd be getting so cultured when I woke up that day?

We covered about 3 miles round-trip from our house to the mouth of the creek below the falls, where it joins the mighty Mississippi River to being the long journey to the oil-stricken Gulf of Mexico. Amazingly, only 3 blocks of our entire walk is on normal residential streets. The remaining miles are all along designated trails and paths as part of the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation system. The pleasant walking, the great scenery and the accidental Swedish encounter reminded us of why we bought a home in this neighborhood.

Only a hyper-local expert can impart to their clients the intangibles of owning a home in a specific neighborhoods, and the opportunities for experiences like ours. Blog about it, talk about it, and learn your clients' interests so you can cater to directly to them. Your value as an agent rests largely on your local knowledge, and how you impart it to the greater community.

Originally posted on www.gopherfiles.com on June 29

I ran into Snoopy and more at the Minneapolis Minnesota Airport!

Snoopy and his friend Woodstock were walking through the Minneapolis Airport today and I had to get a shot of the two of them.

The I snapped a photo of this man in this old airplane flying through the airport, strangest thing I've ever seen!

Then to top it off, these weird looking War of the World machines were spraying some strange alien chemical all over our airplane. It was this bright green looking color that looked like radiator fluid.

When I left Minneapolis Minnesota it was snowing heavy with temps under freezing. When I arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada at 2:00pm it was 70 degrees. Me and my wife really love the warm Las Vegas weather and really love being home.

photographs above taken by: Robert Swetz and duplicating in any form is in violation of copyright infringement and subject to fines.

Please look at my new web site on photography www.SearchMyPics.com

Real Estate www.VegasBuildingsForSale.com

Minnehaha Falls In Winter

Minnehaha Falls is a beautiful area to visit anytime of the year in Minneapolis. This weekend I went to the park to get some snapshots of the frozen waterfall. Yes, those are people walking at the bottom of the falls. At 53 feet, it is quite a sight to see in summer and in the winter.

History

Minnehaha Creek flows 22 miles from Lake Minnetonka through Minneapolis before ending its journey at the Mississippi River. The word, Minnehaha, comes from the Dakota language and literally means, "curling water", or "waterfall". Minnehaha Falls is located not too far from where the creek meets the Mississippi. History has it that the falls were named "Brown's Falls" in the early 1800's after United States Army Commander Jacob Brown, while the Dakota called Minnehaha Creek, "Wakpa Cistinna", meaning "Little River".

Minnehaha Falls is quite famous. It is the site location for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Song of Hiawatha", published in 1855.

As far as the geology of the site, the site of Minnehaha Falls is linked to Saint Anthony Falls, which is several miles upriver on the Mississippi. Around 10,000 years ago, St. Anthony Falls was located near the site where Minnehaha Creek entered the river. As erosion brought the falls upriver, it passed Minnehaha Creek, causing a new waterfall to form. The story actually becomes even more complex because the Mississippi eventually abandoned the portion of St. Anthony Falls that was then nearest to Minnehaha. The lower portion of Minnehaha Creek now flows through a wide and deep channel once belonging to the larger river. The end of Minnehaha Creek where it joins the Mississippi River is the lowest surface point in the city of Minneapolis at 686 ft above sea level. Below is a photo of the river valley gorge.

Photos of the falls have been taken over the years, 1860, 1865.

If you would like to see a slideshow of addtional photos of the frozen waterfall in Minneaoplis, visit the full post on my outside blog.