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Our Company History
History of Lake Minnetonka
History of the Mississippi River
Our Company History
Since 1985, Paradise Charter Cruises has provided the enchantment behind thousands of events on Lake Minnetonka and the Mississippi River... from intimate weddings to lavish corporate parties.
What began in 1985 has grown to five beautiful SkipperLiner vessels featuring two unique venues serving over 50,000 passengers per year on two oft he country's most popular waterways. We invite you to step aboard and see for yourself why we continually exceed expectations!
History of Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka is a 14,000-acre lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Throughout its recorded history, the lake has been a resort destination. It is located west-southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The lake's irregular shape with numerous bays means that it has about 140 miles of shoreline.
Early History
The first people of European descent known to have visited the lake were two 14-year-old boys from Fort Snelling, Joe Brown and Will Snelling. They found the lake in 1822 by paddling up Minnehaha Creek, though few people visited the lake in the following 30 years.
In 1852, the lake was given its name by Minnesota's territorial governor Alexander Ramsey. He had been told that American Indians in the area used a phrase sounding like minn-ni-tanka, meaning “big water,” to refer to the lake. The same year, the first settlements were constructed around it, and in 1853, the first hotel was built.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha in 1855, which referred to Minnesota and landmarks of the area such as Minnehaha Falls. This gave the area national interest.
1861 saw the introduction of steamboats; the first one was the Governor Ramsey, named to honor the man who named the lake. Following the Civil War, a rail line operated by St. Paul & Pacific Co. connected to the area in 1867.
The first inland steamboat to have electric lights, the City of St. Louis, was built in Wayzata in 1881. The next year, the largest ship to ever sail the lake was launched; the Belle of Minnetonka was 300 feet long and could carry 2500 passengers. The 1880s marked the steamboats' heyday as tourist destinations. By 1892, the Belle stayed moored at her dock all summer long.
The 20th Century
In 1905, Twin City Rapid Transit first connected streetcar lines to the lake. This marked a golden age for the lake, with more rapid growth as TCRT added more resorts to the area and launched their “streetcar boats.” Actually named Express Boats, they were steamboats that shared the appearance of streetcars. At first six, and then seven, such boats would take arriving streetcar passengers and steam them to over twenty different endpoints on the lake. For a time, one destination was the Big Island Amusement Park, about the same size as today's Valleyfair, but it only lasted about five years before it was shut down. Later, Excelsior Amusement Park had greater success, with seasonal operations running from 1925 through 1973.
President William Howard Taft made Lake Minnetonka his summer home in 1911, but business in the area had started going down again by that time. In 1926, most of the Express Boats were scuttled in deep water near the lake's Big Island. On October 26 of the same year, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was arrested for violating the Mann Act while vacationing at a cottage near the lake with a woman who would later become his wife.
In 1946, Mound Metalcraft was created in Mound, Minnesota, a town along the northwestern end of the lake (an area known as "Westonka"), and later changed their name to Tonka Toys.
As the century drew on, many visitors came, although some were unwanted. Environmental concerns started to become important after Curled Pondweed (Potamogeton crispus L.) was discovered in 1900. Following decades brought Purple Loosestrife in 1940 and Eurasian Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) in 1987. The lake also experienced problems with pollution, both from sewage and fertilizer runoff. Lake Minnetonka is now closely monitored.
Even with the troubles, the lake remained a fairly popular destination, with tourist boats from one company or another still operating in the warmer months. One of the old streetcar boats that had been scuttled in 1926, the Minnehaha, was even raised to the surface in 1980 so it could be restored. After many years of volunteer restorative work, it returned to limited service on the lake in 1996 as an exhibit of the Minnesota Transportation Museum, now part of the Museum of Lake Minnetonka.
Recent History
The lake is mentioned in the Prince film Purple Rain and a scene is featured in which Prince's love interest attempts to "purify" herself in the lake. After she has entered the water, Prince reveals that the water she has entered is not in fact Lake Minnetonka. Dave Chappelle (as Prince) mocked that part of the film in an episode of Chappelle's Show, saying, "Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?" Since his rise to fame in the 1980s, Prince has lived around the lake area but never on the lake itself. He has had a home on lake Ann in Chanhassen.
In 2005 Lake Minnetonka gained national attention due to the scandal involving members of the Minnesota Vikings football team. On October 6, 2005, during a cruise on a pair of chartered boats on Lake Minnetonka, certain members of the team were alleged to have performed and received sexual favors with a variety of individuals, leading to widespread criticism of the players and embarrassment within the organization.
Fishing on the Lake
Lake Minnetonka is a premier location in the southern section of the state, and especially the metro area, for fishing tournaments. Its game species include yellow perch, sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, walleye, and especially muskellunge (or muskies). There are dozens of fishing tournaments every year, and several of the largest bass in the state have been taken from Lake Minnetonka. Regarding muskies, few lakes near Minneapolis have more, bigger fish. Big Island, a popular lounging island near Excelsior, holds many large fish. Common methods for Lake Minnetonka muskies include bucktails, surface lures and spoons.
According to a popular legend, a sturgeon in excess of 10 feet in length has been sighted on more than one occasion in the lake. These sightings have persisted over the last 30 years. The sturgeon is often referred to as "Lou."
History of the Mississippi River
Father Louis Hennepin was one of the first Europeans to set eyes on the area now known as Minneapolis. In 1680 he passed through the area and recorded the account in a book about his travels. He named St. Anthony Falls after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the area was passed back and forth from French to Spanish and finally to U.S. rule with the massive Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1820, Fort Snelling was constructed thus making it easier and safer for visitors to come to the area. Early in the century St. Anthony Falls was mainly a tourist attraction, but the same falls that inspired travelers also interested millers and lumbermen.
The city of Minneapolis was then born from the banks of the Mississippi River and was built from the flour and lumbering mills which prospered here a century ago on the power of St. Anthony Falls. Over the course of 35 years, the riverfront grew from a frontier establishment to a major industrial city. In 1870, the city’s population was 13,000. 20 years later it had grown to nearly 165,000. The economic and population boom of Minneapolis is due to the successful milling industries that flourished here in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
The flour and lumber mills that began here along the Mississippi River created the beginnings of many major corporations that still exist today such as General Mills, Cargill, Pillsbury and more.
Minneapolis was a natural for lumber milling. In the mid 1800s lumbering prospered in Minnesota because of the abundance of high quality timber and the Mississippi River became the vehicle to transport logs to waiting mills. With the rush of immigrants moving west the demand for milled wood was high. The early lumber mills were powered by water wheels along St. Anthony Falls, named after the patron saint of the first known European is the only waterfall on the Mississippi River. By 1869 there were 18 mills operating at or near the Falls. After the lumber mills began using steam power they started moving upriver from the falls and the flour mills began to crowd out the lumber mills at St. Anthony Falls. Eventually the lumber mills lined both sides of the Mississippi, upriver from the falls and the flour mills took over the area around the falls. Minneapolis led the nation in lumber production from 1899 to about 1906, but by 1920 the white pine in Northern Minnesota had been depleted and in 1921 the last sawmill in Minneapolis, the Carpenter-Lamb Mill, closed. Today, the only relic of these booming times is the Lumber Exchange building in downtown Minneapolis.
The flour milling industry has had a presence at the Falls of St. Anthony since 1822, but the industry began its boom here in the early 1880s. From 1882 to 1930 the Minneapolis Riverfront led the world in flour production. The Minneapolis Riverfront’s mills boomed because they had the power from the falls, the roller milling process, the middlings purifier, and the proximity to the great wheat fields of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas. Pillsbury, Washburn-Crosby (General Mills after 1928), and Northwestern Consolidated Milling companies are three companies that were founded here to take up the business of flour milling.
After 1930, Minneapolis lost its place as the nation’s largest flour producer, a title it held for 50 years. The tariff changes favoring other markets, higher freight costs, decreased demand for high-grade flour and cheaper sources of power other than water all contributed to the decline of flour milling on the Minneapolis riverfront. Today, there is still much wheat being milled in Minneapolis, but only 3 mills are operating at the falls and none of them use water power.
In conjunction with the success of the flour milling industry was the growth of grain trading in Minneapolis. By 1885 Minneapolis was the number one wheat receiving market in the U.S. and eventually became and remains today, the largest cash exchange market in the world. Other companies that depended on the lumber and flour mill industry began to grow into other areas of commerce giving Minneapolis it’s foundation for it’s successful, diverse economy of today. Today, the Minneapolis metro area is the 15th largest market in the U.S. and continues to grow.
As you travel the Mississippi River through downtown Minneapolis, along the infamous St. Anthony Falls you feel the rich history of this city built from the river and the falls. The century-old mills are still present and the downtown area is a mecca for visitors and residents. Outdoor recreation, dining, nightlife and historical activities abound. It is the perfect place to enjoy America’s greatest river and discover the heart of Minneapolis.
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