The Pioneer Press recently published an article about public safety in one of Minneapolis’s oldest city parks, “Frozen Minnehaha Falls are cool, but visitors should heed warnings.” Minnehaha Park‘s Minnehaha Falls are certainly a sight in the winter. The falling water freezes mid-fall and creates a curtain that blankets the side of the bluff from where the water floods into Minnehaha Creek below. However, this is a sight that shouldn’t technically be seen – as the stairs and pathway that lead to the falls are officially closed in the winter. Those that usurp the chain barricade blocking the stairway entrance could find themselves on the other side of the law should a park officer happen to stroll by.

I wonder if the same rules applied in the early 1900s? Carroll Roberts –son of Thomas Sadler Roberts, former Bell Museum director– captured the frozen falls with a camera circa 1900:


– People crossing a wooden bridge over Minnehaha Creek in the winter, Minnehaha Falls in the distance, circa 1900.

– Two children standing with frozen Minnehaha Falls behind them, circa 1900.

– Wooden bridge over Minnehaha Creek in the distance, looking out from Minnehaha Falls, circa 1900

(From the negatives in the Bell Museum of Natural History collection)