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Whitewater State Park

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Whitewater State Park, May 22, 2009. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever. CC BY-SA 3.0

Whitewater State Park, May 22, 2009. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever. CC BY-SA 3.0

Whitewater is the sixth Minnesota state park, authorized by the legislature in 1919, and the first in the Driftless Area of dramatic bluffs, ravines, and promontories in the southeastern corner of the state.

Beneath the rolling farm country of southeastern Minnesota lies a great sheet of limestone created over 500 million years ago in the shallow sea that then covered much of North America. Numberless tiny shellfish lived there and died, fell to the sea floor, and were slowly buried and compressed into the rock today called Oneota dolomite. Beneath that lies an even older sheet of rock called Jordan sandstone.

When the sea receded, new processes took over: the growth of plant and animal life on the surface (and with that the buildup of soil) and erosion, chiefly by water. The last ice age, which ended about 12,000 years ago, released flows of water that cut the vast gorge of the Mississippi, leaving the tall bluffs seen from Red Wing south, and the many ravines, ridges, and cliffs to the west. One of the smaller rivers thus created was the Whitewater, which arises a little west of St. Charles, Minnesota, and flows northeast about seventeen miles to join the Mississippi.

People marveled at the beauty of this landscape, and anglers delighted in the bountiful trout found in the Whitewater River, which has cut so deeply through the dolomite that in places the underlying tan and yellow beds of Jordan sandstone are easily seen. In 1917 southeast Minnesota legislators got a bill passed appropriating $10,000 for a state park in the area, but Governor J. A. A. Burnquist vetoed it on the grounds that the money could not be spared in wartime.

In response, L. A. Warming of St. Charles published at his own expense a book of eighty-eight photographs of the Whitewater valley, The Paradise of Minnesota, to raise money and awareness in support of the park. The legislature authorized $10,000 for it in the next session, and this time Governor Burnquist consented. The park’s official creation thus dates from 1919, though no land was purchased until 1921. By 1926, despite few roads and minimal park facilities, 40,000 visitors came.

In 1928 the state built a golf course in the park, with sand greens, mainly to serve patrons from nearby St. Charles. During the Great Depression the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a complex of shops and dormitories, and brought in hundreds of otherwise unemployed men. They built a dam that formed the swimming beach, bridges, cabins, picnic shelters, drinking fountains, and a water and sewage system, and trails, much of which remains in use.

During World War II the War Department used the former WPA facilities—augmented by a ten-foot, barbed-wire-topped fence—for German prisoners of war. In the springs and summers of 1944 and 1945, possibly as many as 259 prisoners were held at Whitewater, working at Lakeside Canning Company in nearby Plainview, and on local farms. A tornado in May 1953 destroyed almost all of the Depression-era shops and dormitories and the prison camp.

All improvements in the park have struggled against the same force that created it—erosion. Powerful floods in 1974, 1975, 1978, and 2007 washed out buildings, bridges, and campgrounds so that park facilities have had to be rebuilt again and again. The 1974 flood was so powerful that it took down a beautiful three-arch limestone bridge built by the WPA. One of the steady themes of Whitewater State Park is the great human effort required to preserve a natural area.

These efforts extend far beyond the park’s boundaries. Catastrophic flooding on the Whitewater outside of the park in 1938 led to the creation of Minnesota’s first conservation district, and with it measures to reduce flooding by reforming nearby farming practices. This work led to the creation in 1989 of the Whitewater River Watershed Project, which includes parts of Wabasha, Winona, and Olmsted Counties, and the 27,000 acre Whitewater Wildlife Management Area.

In 2019, the park includes 148 drive-in camping sites, almost half of them electrified, two group campsites, five camper cabins, a swimming beach, thirteen miles of trails, an interpretive center, and a store.

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© Minnesota Historical Society.
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Buck, Anita. Behind Barbed Wire, German Prisoners of War in Minnesota During World War II. St. Cloud: North Star Press, 1998.

Friends of Whitewater State Park. Whitewater State Park, 100 Years in Paradise. Altura, MN: Friends of Whitewater State Park, 2019.

Journal of the Senate (State of Minnesota). St. Paul: The Senate, 1921. Available at the Minnesota Historical Society library as KFM5418 .A12.

Meyer. Roy W. Everyone’s Country Estate: A History of Minnesota’s State Parks. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1991.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Paradise of Minnesota, 100 Years of Whitewater State Park. St. Paul: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2018.

Runkel, Anthony C. The Geology of Whitewater State Park. St. Paul: University of Minnesota, 1996.

Warming, L. A, comp. The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park. St. Charles, MN: L. A. Warming, 1917.

“Whitewater State Park CCC/WPA Rustic Style Historic Resources.” National Register of Historic Places nomination form, September 15, 1989. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/89001661_text

Related Images

Whitewater State Park, May 22, 2009. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever. CC BY-SA 3.0
Whitewater State Park, May 22, 2009. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever. CC BY-SA 3.0
Trout fishing in the Whitewater River. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ca. 2000s.
Trout fishing in the Whitewater River. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ca. 2000s.
Map of southeastern Minnesota printed in The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Map of southeastern Minnesota printed in The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
A fisherman in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “A Favorite Bend in the Stream.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
A fisherman in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “A Favorite Bend in the Stream.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Chimney Rock, Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Chimney Rock: A Man May Be Seen in the Hollow of the Rock.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Chimney Rock, Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Chimney Rock: A Man May Be Seen in the Hollow of the Rock.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
: A stream in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Riffles above Sand Rock.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
: A stream in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Riffles above Sand Rock.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Camp in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Summer Camp in Gooseberry Glen.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Camp in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Summer Camp in Gooseberry Glen.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Fisherman in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Where the Finy [sic] Tribe Abound.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).
Fisherman in Whitewater State Park, ca. 1917. Original caption: “Where the Finy [sic] Tribe Abound.” From The Paradise of Minnesota: The Proposed Whitewater State Park (L. A. Warming, 1917).

Turning Point

In 1917 L. A. Warming of St. Charles, Minnesota, publishes, at his own expense, The Paradise of Minnesota, a photo book that promotes the creation of Whitewater State Park.

Chronology

About 510 million years ago

Ancient oceans recede, leaving a sandy beach deposit of what is now called Jordan sandstone in the region that will become southeastern Minnesota.

About 505 million years ago

This region is now covered by a warm, shallow tropical sea, in which calcium carbonate, much of it from crustaceans, accumulates on the sea floor and eventually hardens into the limestone now known as Oneota dolomite, the dominant rock found in the park.

1851

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux opens southeast Minnesota to settler-colonists and ultimate exclusion of Native people from the area. Euro-American farming practices displace much of the native vegetation from the upland regions and lead to regular flood

1917

Governor J. A. A. Burnquist vetoes the legislature’s appropriation of $10,000 toward the creation of Whitewater State Park. L. A. Warming publishes The Paradise of Minnesota.

1919

The legislature tries again, and this time Burnquist signs the bill into law.

1921

The state buys the first 425 acres of land for the park, in Elba Township, Winona County. The park eventually expands to 2700 acres.

1923

A frame picnic structure is built. An estimated 40,000 people visit the new state park.

1928

A golf course with sand greens is installed in a southern meadow region of the park, along the Whitewater River.

1934-1938

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA), New Deal work programs, employ hundreds of men. Between the two they build many improvements, some still in use more than eighty years later.

1944-1945

As many as 269 German prisoners of war are housed in the park during the spring and summer seasons.

1953

A powerful tornado hits the park on May 10, destroying most of the CCC and WPA structures built two decades earlier

1962

The last peregrine falcon is seen in the park. Long-term use of the toxic pesticide DDT had compromised and eventually wiped out the local falcon population.

1974 - 1978

Floods repeatedly devastate the park. This results in the abandonment in 1977 of the golf course, which is slowly restored to meadowland.

1987

The Whitewater River Watershed Project is established, in part to help reduce flooding by improving nearby farming and conservation practices.

2009

Peregrine falcons return to the park after a forty-seven-year absence.

2019

Whitewater State Park celebrates its 100th anniversary.