St. Croix State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

Pine County, Minnesota Pine County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 28,876. Its county seat is Pine City, Minnesota, Pine City. The county was formed in 1856 and or ...

, USA. The park follows the shore of the St. Croix River for and contains the last of the Kettle River. At it is the largest

Minnesota state park There are 67 state parks, nine state recreation areas, nine state waysides, and 23 state trails in the Minnesota state park system, totaling approximately . A Minnesota state park is an area of land in the U.S. state of Minnesota preserved ...

. It was developed as a

Recreational Demonstration Area The Recreational Demonstration Area program (also known as the Recreation Demonstration Area program) was a National Park Service program during the 1930s and early 1940s that built forty-six public parks in twenty-four states on , chiefly near urba ...

in the 1930s, and is one of the finest surviving properties of this type in the nation. 164 structures built by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

survive, the largest collection of

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

projects in Minnesota. As a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

they were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and proclaimed a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1997.

Natural history

The St. Croix River Valley was carved by meltwater during the last glacial period circa 10,000 BC. The water deposited a variety of sediments, which compose over 30 different types of soil within the park. Some soils are very sandy while others are made of red or yellow clay. The St. Croix River's exposure of a characteristic yellow clay deposit gave the historic Yellowbanks section of the park its name. The

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

of the area is mostly buried under of these glacial

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

deposits. However the underlying

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

is exposed in one area along the Kettle River known as the Highbanks, where a final ancient flood of meltwater scoured away the sediments. In addition to the two rivers, at least ten other streams flow through the park, creating a

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of hundreds of square miles. St. Croix State Park is located on the eastern edge of the Mille Lacs Uplands. Initially dominated by

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and white pines, the vegetation has been altered by logging and farming. The present

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

is a mix of pines,

black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labra ...

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prima ...

, and

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

. More open areas form meadows,

oak savanna An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks (''Quercus ''spp.) are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Mediter ...

, and

jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana'') is an eastern North American pine. Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and the north-central and ...

barrens. Numerous lakes, marshes, and streams support

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

and

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

plants. Wetlands with no outlet and high acidity support

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

s. Large mammals found in the park include

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

and

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

es,

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

s, and timber wolves. Birds include the

ruffed grouse The ruffed grouse (''Bonasa umbellus'') is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed game bird in North America. It is non-migratory. It is the only specie ...

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers Th ...

, flycatcher,

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s, and

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

. They roam along the St. Croix River. A

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

hit part of the park on July 4, 1977.

Straight-line winds In meteorology, a downburst is a strong downward and outward gushing wind system that emanates from a point source above and blows radially, that is, in straight lines in all directions from the area of impact at surface level. Capable of pro ...

toppled trees over hundreds of acres on July 11, 2008 and again on July 1, 2011. In the latter storm, many of the historical structures were damaged. However, there were no injuries as the park was closed due to the

2011 Minnesota state government shutdown The 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown was a government shutdown affecting the U.S. state of Minnesota. The shutdown was the result of a fiscal dispute between the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) Governor Mark Dayton and the Republ ...

Cultural history

Evidence of Native American occupation in the park and the St. Croix River Valley has been found dating back 5,000 years. The region was inhabited by the

Dakota people The Dakota (pronounced , Dakota language: ''Dakȟóta/Dakhóta'') are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into ...

by the late 17th century, when French traders began exploring the region.State of Minnesota, Department of Natural Resources. ''St. Croix State Park''. April 2008.

/ref> However the Dakota were soon displaced by the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

rs became more numerous, and a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

was established within what is now St. Croix State Park. Following an 1837 treaty with the Ojibwe the region was opened up to

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

, although harvesting in the park did not begin until later in the 19th century. From 1894 to 1898 the Empire Lumber Company operated a rail line, the Flemming Railroad, to transport logs cut farther inland to the St. Croix River. The line ended at Yellowbanks where the logs were rolled down the steep bluffs and floated to sawmills downriver. St. John's Landing, at the northeast end of the park, is named for Ed St. John, who opened a popular boarding house there for lumbermen. The area was logged out by 1915 and farmers were attracted to the newly cleared land. However the sandy soil was poor and not productive enough to make a living. Most settlers moved away and much of the land was tax-forfeited. Pine County had the most tax delinquent property in Minnesota and suffered abject environmental degradation from cultivation and

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

s like the

Great Hinckley Fire __NOTOC__ The Great Hinckley Fire was a conflagration in the pine forests of the U.S. state of Minnesota in September 1894, which burned an area of at least (perhaps more than ), including the town of Hinckley, Minnesota, Hinckley. The official ...

. In 1934 the area was selected for a

, a New Deal program that provided jobs, paid farmers for poor cropland, and created outdoor recreation opportunities near urban areas (the site is midway between Minneapolis–St. Paul and

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

).Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. St. Croix State Park interpretive signage. An initial of land were transferred to the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

, as the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

would direct the work of the

(CCC) and the

(WPA). A CCC camp was constructed at Yellowbanks, populated first by Company #2762 and later #2706. Crews built the main park road, following the old Flemming Railroad route, and another of road. Trails and scenic overlooks were established while farm buildings were demolished. From Camp Yellowbanks the crews used sandstone and lumber from within the park to develop five separate areas for visitors. First was park headquarters, second Riverview Campground and a lodge which is now the interpretive center. The other three were group centers constructed by WPA crews: Norway Point for boys, St. John's Landing for girls, and Head of the Rapids for handicapped children. Some crews planted pine, spruce, and hardwood trees to begin

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A debate ...

while others conducted wildlife and fire protection work. A CCC crew built a

fire tower A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a "fire lookout" whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. It is a small building, usually on the summit of a mountain or ...

in 1937. As additional properties were added, St. Croix Recreational Demonstration Area grew to , only slightly smaller than the country's largest RDA at

Custer State Park Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills, United States. The park is South Dakota's largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The park covers an area of over of v ...

in South Dakota. As planned following federal development, St. Croix Recreational Demonstration Area was transferred to the state to become St. Croix State Park in 1943. The fire tower was staffed during fire season until 1981, when aerial surveys became the preferred spotting method. St. John's Landing Group Center is now a camp for the Minnesota Conservation Corps.

Recreation

The St. Croix and Kettle Rivers are navigable by canoe or kayak. Camping in the Fall is breathtaking. You can see all the Fall foliage. October is a great time to go. Camping at st croix state park in the fall

Camping at st croix state park in the fall

The St. Croix is entirely flat water while the Kettle contains some rapids. Both rivers support game fish like

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

, bass,

sauger The sauger (''Sander canadensis'') is a freshwater perciform fish of the family Percidae that resembles its close relative, the walleye. The species is a member of the largest vertebrate order, the Perciformes.Jaeger, Matthew. 2004. Montana's Fi ...

, and

muskellunge The muskellunge ''(Esox masquinongy)'', often shortened to muskie, musky or lunge is a species of large freshwater predatory fish native to North America. It is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. Origin of name The name "muskellun ...

. Hay Creek and some of the park's other streams contain trout. Hay Creek widens into Lake Clayton, which has a swimming beach and picnic area. A paved trail leads from Lake Clayton to the drive-in campground, which has three loops with a total of 211 sites. Elsewhere there are eight group campsites and remote campsites for backpackers and canoers. More modern accommodation is provided by two group centers, five cabins, and two guest houses. Of the trails in the park, are open for hiking, for horseback riding, for mountain biking, for snowmobiles, and for cross-country skiing. The

Willard Munger State Trail The Willard Munger State Trail is a system of recreational trails between Hinckley, Minnesota and Duluth, Minnesota. There are three segments to the trail, Hinckley to Duluth Segment, Alex Laveau Memorial Trail, and Matthew Lourey State Trail. Hin ...

passes through the length of the park. Visitors can climb the 134 steps to the cab of the fire tower; interpretive signs describe the layers of the forest habitat and features of the surrounding countryside. St. Croix State Park borders

Chengwatana State Forest The Chengwatana State Forest is a state forest located in Pine and Chisago counties in Minnesota. Its name is derived from the oj, Zhingwaadena, meaning ''white-pine town'', after the nearby ghost town and township. Eastern White Pine was histo ...

to the southwest and

Saint Croix State Forest In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

to the northeast.

Governor Knowles State Forest Governor Knowles State Forest is a 19,753 acre (79.9 km²) unit of the Wisconsin state park system that stretches for along the St. Croix River. It is managed as a wilderness buffer for the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway The Sai ...

lies across the river in Wisconsin. The entire river corridor is part of the

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway The Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway is a federally protected system of riverways located in eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. It protects of river, including the St. Croix River (on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border), and the Na ...

. The Kettle River is designated a State Wild and Scenic River.

References

External links

St. Croix State Park

St. Croix Recreational Demonstration Area National Historic Landmark summary
{{authority control 1943 establishments in Minnesota Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Protected areas established in 1943 Protected areas of Pine County, Minnesota Recreational Demonstration Areas National Park Service rustic in Minnesota State parks of Minnesota Works Progress Administration in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Pine County, Minnesota

Natural history

Cultural history

Recreation

See also

References

External links