The dirt pile in Minnehaha Falls Park’s “deer pen,” viewed from the side.

Residents of the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis have sounded some alarms about a mega-pile of dirt that appeared last fall in the Deer Pen area of Minnehaha Falls Park. Touted on a plaque near the falls as an abandoned waterfall and former channel of the Mississippi, the Deer Pen area is a long grassy gorge that is the former western channel of the Mississippi River, which abandoned it about 9,000 years ago. At the northern end of this gorge is (or used to be) a steep bluff — the former waterfall. Now it looks more like a lava flow of mud.

FMR is working with the Longfellow Community Council’s river gorge committee to get to the bottom of why a significant geologic feature has been buried under a pile of mud. A letter from the committee to President Tom Nordyke outlined numerous concerns and unanswered questions.

The dirt pile itself is problematic, but the lack of any public process for such a dramatic change has been the most disturbing factor. In an e-mail response to Longfellow from the Minneapolis Park Board (MPRB), Planner Andy Lesch states that the dirt, which came from the adjacent Wabun Park renovation, is intended for re-grading purposes. The letter also claims that as part of the Wabun project, moving the dirt received all necessary approvals. A plan for the Wabun renovation presented to the neighborhood, however, did not include the Deer Pen area at all.

FMR shares neighborhood concerns that the MPRB has skirted public scrutiny and in the process caused serious damage to an important natural and historic landscape feature.

Check out the photos of the site below and, if you live in Minneapolis, consider calling your MPRB commissioner to complain.

Read more, including quotes from passersby, in a recent article in the Minnesota Monitor.

Looking down into the “deer pen” area.

The dirt pile as seen from the northeast.

Looking up from the base of the dirt pile.

An oblique view of the dirt pile from above.