Whose view? From where? March 2011
This month, only the hardiest guessers ventured forth to guess the location of our photo, and they were both right sometimes risk pays!
This is a hard one. I think this is in the wide section of river above the Hastings dam known as Spring Lake, looking towards the west bank. Eric Otterness
This looks a lot like the upstream end of Spring Lake, off Lower Grey Cloud Island. Dave Stack
Bingo. This photo was taken from Lower Spring Lake Regional Park, which holds a commanding view of Spring Lake, named for the numerous springs that flow into the area from the bluffs above. Spring Lake is bound on the west by Inver Grove Heights, Rosemount and Nininger Township, and, on the east, Grey Cloud Township and Cottage Grove.
Spring Lake was a good bit less lake-like and really more of a marsh until 1932. That year, construction of the dam just downriver in Hastings caused upriver water levels to rise. Parcel maps still show that a variety of people own what today is part of the river but was once marshy wetland. With such changes in the areas ecology, fish species have changed over time and it has also lost much of its historic waterfowl population.
About Whose view? From where?
Each month in this section, we feature a photo somewhere along the river corridor in the Twin Cities that is in some way significant or important or just plain scenic. Individuals may then e-mail us and identify the view and explain why they believe it is significant to the community or important to them personally. Well publish some of your responses in the next issue of Mississippi Messages, where we will also reveal the correct answer.
To submit your guess and response, e-mail Bob Spaulding, River Advocate, through our contact form. The respondent to provide the first correct identification of the view and hopefully some interesting thoughts about its significance will receive a valuable prize for their effort. All entries must be received by the first day of the following month for consideration.