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Battle Creek in Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)
 

Battle Creek Regional Park

 
 
Battle Creek Regional Park marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By McGhiever, June 5, 2020
1. Battle Creek Regional Park marker
Inscription.
I was impressed by the natural beauty of the spot and thought it should be secured as a park to be enjoyed by all the people of the city.
William McMurray, President, William McMurray & Co., coffee and spice dealers, St. Paul, 1922

Battle Creek flows through Battle Creek Regional Park, cutting a wide gorge through the sandstone bluffs. Both names refer to the Battle of Kaposia. By the 1750s, Kaposia was the seasonal Mdewakanton Dakota village of a succession of chiefs known as Little Crow. Treaties of 1837 and 1852 shifted village locations, but the earliest was on the east bank of the Mississippi below present-day Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul, An 1842 battle between the Dakota and Ojibwe above Battle Creek was recorded by nearby fur traders, farmers, missionaries and Fort Snelling soldiers.

Pig's Eye Lake, fed by Battle Creek, was then a quiet floodplain lake along the main channel of the Mississippi River. In the late 1830s, French Canadian voyageurs settled and farmed portions of the river bottomlands, which the called the Grand Marais or "Great Marsh." By the 1880s, the lake a bluffs around Battle Creek were a popular destination for hikers, picnickers, artists, and fishermen. St. Paul residents enjoyed the area on summer days, some taking the streetcar as far
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as Indian Mounds Park, and walking the next two miles.

Railroad construction along the edge of the Point Douglas (Hastings) Road threatened to bring industry to the area, and St. Paul citizens worked to preserve the forested bluffs along the lower creek. In 1922, William McMurray donated an initial 25 acres for Battle Creek Park. A rustic log bridge and picnic pavilion designed by St. Paul City Architect Clarence W. "Cap" Wigington were built, but most of the land was left in its natural state. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration built limestone walls along the creek.

Flooding and erosion along Battle Creek scoured the park's fragile forested bluffs and stabilization and reforestation began in the 1940s. During the 1960s Ramsey County acquired additional property north and south of the original park.

In the late 1880s, the picturesque natural setting and convenient commuter rail connection to downtown St. Paul inspired real estate dealers who laid out Burlington Heights. Located south of the present-day park, it was intended as a commuter suburb for travelers on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Two stations provided six daily trains to St. Paul.

Today the river landscape opposite the park is an area of constrasting wild, urban, and industrial land uses. Pig's Eye Lake divides the main navigation channel and a busy
Battle Creek Regional Park marker at the trailhead image. Click for full size.
Photographed By McGhiever, June 5, 2020
2. Battle Creek Regional Park marker at the trailhead
barge fleeting area. The Twin Cities' first primary sewage treatment plant was built here in 1938. The habitat surrounding the lake is still mainly floodplain forest that is home to bald eagles. A 100-acre island at the south end of the lake also supports a Minnesota Scientific and Natural Area that is the largest heron rookery in the region.

Caption: The early Bluff Creek and Pig's Eye Lake landscape inspired artists: "St. Paul from Pig's Eye," was painted by James Desvarreaux Larpenteur (1847-1937) in 1888.

Caption: 1. The fine, well-rounded quartz sand that comprises the St. Peter Sandstone bluffs was deposited more than 450 million years ago. The quartz sand was highly valued for glass and other manufacturing uses because of its purity.

Caption: 2. The 60-meter Battle Creek Ski Jump (1939). At the time of its construction, the structure was one of the largest ski jumps in the world. It was demolished in 1974.

Caption: The Battle Creek area in 1918 before park development
 
Erected by Saint Paul Department of Parks & Recreation, Federal Highway Commission, Ramsey County.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: EnvironmentNative AmericansParks & Recreational AreasRailroads & Streetcars. A significant historical year for this entry is 1842.
 
Location.
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44° 56.14′ N, 93° 1.688′ W. Marker is in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in Ramsey County. It is in Battle Creek. Marker can be reached from Point Douglas Road South, 0.6 miles north of Lower Afton Road. The marker is at the trailhead at the north end of the parking lot at the western terminus of Point Douglas Road South. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Saint Paul MN 55106, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Holman Field (approx. 1.3 miles away); Charles W. Holman (approx. 1.3 miles away); Geology of Minnesota (approx. 1˝ miles away); This is a Burial Place (approx. 1˝ miles away); Riverside Hangars (approx. 1.6 miles away); The Indian Mounds Park "Airway" Beacon (approx. 1.6 miles away); Kaposia: Dakota Village on the Mississippi River (approx. 1.7 miles away); Saint Paul Downtown Airport Seaplane Harbor (approx. 1.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Saint Paul.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on February 18, 2024. It was originally submitted on June 7, 2020, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This page has been viewed 1,790 times since then and 271 times this year. Last updated on February 16, 2024, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photos:   1, 2. submitted on June 7, 2020, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. • J. Makali Bruton was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 29, 2024