Rustic Style Resources in Minnesota State Parks
Minnesota's state parks contain a variety of historic properties.Twenty-two parks contain Rustic Style resources that are listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.
The Rustic Style historic resources in Minnesota state parks are local expressions of a nationwide philosophy of park development. They are significant for their association with the history of the federal relief programs of the Depression era, the history of the state park system, and the history of architecture and landscape design.
The Rustic Style buildings and structures listed on the National Register display thoughtful design and precise craftsmanship. They are a legacy of the Depression-era work groups, whose efforts helped preserve vast areas of wilderness and created remarkable buildings and structures of lasting value throughout the United States.
Two of the most popular and successful federal relief programs created in the early 1930s were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In the few years of their existence, CCC and WPA crews made enormous advances in designing and constructing both state and national parks. By some estimates, the work done by these groups moved conservation and park development ahead 20 years.
Although some Rustic Style resources existed in Minnesota state parks before federal work groups began to arrive in 1933, most of those listed on the National Register were built by WPA or CCC crews. These programs provided the skilled and unskilled labor that constructed park buildings and a variety of other structures and also carried out extensive landscaping plans in the parks.
Click on the name of a park to learn more about its Rustic Style historic resources.
The information about Rustic Style buildings and structures in Minnesota state parks has been adapted from National Register of Historic Places nomination forms written by Rolf Anderson. The images are representative of Rustic Style historic resources constructed in Minnesota state parks. Photos were taken by Rolf Anderson, Patricia Murphy and the State Historic Preservation Office staff. They can be found in the SHPO collection at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Rustic Style
By 1933, when the National Park Service first sent work groups to Minnesota, a design philosophy called National Park Service Rustic Style had emerged as the standard for state park development. The design philosophy insisted on emphasizing natural features rather than man-made ones.
Rustic Style buildings were designed not to call attention to themselves but to blend with the natural environment. They were constructed with whatever materials were locally available and often have a hand-crafted appearance.
Minnesota's Rustic Style resources tell the story of its land. Log construction took place in the northern portions of the state, where timber was plentiful. Stone buildings were more typical in the south and northwest. A combination of log and stone is common in the central section of the state. Minnesota stonework includes limestone in the south; basalt rock and sandstone in the east; colorful quartzites in the southwest; granite and gabbro near Lake Superior; and fieldstone in the west, north and northwest.
Itasca State Park
National Register Listing:
May 1973; May 1992 update
The Itasca State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style historic resources include 45 contributing buildings, 16 contributing structures, 11 contributing objects, and one contributing site.
These resources are located within Itasca State Park, which encompasses Lake Itasca, the official source of the Mississippi River, and a scenic area of northern Minnesota that has remained relatively unchanged from its natural state. The park includes 157 lakes covering over 3,000 acres, as well as 27,500 acres of upland and 1,500 acres of swamp. Most of the area has a heavy growth of timber that includes stands of virgin red or Norway pine, some of which are over 200 years old.
The development of recreational facilities in the park began in 1905 with the construction of Douglas Lodge, the first Rustic Style building in the state park system. Subsequent construction over the next 20 years added 12 more Rustic Style buildings to the park.
With the Rustic Style already firmly established, the federal work programs of the 1930s continued the tradition when they began large-scale recreational development in the park. Development was undertaken by two CCC camps as well as two WPA transient camps. Architects for this later development were from the Minnesota Central Design Office of the National Park Service with Edward W. Barber and V.C. Martin serving as principal architects for the park buildings. Log construction was generally used because timber was easily available in the area.
The park’s historic resources include:
| East Entrance Entrance Portals Entrance Pylon Douglas Lodge Area East Contact Station Drinking Fountains Douglas Lodge Cellar Stairway Nicollet Court Dormitory Clubhouse Cabin 11 Old Timer’s Cabin Forest Inn Latrine Stone Curb Multiple Cabin Cabins 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 Pump House Preacher’s Grove Retaining Wall Turnbull Point Trail Shelter Trail Shelter Bear Paw Campground Campground Registration Building Stone Curb Pump House Cabins #s 1-6 Pump House Stone Steps Comfort Station Drinking Fountains Combination Building Ice & Wood House | Civilian Conservation Corps SP-19 Camp Site Pump House Fechner Plaque Incinerator Park Headquarters Old Park Headquarters Water Tower Headquarters Building Stone Curb Superintendent’s Residence and Garage Power House Warehouse Water Tower Mississippi Headwaters Drinking Fountains Bath House and Shelter Stone Steps Museum Foot Bridge Pageant Grounds Latrine Water Tower Concession Building Mississippi Headwaters Dam Lake Ozawindib Cabin Lake Ozawindib Transient Camp Foreman’s Quarters Pump House Footing and Foundations Elk Lake Transient Camp Mess Hall/Shelter Staff Quarters |
Historical Significance
Itasca State Park Rustic Style historic resources are historically significant for their association with the development of recreational facilities in the oldest permanent state park in Minnesota. Itasca was also one of the first state parks in the United States. Created by an act of the Minnesota Legislature in 1891, the park was established to preserve the historic Headwaters of the Mississippi and to "maintain intact, forever, a limited quantity of the domain of this commonwealth, seven miles long and five in width, in a state of nature." This was the first action by the state to provide recreational areas, protect natural and geologic features of the Itasca Basin, and preserve some of the largest stands of virgin Norway and White pine in the United States.
Architectural Significance
Itasca State Park Rustic Style historic resources are architecturally significant as the largest collection of log-constructed buildings in the state park system. Constructed over a 37-year period from 1905 through 1942, these Rustic Style buildings include many of the finest log structures in the state.The park contains the first examples of Rustic Style state park design and the largest concentration of Rustic Style buildings that predate the Depression Era. These structures represent a remarkably diverse and well developed collection of buildings featuring irreplaceable labor-intensive construction and finely crafted detailing.
The Landscape Architecture for Itasca State Park is significant as one of the most comprehensive park designs from the period which successfully incorporated new expansion and construction with the existing Rustic Style buildings of the park.
Park History
Evidence of people in Itasca dates back 8,000 years. They lived in permanent settlements and hunted, trapped, harvested wild rice and buried their dead in mounds located adjacent to the Headwaters.
The story of the European discovery of the headwaters began more than 300 years before the park was established. Spanish and French explorers traveled the Mississippi River looking for the river’s head and at least six claimed the honor of discovering it. It remained for an American, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, to claim discovery of the true source of the country’s greatest river.
Schoolcraft first visited the upper river in 1820 as a member of an exploring party headed by Gov. Lewis Cass of Michigan. Cass was satisfied that he had found the source of the Mississippi in Cass Lake, but Schoolcraft did not agree. He believed that it lay farther to the southwest, and he privately resolved to return some day to find it. His opportunity came 12 years later when he joined an expedition in June 1832. Guided by Ojibwe leader Ozawindib, Schoolcraft reached Lake Itasca one month later and raised the American flag on the island which today bears his name. Schoolcraft coined the term Itasca from the Latin phrase veritas caput, or "truth head."
By the late 1800s, Minnesota's logging era was at its peak and many companies moved north in search of prime timber. The Headwaters were threatened with deforestation when Jacob Brower, a land surveyor and historian, began his heroic battle to establish the park. Brower became Itasca's first superintendent and devoted the last 14 years of his life to acquiring land for the park and enhancing its beauty until his death in 1905.
1905 also marked the year of the construction of Douglas Lodge, a pivotal development in the park's history. The Lodge is significant as the oldest building in the state park system and the first example of Rustic Style design. The building is also significant for is association with the first major development of recreational facilities in a state park.
During the next 20 years more Rustic Style buildings were constructed. The buildings range from the Clubhouse, one of the most unusual rustic buildings in the state, to the finely crafted Old Park Headquarters.
CCC Camp SP-1 was the first state park CCC camp approved in Minnesota and was assigned to Itasca State Park. The camp occupied a site just north of the park beginning on June 27, 1933. One of the camp’s more notable projects was the construction of the Old Timer’s Cabin built in the summer of 1934. The cabin was the first CCC-constructed building in the park and it represents a spectacular example of Rustic Style log construction with walls only four logs high.
Transient relief camps located at Lake Ozawindib and Elk Lake were also involved in the expansion of the park. Workers from these camps improved trails, built bridges and worked on reforestation and landscaping.
CCC camp SP-1 closed in 1937 and was replaced by CCC camp SP-19. One of the projects the CCC workers constructed, the Forest Inn, is one of the largest buildings in the state park system. CCC camp SP-19 closed on July 15, 1942, the last Civilian Conservation Corps state park camp in the United States
