LAKE OWASSO HISTORY
The first white settlers reached this areas in 1843. Twenty years later, the last Dakota and Ojibway were driven from this area by the these settlers and the failure of the U.S. government to honor its treaty obligations to provide them with supplies, food and money. Before that, the lake was in the path of the trails that linked the fishing and wild rice areas of Forest Lake with the native settlements on Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. Following the departure of the Native Americans, the land was used mainly for agriculture. A railroad line was built from Minneapolis to the Owasso Station where the intersection of County Rd. C and Victoria is today to carry the crops to market and deliver tools and goods to the farmers.In the early 1900's people from St. Paul started building summer cabins on the shores but with the limited transportation available at the time, development of the area was curtailed.
With the appearance of the automobile more people were able to make the trip and tourist cabins and night clubs sprang up to accomodate them. It was during this time that the amendment banning the manufacture of alcohol was passed which gave rise to a class of gangsters that peddled the spirits to the thirsty masses. Lake Owasso became a favorite hang out for this crowd. The Owasso Tavern located on the corner of Rice St. and South Owasso Blvd. was owned in part by Harry Sawyer, a notorius gangster and owner of the infamous Green Lantern Club in downtown St. Paul.
Prohibition lasted 13 years and the experiment of legislating morality was over, however the country was in the middle of the Great Depression. With most people out of work, the Ice House on the east shore provided local residents with winter work to supplement their trapping, fishing and other odd jobs. After World War II, the development of the lake shore accelerated along with the population. By the 1950's the last of the farm land and the oak groves around the lake were replaced ramblers.
That was a rather quick trip through a hundred years of history, don't you think? I'll let you all know when my book is completed that gives a more in depth story of the area.
Contact me by email Bob Hale or phone: 651 490-7860
The Ramsey Count Historical Society published a memoir of the ice harvest of 1934.
A Record Setting Winter - And The Ice Harvest On Lake Owasso
Author Neill J, O'Neill
1988 Volume 23 Number 2