NPS unveils park plan for Coldwater Spring to mixed reviews

BY DICK SAUNDERS

The  National Park Service (NPS) received  public comments on three alternative plans to redevelop the 27-acre Bureau of Mines Twin Cities Research Center and historic Coldwater Spring site into a  Mississippi river-related park during a 4 l/2-hour open house Feb. 23. The plans drew praise from a few, but vocal criticism from Native American officials.

Paul Labovitz, superintendent of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, based in St. Paul, said in advance that NPS was “looking forward to interpreting the great significance of the site for American Indian people, early European settlement of the region and its 20th Century role in mining and mine safety technology for generations to come.”

“Friends of Coldwater,” a nonprofit citizen group founded by longtime cultural protectionist Susu Jeffrey, has proposed the most dramatic concept. It envisions acquiring two nearby government-owned parcels to form one contiguous 50-acre Mississippi River gorge bluff park named Coldwater Park and  managed by NPS “for all people.”

Expand to 50 Acres FOC would acquire a bluff-top parcel occupied by a Veterans Administration parking lot, as well as the Minnesota Historical Society river bottomland. All 11 Bureau of Mines buildings and roads would be removed for
creation of a historic burr oak savanna. A visitor roadway entrance and parking area would be established parallel to Hwy. 55 on existing Bureau land.

The slope directly above and below the Coldwater spring and reservoir would be stabilized. And administration of the spring’s source water and discharge into the Mississippi River would be assigned to one rather than several watershed districts—to “partically reflect more than one period” in the 10,000-year history of the area’s civilization.

Lastly, the Friends would create a natural “green museum” that would honor Coldwater’s primary geologic feature as the last natural spring of size (100,000 gallons per day) in Hennepin County and futher protect the landmark from highly developed surroundings, according to the Friends of Coldwater website (www.coldwater.org).

For its part, the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Depart-ment, which manages the adjoining Minnehaha Falls Regional Park  immediately north, “is enthusiastic” about establishing bluff and river bottom trail and sign links to the new park, said Jon Gurban, parks superintendent, in an interview with Southside Pride.

However, members of several Mdewakanton Sioux communities turned out at the NPS comment session to urge that the spring and the 141-acre Upper Bluff of Fort Snelling be returned to them to manage as “the rightful owners.” The Upper Bluff is now a National Historic District under management of Hennepin County.
Leonard Prescott, former chairman of the Mdewakanton Sioux’s Shakopee community and now a business consultant, said “no changes in Mdewak-anton lands currently held by the federal government should even be considered until there have been treaty reconciliation talks with the government bodies that represent the area.

“In the Treaty of 1805, lands that were no longer used as a military post were to be returned to the Sioux people, but they never were,” Prescott said. “Now is the time to reach a land settlement with the Dakota Indians in a true spirit of reconciliation of past wrongdoings.”

(Although Prescott didn’t make reference to it, President Obama declared his openness to a review of Native American land issues in his 2008 campaign remarks. Whether that might create an opening for Sioux negotiations remained to be seen at press time. A Shakopee Mdewakanton supporter said a group planned a visit with Sen. Amy Klobuchar to seek support for such negotiations as early as the week of March 3.)

Another Sioux, Chris Mato Nunpa, retired professor of Indian affairs at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, reiterated  that “indigenous people want the land transferred to the Mdewakanton Dakota community, not switched from one federal agency to another.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has controlled the abandoned Research Center property and the spring grounds for the Department of Interior (DOI) since Congress closed the Center in 1995. When no private or public agencies offered to take over the property, the park service began developing a public usage plan in 2004.

NPS published a draft environmental impact study (DEIS) two years later.  But little was done until the DOI decided in November 2008 to designate the park service as the permanent property manager. If and when a final environmental impact study (FEIS) is approved by government agencies, Fish and Wildlife would start this fall to clear 11 abandoned buildings, restore natural conditions and transfer the grounds to the park service in Fall 2010.

The Bureau of Mines research center, founded in 1915, was famed for its work with the University of Minnesota in developing processes used to extract low-grade taconite from depleted iron ore mines on the Minnesota Iron Range in the 1940s. A year before its closing in 1996, it employed about 200 scientists, engineers and support staff.

Coldwater Spring, now a National Historic Landmark, was a sacred drinking water site and gathering point for Indians and early 1800 settlers, then became a major source of fresh water for troops and workers as Fort Snelling was built and opened between 1820 and 1823.

Prescott urged that any DOI talks include the three federally-recognized Sioux communities (in Shakopee, Prairie Island and the Lower Sioux-Morton), plus two unrecognized  branches in Mendota and the Upper Sioux-Granite Falls.
NPS comment on the Sioux treaty talk proposal was not available at press time.