City: Minneapolis, MN

Category: Parks & Recreation

Telephone: (651) 266-6400

Description: Enshrining six 2,000-year-old Hopewell Indian burial mounds, Mounds Park occupies what was the choicest residential land in St. Paul in the 1860s, when this park was set aside. Today the bluffs of the park give visitors one of the best “aerial” views of the Twin Cities, with the Minneapolis skyline on the left, the St. Paul skyline on the right, and the Mississippi River below. The mounds are surrounded by metal rail fences but are easily seen and approached—the remains have long since been removed, but the mounds are still standing as a sacred memorial. Visitors are not permitted to climb on the mounds. A brass plaque describing the site stands near the brick pavilion. The park is also the site of the first visit by Europeans to the Twin Cities area; Father Louis Hennepin and two other Frenchmen were brought here in 1680.The park is actively used by families, groups, skateboarders, cyclists, hikers, and others. It is a well-worn park with old restrooms and access routes developed before accessibility regulations were in place, but there are plenty of picnic areas and play spaces for people of all ages and accessible parking spaces at many points in the park.