Memorial Day, 2011 — First cruise of the first day of the new season, the volunteer crew waits for passengers to board from the Excelsior Municipal Docks.
The crew is a continuing part of the latest chapter in Minnehaha’s tale.
A Little History
Since the 1870’s the lake had been a popular summer destination for Twin Citians. The wealthy built estates and called them their summer cottages. Hotels and resorts appeared and by 1881 a rail line connected the Twin Cities with Excelsior, where passengers could board steamboats, such as the City of St. Louis, that would take them to their lake destinations. And there were plenty, Lake Minnetonka’s shoreline is greater than California’s.
In 1905, the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) began thinking of addressing the growing need for fast, dependable commuter and tourist service on the lake. The TCRT extended streetcar service to Excelsior and asked the Moore Boat Works in Wayzata to design an express boat that would expand service lake wide. The boat works delivered a distinctive and practical design. The hull had an unusual torpedo shape, with a tapering stern, and a cabin that was taken directly from the street cars then in use. Painted with the striking TCRT colors of yellow with iron oxide red trim, these express boats, also called streetcar boats, were a fixture on the lake from 1906, when six boats were launched, until 1929.
As the use of automobiles grew the need for the streetcar boats declined until, in 1926, TCRT began to retire the fleet. In that year, the Minnehaha and two of her sisters, the Como and White Bear, were towed to a point off of Big Island and sunk. In 1929 two more were sunk and 1949 the last.
There the Minnehaha lay in deep, dark water, covered in silt. Her story apparently over.
However, memories of the streetcar boats survived. Mementos taken from the boats before they were scuttled became cherished heirlooms.
This is where volunteers picked up the story.
The First Volunteers
In 1974, Jerry Provost and his wife Sharon learned about the streetcar boats of Lake Minnetonka. Jerry had grown up in N.E. Minneapolis and had ridden the yellow and red streetcars as a kid. He remembered the woven cane seats, the brass fittings, and the rows of windows.
Jerry was also a professional diver. The image of a sunken street car boat was more than a curiosity, Jerry needed to find one and explore it.
Jerry and Sharon began researching the streetcar boats. Word of their fascination with the boats and Jerry’s desire to find one spread.
It wouldn’t be easy. For the next 4 years, Jerry spent his free time diving various locations, unsuccesfully searching for a streetcar boat.
In 1978, a pilot flying a small plane over the lake, near Big Island, saw the faint outline of a large boat in the deep water. He called Jerry and told him of the sighting. Jerry flew his own plane along the reverse course of the pilot and saw the outline too. Now with coordinates he could return to the spot and attempt to find the wreck.
In 1979, Jerry and fellow divers, located the unknown wreck and identified it as one of the streetcar boats.
It had taken 5 years and uncounted hours since Jerry and Sharon had first heard of the streetcar boats until one was found nestled deep in the silt of the lake.
Bringing it up would take much more effort and many more people. Luckily, others spurred on by Jerry and Sharon’s dedication would join them for the next chapter: resurrection.
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