Kenney Lake Overlook facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Kenney Lake Overlook
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The southeast end of the Kenney Lake Overlook
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 Location in Minnesota
Location in the United States
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| Location | On Minnesota State Highway 18 900 feet (270 m) southeast of North Kenney Lake Lane, Garrison Township, Minnesota |
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| Area | Approximately 2 acres (0.8 ha) |
| Built | 1939 |
| Built by | Civilian Conservation Corps–Veterans Division, Minnesota Department of Highways |
| Architect | Howard O. Skooglun (architect), Harold E. Olson (engineer), A.R. Nichols (landscape architect) |
| Architectural style | National Park Service rustic |
| MPS | Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933–1941 |
| NRHP reference No. | 15000789 |
| Designated | November 16, 2015 |
The Kenney Lake Overlook is a special park by the road in Garrison Township, Minnesota. It's right next to Minnesota State Highway 18. This park is about 2 acres big and has a parking area and a nice spot to look out over a small lake. It was built in 1939 as part of a big project called the New Deal. This project aimed to create a beautiful parkway along the shore of nearby Mille Lacs Lake.
The Mille Lacs Highway Development Plan was the largest road improvement project in Minnesota. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The Kenney Lake Overlook was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. This means it's an important historical site for its design and how it was built. It shows the work of the CCC's Veterans Division and early efforts to make Minnesota's roadsides beautiful. It also has a great National Park Service rustic design.
Contents
Exploring the Kenney Lake Overlook
The Kenney Lake Overlook stretches for about 600 feet along Highway 18. It's on the northeast side of Kenney Lake. The overlook is about 2.5 miles from Garrison and the northwest shore of Mille Lacs Lake.
Parking and Stone Walls
The site has a pull-through parking area with stone curbs. There's also a stone wall where you can look out over the lake. Stairs go down 12 feet from the wall to the lakeshore. When it was first built, there was a picnic area with tables and benches. There was also a wooden sign at the entrance. These parts are not there anymore. A wooden dock was planned at the bottom of the stairs, but it might never have been built. The area also had natural plants. Today, some trees are gone, and the lakeshore has grown wild.
The parking area is about 150 feet long. Cars can enter and exit from either end of a 90-foot-long island in the middle. Curbs made of rough granite blocks line the parking area. They also continue a short distance along the road. More than half of the original curbing was removed in 1982. This happened when the highway was made wider.
The Overlook Wall Design
The overlook wall is about 250 feet long. It's made of light-grey granite blocks. These blocks are laid in a random pattern over a core of smaller stones. The granite is the same as the curbs, but it's cut more smoothly. The middle part of the wall curves in a shallow arc around the parking area for 165 feet. It's about 2 feet high on the inside. Facing the lake, it can be up to 9 feet high. Thicker sections of the wall every 24 feet make it look a bit like old castle walls.
At the northwest end, the wall forms a 24-foot-wide semicircle. This part was called the "niche" in the original plans. It was built carefully around an existing oak tree. From the outside, the niche looked like a castle tower. A drain opening was even designed to look like an arrowslit. The floor of the niche was a bit lower than the parking lot. It was a cozy seating area with two benches. Both the benches and the tree are no longer there.
At the southeast end, the overlook widens into a flat area called a terrace. Two 16-foot sections of wall are on either side of a recessed area. This area is paved with flat stones. From here, a staircase leads down to the lakeshore.
History of the Overlook
The Kenney Lake Overlook was part of the Mille Lacs Lake Highway Improvement Plan. This was a big New Deal project. Its goal was to turn the area around the northwest shore of the lake into a beautiful scenic parkway. This project was a special team effort. It involved the MHD, the National Park Service, and the CCC. The overlook is one of the first roadside parks built by the MHD in the 1930s and 40s. These parks were made to improve how highways looked. They also made roads safer and helped the growing car tourism industry. They gave drivers nice places to rest, eat, and use restrooms. This was important before gas stations and convenience stores were common.
Designing the Scenic Parkway
Howard O. Skooglun, an architect for the National Park Service, designed the overlook. He worked with Harold E. Olson, an engineer, and A.R. Nichols, a landscape architect. Both Olson and Nichols were from the MHD's Roadside Development Division. This team also designed other parts of the scenic parkway built by the CCC. These include the Garrison Concourse, Bridge 5265, Bridge 3355, and St. Alban's Bay Culvert. All of these are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Civilian Conservation Corps at Work
From September 1935 to April 1940, different CCC groups worked at a camp south of Garrison. They were building the Mille Lacs Lake Highway Improvement Plan. Company 2713-V arrived at the Garrison Camp in July 1939. This company had been formed in August 1934. They spent their first two years developing Camden State Park. Then they spent three years finishing Fort Ridgely State Park. However, individual CCC members usually only served for about nine months.
The regular CCC companies were for men under 25. But the Veterans Division was created for older men. These were veterans of World War I who had a very hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression. This was partly because of their age and health issues from the war.
When the overlook was built, Highway 18 was a gravel road. It had been built just six years earlier. The stone for the wall and curbs came from a quarry 5 miles south of Isle, Minnesota. Granite was also brought from quarries near St. Cloud. The stone work was finished in October 1939. The landscaping was completed the next month, finishing the project. The company kept working in the area until April 1940. Then they moved to the St. Croix Recreational Demonstration Area.
Minnesota had over 100 CCC companies. But only about six of them were made up of veterans. The Mille Lacs project was also special because only four CCC camps in the whole state were sponsored by the MHD for road building. The Kenny Lake Overlook and the nearby Bridge 3355 are the only structures built for the Minnesota Highway Department by a Veterans Division company.
