Minnehaha (steamboat) Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids History
Steamboat Minnehaha in Excelsior, Minnesota
United States
Name	Minnehaha
Owner	Twin City Rapid Transit Company (1906-1926) Inland Marine Interpretive Center (1984-1990) Minnesota Transportation Museum (1990-2003) Museum of Lake Minnetonka (2004-2023) Lake Minnetonka Historical Society (2023-present)
Route	Lake Minnetonka
Builder	Twin City Rapid Transit Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Launched	1906 1996
In service	1906-1926 1996-2019
Homeport	Excelsior, Minnesota, U.S.
Identification	MN 1906 GF
Status	Temporarily out of service
General characteristics
Type	TCRT Express Boat
Displacement	55 short tons (49.9 t)
Length	70 ft (21.3 m)
Beam	14 ft 10 in (4.5 m)
Draft	5 ft 7.5 in (1.7 m)
Decks	2
Installed power	127 hp (94.7 kW)
Propulsion	1 × Coal-fired 250 psi (1,724 kPa) water-tube boiler 1 × 7 to 10 to 18 in (180 to 250 to 460 mm) Triple-expansion condensing steam engine 1 × 44 in (1,118 mm) diameter bronze quadruple-blade screw
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Capacity	101 persons
Crew	3 (Pilot, Purser, Engineer)

Minnehaha (steamboat)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Location in Minnesota Show map of Minnesota Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	140 George Street, Excelsior, Minnesota
Built	1906
NRHP reference No.	100007073
Added to NRHP	October 25, 2021

The Minnehaha is a special boat that runs on steam. It's an excursion boat, which means it takes people on fun trips. The Minnehaha sails on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, USA.

This boat first operated from 1906 to 1926. In 1926, it was purposely sunk, a process called scuttling. But in 1980, the Minnehaha was brought up from the lake bottom. After being fixed up, it started sailing again in 1996. The boat continued to operate on Lake Minnetonka until 2019. Today, it is kept in a special building in Excelsior.

History of the Minnehaha
Gallery
See also

History of the Minnehaha

Building the Express Boats

Minnehaha on Lake Minnetonka in 1906

The Minnehaha was built in 1906 by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT). This company wanted to provide quick and reliable travel for people living around Lake Minnetonka. The Minnehaha was one of six identical boats. Their sister ships were named Como, Harriet, Hopkins, Stillwater, and White Bear.

A boat designer named Royal C. Moore created the plans for these "Express Boats" in 1905. Each boat was about 70 feet (21 m) long and 14 feet 10 inches (5 m) wide. They needed about 5 feet 7 inches (2 m) of water to float. Each boat used a coal-fired boiler and a triple-expansion steam engine for power.

Design and Speed

The boats had a sleek, launch-style shape. This design made them very stable and efficient in the water. They could travel at about 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). The boats were designed in Wayzata. They were put together at TCRT's workshops in south Minneapolis.

How the Express Boats Operated

Express Boat service began on May 25, 1906, from Minnetonka Beach. Later that year, a special station was built in Excelsior. From then on, all boat trips started and ended there. There were four different routes around the lake.

The main job of these Express Boats was to help people who lived by Lake Minnetonka get to work in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. The boats stopped at 26 different places around the lake. They looked a lot like TCRT's streetcars, both inside and out. They even had the same yellow and red paint. Because of this, people called them the "streetcar boats."

End of Service and Sinking

The streetcar boats were very popular and successful for many years. In 1915, a seventh boat, the Excelsior, was added because so many people were riding them. However, fewer people rode the boats after the early 1920s. This happened because roads around Lake Minnetonka got better, and more people started using cars.

TCRT reduced boat service after 1921. By 1926, they stopped all steamboat service on Lake Minnetonka. That summer, three of the streetcar boats, including the Minnehaha, were sunk on purpose. Three other boats were taken apart for scrap. One boat, the Hopkins, was sold and used for trips until 1949, when it was also sunk.

Discovery and Restoration

In 1979, a diver named Jerry Provost found the sunken Minnehaha at the bottom of Lake Minnetonka. A year later, Jerry and his friends brought the Minnehaha back to the surface. They wanted to fix it up and make it a lakeside attraction. However, there were legal issues about who owned the boat. So, the Minnehaha stayed in a dry dock for 10 years.

In 1990, the boat's ownership was given to the Steamboat Division of the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Work to restore the Minnehaha began soon after. The Minnehaha finally returned to carrying passengers on May 25, 1996. It operated on Lake Minnetonka as an excursion boat until 2019.

Recent History and Future

In 2004, the Museum of Lake Minnetonka took over ownership of the boat. At the end of the 2019 season, it was announced that the Minnehaha could no longer use its launch site. Because of this, the 2020 season was canceled. The Minnehaha was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

Since 2023, the Minnehaha has been owned by the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society (LMHS). The LMHS has stated that they are working to get the Minnehaha back in service on Lake Minnetonka.