Minnesota: Ten Thousand Lakes - Minnesota Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Prior to the Civil War, easterners and southerners took the "fashionable tour", a steamboat excursion on the upper Mississippi River to St.. Anthony Falls and Fort Snelling. Following the war, newly constructed railroads encouraged people in the East and South to travel to "cool Minnesota" and Lake Minnetonka thrived as the "Queen of Minnesota resorts" in the 1880's.

In the late 1800's fishing attracted sportsmen to northern Minnesota. In many instances, homesteaders provided lodging for guests and the regions resort industry was born.

It was the automobile, however, that triggered Minnesota's rapid developments as a vacation playground. The automobile opened the north woods to recreational development and popularized travel among the middle class. Recreational development flourished in the 1920's. During that decade the number of resorts increased five fold to nearly 1300. At the same time communities across the state established public tourist camps to meet the needs of autocampers and Twin Cities real estate firms led the effort to develop affordable cabin sites on many of the states most accessible lakes.

Numerous state and local organizations were established to promote Minnesota's recreational resources. The most important, the Ten Thousand Lakes of Minnesota Association, created in 1917, undertook a nationwide marketing campaign to lure vacationers to "The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes". their efforts were so successful that by the 1930's tourism had become a mainstay of the states economy.

Marker Type:: Other

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