LITTLE MINNESOTA - 40 - on Waymarking.com

Since 1973, all incorporated towns were declared officially to be ‘cities’ by an act of the Minnesota Legislature. Ever wonder about those ‘little cities’? This series of 100 waymarks will take you to all corners of the great state of Minnesota to visit the 100 smallest of the incorporated cities in the state. All have a great story to tell.
This is the 40th of 100 of the cities described in the book LITTLE MINNESOTA. One mile south of Ihlen, Split Rock Creek State Park is an unusual park set in the middle of agricultural flatland. Starting as a reservoir of water formed by a natural dam on Split Rock Creek, in the mid-1930s the WPA built a stone dam & stone bridge to form an 80-acre lake and s 238-acre park. A small remnant of native prairie grasses & plants exhibits a rare example of what the area looked liked before agriculture. The bridge, constructed of Sioux quartzite from nearby Jasper, is the largest stone arch span of any active highway bridge in Minnesota.
Split Rock Creek has been good to the city of Ihlen. In 1888, the Willmar and Sioux Falls Railroad bought land from settler Carl Ihlen for a village next to the railroad. Twenty-eight years later James J. Hill chose Ihlen to construct a roundhouse in Ihlen because of the easy access to the creek’s water. Incorporated in 1888, today Ihlen is the home to 63 persons.
This series of waymarks is tuned to getting people to visit these wonderful small communities before they disappear completely. To validate your ‘find’, please post a photo of you with your GPS at the coordinates and please relate a little tidbit about what you learned about the town and its people that is not in this narrative or the book. You can learn more about ‘LITTLE MINNESOTA’ by logging on to (visit link)

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