Anoka opens up parking spots -- for snowmobiles

As part of its efforts to round up customers for downtown merchants, Anoka has erected a snow fence corral where snowmobilers can park their sleds after zipping down the frozen Rum River.

"People have been coming down from all over upstream for years," said Council Member Jeff Weaver, a snowmobiler who came up with the corral idea. "I said why don't we allow them to come on land we own so they are closer to downtown. It gets them off the river, away from the dam, in a safe place to park."

Before the corral was up, snowmobilers left their steely steeds on the ice, scaled the riverbank and walked a few blocks to downtown restaurants or stores. Snowmobiling was illegal in Anoka until last month, when the City Council passed a resolution that permits riding from the river to the corral, said Mayor Phil Rice.

City workers fenced off a 75-yard lane up the riverbank to the reddish-brown slat corral in a vacant area (a future park) by City Hall.

Among snowmobilers who rein in at the 40-foot-by-60-foot corral is Jim Way, who lives on the river upstream in Ramsey. Way, who is Ramsey's police chief, said he likes riding to Anoka for chicken wings on Sundays.

"It's definitely easier now. We don't have to pull each other up the embankment," Way said. "We can ride up the hill."

He said the Anoka County sheriff has jurisdiction on the Rum River, where riders must obey the state's snowmobile speed limit of 50 miles per hour.

The Rum River meanders from the Mississippi River, below downtown Anoka, about 150 miles north to Lake Mille Lacs. Weaver said he's heard some people have snowmobiled that far.

Since the corral opened before Christmas, people have seen from three to 15 sleds tethered in the enclosure, usually on weekends, Rice and Weaver said.

"People want to come here, so let's open the doors and say come on down," Weaver said. "It's the shortest, friendliest trail in state of Minnesota."

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658