The Minnehaha: Affordable lake cruising

The historic Steamboat Minnehaha today begins its summer cruise schedule on Lake Minnetonka with new trip choices and lower ticket prices.

This year it is offering more shorter, one-hour cruises. And soon it will begin making stops at a new docking site on Big Island.

"It's a wonderful experience to be on the lake on this boat," said Jim Murphy, president of the Museum of Lake Minnetonka, a nonprofit group that owns and operates the boat. "Young kids get the chance to take the wheel, and standing in the prow of the boat as it motors along is another great experience. You see the vista of the whole lake."

This year, for the first time, the steamboat will become a public-access point for Big Island Park -- once the home of a large amusement park and now a nature area owned by the city of Orono.

Orono bought the land on the island three years ago and is in the process of building a dock there for the Minnehaha. When it's finished, "We are going to be making regular runs on the weekends to take people over to Big Island so they can enjoy the park," Murphy said.

The wooden boat, sporting a fresh coat of paint, will continue making round trips to Wayzata, which take about three hours. But it will add more one-hour loops for patrons who don't want to devote a half-day to their outing, and each one-hour trip will go to a different part of the lake. To attract more riders, the museum has reduced its ticket prices. Adult tickets are now $15 for round trips -- down from $20 last season -- and $10 for the one-hour trips.

The Minnehaha was one of six "streetcar boats" that ran from Excelsior to 27 stops at towns and resort hotels around the lake at the turn of the 20th century. The boats ran on a tight schedule, as an extension of a streetcar line -- the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Co. -- which ended in Excelsior.

The boats were named Minnehaha, White Bear, Como, Stillwater, Harriet and Hopkins, after stops on the street car system, according to a historic account by Leo Meloche of Shorewood.

From 1906 to 1926, "They were the darlings of the lake -- they were bright yellow," said Jim Osgood of Orono, who helped restore the Minnehaha.

When the advent of cars took a toll on the streetcar business, four of the taxi boats were scuttled in a 65-foot depth of water off Big Island, Osgood said. The 135-passenger Minnehaha lay at the bottom of the lake for 54 years before it was raised in 1980. It then waited another 10 years before the Minnesota Transportation Museum began its restoration. It was returned to public service in 1996.

In 2005, the boat changed hands and is now entirely staffed through the Museum of Lake Minnetonka by volunteers dedicated to keeping the signature craft on the lake.

The museum group is looking for a museum location where it can house the boat along with other artifacts from around the lake, Murphy said.

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711