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Website
www.mtkaparks.org/jidana Contact the Friends of Jidana
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Park Address
3408 Jidana Lane, Minnetonka |
Jidana Park Preserve
Jidana Park Preserve is a 60-acre preserve that includes Hickory Island, a wetland complex, and Jidana Park. Jidana Park was formerly an island surrounded by a flooded wetland (see historical 1850s map below), but was connected to the mainland by a causeway or driveway sometime between 1956 and 1962.
Volunteer Opportunities
September 24th from 12 to 2:30 pm
October 29th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
October 29th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Current Restoration Project
In July of 2020, Friends of Jidana Park contacted the City Forester, Hannibal Hayes, about the compaction around the bur oaks at the Day Camp. Years of vehicles driving up to the camp has caused the issue. Hannibal and his crew air spaded around each tree. In November 2020, The City Maintenance crew dropped approximately 70 yards of mulch. For two days, neighbors of the park, Friends of Minnetonka Parks volunteers, and an Excelsior Boy Scout troop mulched around each oak tree in the camp area.
Before Mulching the Oaks
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After Mulching the Oaks
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2021
There was no work done at Jidana but a forest of buckthorn surrounding the large bur oaks above the day camp remains. 2022 The Friends of Jidana Park will follow-up with staff to limit the number of vehicles allowed in the day camp. We also plan to schedule a buckthorn blitz for both sides of the trail above the day camp. If Hickory Island is accessible, buckthorn needs to be cut on the south side. |
Cultural History
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1000 BC to 1700
The woodlands around Lake Minnetonka were a place of worship and burial for an unknown group of native people. 1700 The Dakota were pushed out from their land at Mille Lacs by the Ojibwe and came to the Minnesota River. They considered Lake Minnetonka sacred and stayed there during the sugaring time in February and March. 1851 Traverse des Sioux Treaty The Dakota were denied the land around Lake Minnetonka as part of their reservation and got roughly three cents per acre. They had no concept of land ownership and remained around the lake for a few years. |
1852
White settlers began inhabiting the area around Minnetonka Mills and built the first saw mill a mile east of Jidana Park. 1853 “Dakota Chief Shokpay called the people before him and made a long oration. Tears rolled down their cheeks as his eloquence grew more powerful. I knew enough of their language that he was telling them they were leaving forever their favorite hunting grounds, where they had so long enjoyed freedom and happiness” - Hezekiah Brake, a settler of Excelsior |
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1858
Most of the forests on the eastern shores of Lake Minnetonka were logged. The bur oaks and black cherry at Jidana were probably cut and floated downstream to the saw mill only a mile away. 1859 Peak year for digging ginseng around Lake Minnetonka. Settlers sold the root to buyers in China to pay off their land mortgage. Ginseng no longer grows in Minnetonka. 1897 A weir-like dam was created (similar location to Gray's Bay Dam). 1950s A private landing strip was put in the 1950s. 1980s to Present The youth day camp has run in the summer since the 1980’s. |
Canoe landing and dock on Minnehaha Creek.
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Jidana Park Preserve (foreground) and Hickory Island
and Lake Minnetonka (background) |
Natural History
1300 AD - Present
The dominant plant community at Jidana park is an oak savanna. Hickory Island hosts a mixed forest blending Big Woods tree species such as bitternut hickory and sugar maple with an oak dominated deciduous woodland. Most of the city of Minnetonka was oak savanna and currently there are only a few remnant tracts at Jidana, Big Willow, Victoria Evergreen, Lone Lake, and Purgatory Parks.
The dominant plant community at Jidana park is an oak savanna. Hickory Island hosts a mixed forest blending Big Woods tree species such as bitternut hickory and sugar maple with an oak dominated deciduous woodland. Most of the city of Minnetonka was oak savanna and currently there are only a few remnant tracts at Jidana, Big Willow, Victoria Evergreen, Lone Lake, and Purgatory Parks.
