Cascade River State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

near the northeastern tip of

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, US. The park is in a rocky and rugged location where the Cascade River descends to meet

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. It has many different types of wildlife including various birds and mammals. Cascade River State Park is also connected to the

Superior Hiking Trail The Superior Hiking Trail, also known as the SHT, is a long hiking trail in northeastern Minnesota that follows the rocky ridges overlooking Lake Superior for most of its length. The trail travels through forests of birch, aspen, pine, fir, and ...

. The site was originally named Cascade River State Wayside. It was developed by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

starting around July 1934. One of the projects was a huge overlook wall, built from locally quarried

gabbro Gabbro ( ) is a phaneritic (coarse-grained and magnesium- and iron-rich), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...

. The roadside development plans were drawn by Arthur R. Nichols and Harold E. Olson. The project was considered a model for roadside development. The development work was supervised and inspected not just by

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

employees, but also by members of the Minnesota Highway Department, staff of the Minneapolis Park Board, Civilian Conservation Corps individuals, members of the

Minnesota Legislature The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decenn ...

, and some Canadian officials. The wayside was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 4, 2003.

Gallery

Image:CascadeParkMN_arf.JPG, The Cascade River Image:CascadeParkMN_arf (3).JPG, The Cascade River Image:CascadeParkMN_arf (4).JPG, A rainbow over the Cascade River Image:CascadeParkMN_arf (5).JPG, A rainbow over the Cascade River Image:CascadeParkMN_arf (6).JPG, The Cascade River Image:CascadeParkMN_arf (8).JPG, Lake Superior just South of Cascade River State Park

References

External links

Cascade River State Park
{{authority control 1957 establishments in Minnesota Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Protected areas established in 1957 Protected areas of Cook County, Minnesota State parks of Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Minnesota Arthur R. Nichols works Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota Roadside parks