The Most Hidden Waterfall in Minnesota
I can’t blame you if you’ve never been to, or even heard mention of, Hidden Falls. It is aptly named. The lack of signage makes it seem like the park service is determined to keep it that way. The creek that feeds the waterfall has been buried for years underneath the Ford automotive plant, but now that it has closed and the land redeveloped it is getting a new life. A huge makeover has brought the water and its historical significance back to the surface.
Before the Ford Plant, before Highland Park, this area was just across the river from newly built Fort Snelling and the soldiers’ previous home, Camp Coldwater.
Read more about where the soldiers lived before Fort Snelling was completed HERE.
Since the fort was the only military outpost in the Northwest Territory, it attracted some camp followers and refugees from the failing Selkirk Colony to the north. It became an informal home to squatters, living illegally just on the edge of the Fort Snelling reservation land. Some of these squatters built farms and supplied their crops to the fort. Others had a different business in mind - liquor - and soon the little village was nicknamed “Rum Town”.
It was an ongoing struggle at the Fort to keep the soldiers sober. Their rations included 4oz of whiskey per day, since clean water was always a problem. Any more than that was illegal. Selling alcohol to the Dakota and Ojibwe was also illegal and often escalated into violence. Unfortunately, the fur traders and merchants (including future Minnesota “heroes” Henry Sibley, Joseph R. Brown and Alexis Bailly) found that a little liquid encouragement made for better profits and they did it anyway.
Soldiers crossing the river to get to Rum Town in the winter were risking hypothermia and freezing to death. Drunkenness was so rampant that on one day in June 1839, 47 soldiers were thrown in the guardhouse at Fort Snelling for drunkenness. That's about ⅓ of all the soldiers at the fort.
As the Treaty of 1837 was being negotiated with the Dakota, fort command saw an opportunity to expand the borders of the fort reservation and get the settlers and traders as far away from the soldiers as possible. The boundaries were redefined and the treaty was ratified in 1839, but the “whiskey settlers” didn’t budge. After all, they had invested money, built businesses, and even families in Rum Town.
Finally, in 1840, U.S. Marshals and soldiers violently drove the settlers out of the land around Coldwater Spring and Rum Town by tearing down their homes and burning their belongings. The squatters were forced downriver to start again. The new settlement rebuilt around an infamous French-Canadian whiskeyseller named Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant.
Learn more about “Pig’s Eye” and his impact on Minnesota history HERE.
This new huddle of homes and businesses briefly took on the name “Pig’s Eye”, until more cultured ideals prevailed and the name was changed to Saint Paul.
Today, Coldwater Spring, Hidden Falls, Fort Snelling all seem like such peaceful, calm places of reflection - and they should be since they are sacred spiritual places for the Dakota and Ojibwe. But at one time, they were the site of desperation, conflict, drunkenness and destruction.
Hidden Falls
Finding Hidden Falls is a “choose your own adventure” type of experience. There are multiple ways to get there, none of them obvious, but all of them worth your while.
Short route:
This is the shortest route, but requires climbing about 110 steps on the return trip! Park at the Scenic Overlook on Mississippi River Boulevard. Instead of going towards the WWI monument, walk along the bicycle/walking path to the Northeast and look for the “waterfall” sign and a path off to the right and into the woods. Follow the very cool staircases built by WPA workers in the late 1930s to the bottom - but explore the different views along the way! Listen for the rushing water and follow it (to the left) along the stream to the waterfall.
Long route:
This is a longer walk, but less strenuous. Park at Hidden Falls Regional Park. Walk to the picnic shelters and restrooms and then keep walking towards the woods. Keep an ear out for the rushing water. You’ll find a path and keep heading to your right. You’ll see the stone stairs and fire pits built by the WPA. Keep walking along the creek and you’ll find the waterfall.
Bonus route:
If you really want to explore the creek - and maybe even find some fossils - park in the Highland Bridge development near the Highland Bridge River Plaza. Take your time exploring all the different landscape feautures and access points to the water. As you keep heading south/southeast, you’ll get to Uŋčí Makhá Park. This stretch of the creek is really fun and you can explore exposed rock, plants and play in the water. At the end of the park, you’ll find the waterfall.
