Itasca State Park

About Itasca State Park

Itasca is the oldest national park in Minnesota and was founded in 1891 as part of the National Park Service (NPS), the first state park system in the United States. Today, the park covers 1.5 million acres, or about 2,500 square miles, with more than 1,000 acres of open space.

Walk along the mighty Mississippi River, which begins at the mouth of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park and winds to the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

Stay at the historic Douglas Lodge cabin and visit the old, sprawling forest with its tall pine trees that stand in Preacher's Grove.

In Itasca State Park, the mighty Mississippi begins its journey from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. The landscape in which the park is located is created on the edge of a repetitive glacial crest. Founded to preserve the remains of young pine trees and protect the Mississippi River basin, it has become one of the oldest and most scenic state parks with a rich Minnesota history.

The northern pine moraine forms a mountain range of hills, in which coarse, gravelly material and rubble is stored and characterized by innumerable lakes, ponds and bogs. The moraines are sometimes referred to as tubers or basins and form the basis of mountain ranges, hills and slopes.

Cauldrons are depressions that are usually filled with water and formed by standing ice masses that have been partially buried under glacial debris. Nodules are debris that is deposited directly at the edge of the glacier by melting and water flowing from the glacier surface.

The retreat of the ice has left behind many lakes of varying sizes, and the diversity of vegetation in the park supports many animal species.

Birdwatch is excellent and visitors are encouraged to help identify and record the bird life in the park. Among the birds you can see are many species of birds of prey, as well as a variety of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.

Deer, chipmunks and squirrels use the paths in the park, and beavers, porcupines, black bears and wolves also live in and around the park.

Early humans attacked bison, deer and elk at water holes and killed them with stone spears. A few thousand years later, a group of people from a forest age arrived at Lake Itasca. Indian hunters hunted wild animals, and early humans killed bison, deer, and elk with stones and spears in places like the bison killing site. The location of the first killing site in the park, near the lake, gives visitors more history.

They lived in larger, more permanent settlements and produced a variety of stones, wood, bones and tools, but they lived on the shores of the lake.

In 1832, Anishinabe leader Ozawindib led the explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to the source of the Mississippi and Lake Itasca. Burial mounds from this period can be seen today at the Indian Cemetery in Itascas. Latin for "head of truth," the school created the name "Itasca" from the Latin words for "head and truth," as an educated missionary who linked him to verITAS CAput, which means "true head."

After the dispute over the actual location of Mississippi spring water was settled, the region came under the control of William Brower, a superintendent of Minnesota State Park and founder of Minnesota's first national park. His efforts to save the remaining pine forest around Lake Itasca led to the state legislature's decision in 1884 to establish it as Minnesota State Park. He saw how quickly the region had changed as a result of logging and was determined to protect parts of it for future generations. The splendour of "Itasca" has been preserved in its original form for over 100 years, with the exception of a few small pieces of forest in the past.

The entrance to the park is 21 miles north of Park Rapids on US Highway 71 and is bounded by Bemidji on the north, south, east, west, north, west and south east sides of the lake.