Star Tribune
Fort Snelling State Park closes due to flooding
With Minnesota rivers surging and flooding the banks due to rain and significant amounts of snowmelt, many riverside parks have been affected, with paths and roads fully or partially covered in water.
Flooding at Fort Snelling State Park, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers in Hennepin County between Minneapolis and St. Paul, has forced its closure. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources closed the park beginning Friday morning, and said that it will reopen the park, one of the state’s most-visited, when it’s safe.
In 2019, Fort Snelling State Park was closed until July because of extensive flood damage. The public can go online to mndnr.gov/park-list to check park conditions elsewhere.
In Minneapolis, West River Parkway has remained closed since Monday evening between Fourth Street and Franklin Avenue. Along that stretch, water is covering the road and bike and walking paths near Annie Young Meadow, according to a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It’s expected to stay closed into next week.
Here are some parks and trails that have also been affected by flooding, according to the parks and recreation board:
- Lower trail along West River Road beneath the Broadway Bridge is covered in water.
- The boat launch and low paths at Boom Island Park are underwater.
- Nicollet Island Park has standing water in the parking lot.
- The lower path at Bohemian Flats Park is covered in water.
- The lower path on East River Parkway is covered in water.
- The lower path at North Mississippi is closed, and the path near Kroening Nature Center is underwater.
- North Mississippi Park Boat Launch is also covered in water.
The board first noticed flooding on Monday, spokesperson Dawn Sommers said, noting it has been a particularly severe spring so far for flooding.
“We watch it every year, and this year the levels are higher than most for sure,” she said.
A list of flood-impacted parklands can be found online at minneapolisparks.org.
A 63-year-old Eveleth man died from injuries suffered in a house fire in the northern Minnesota city Friday morning.
Dale Wallander of rural Eveleth was found with burns covering most of his body at the end of the driveway to his house in the 7100 block of Antoinette Road in Eveleth at about 11:26 a.m. Friday, according to a press release from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office.
Law enforcement arrived to find his house engulfed in flames. Wallander was transported to a metro area hospital by Life Link air medical service, but died of his injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office and the State Fire Marshal.
Brooklyn Park police arrested two people Saturday in connection with an early-morning shooting that left one man dead.
Police responded to a shooting in the 7900 block of Lee Avenue North at about 4:36 a.m. Saturday, and found a man with a gunshot wound, according to a Brooklyn Park Police Department press release. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and hasn’t yet been identified.
Later Saturday, Brooklyn Park detectives arrested two suspects who are being held at the Hennepin County Jail, according to police.
“We passed three of them and we did it [in a] bipartisan [way],” said Walz, who represented southern Minnesota in Congress for a dozen years before running for governor.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds Matt Kucharski’s dog, Libby, a 6-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer, to give her a drink during the annual Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener. (Anthony Souffle)
Following the event, Walz’s motorcade wound its way north and east across farm country, past combines in fields harvesting corn, to downtown Sleepy Eye, where he slipped into a crowded brewery. In many ways, the trip resembled any year for a pheasant opener, save this time the motorcade, a dozen vehicles long, stretched out the back side of a downtown Sleepy Eye alleyway.
One patron, who declined to give her name but said she grew up in Madelia and lived in New Ulm, was purchasing a six-pack of beers when she told the bartender, “Is that Walz? I don’t got time for that guy.”
Later, when Walz briefly emerged from a side room, a chorus of cheers reached him from the balcony, before he hustled out to the motorcade.
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