It’s festival time in Stillwater this weekend — the giant pumpkin drop on Sunday should draw tourists by the thousands — but for some local residents, that will bring a longing for the old Stillwater, the one before mass tourism, before the parking problems, before the events and street parties and hashtags.
The historic river town they pine for was a place of family-owned stores selling necessities like clothes and furniture, where shoppers went to Hooley’s supermarket and Thompson’s Hardware. If the sidewalks were crowded, it was a rare event, not a typical Friday.
“It’s changed 100 percent,” said Kim Westbury, who lives a few blocks away from the business district. “No locals go downtown because it’s all tourists.”
It’s tough to be anti-tourist in a city that enjoys its reputation as the birthplace of Minnesota and a beautiful place to visit — those rave reviews for the Historic Lift Bridge and the dining scene stir a lot of local pride. But the crowds leave some residents grousing and wondering who’s actually profiting from all the visitors. On social media, critics bemoan how “the tourists replaced the locals,” or how the small-town feel became “a tourist trap,” or how the city’s historic integrity has been ruined. And don’t bring up the parking. When the City Council earlier this year tried to fix the space crunch by charging for some parking spots near downtown that used to be free, they got blasted by locals.

The City Council and mayor have doubled down on Stillwater’s tourism potential, overseeing a period of growth in recent years with new events like the world snow sculpting championships, the construction of a new pedestrian-friendly plaza near the river, and the expansion of bicycle trails. The closing of the Historic Lift Bridge to vehicle traffic in 2017 made it an ideal selfie spot. There’s a cottage industry of catering to walkers and bicyclists who use the bridge for the 5-mile Loop Trail, which is also new.
A local option sales tax on the ballot in November would authorize the city to collect $6 million for yet more riverfront development on both ends of the city. The proposed projects would open up more riverfront park space, add a large dock for visitors to arrive by water, a smaller dock for canoes and kayakers, a boat launch, an events space, and a place for the National Park Service to post a ranger serving the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

Downtown balancing act
Stillwater resident Erin Korich said she likes the changes, especially those brought by the closing of the Historic Lift Bridge to traffic. Big trucks on their way to Wisconsin no longer rumble through town, black smoke trailing in their wake.
“It’s better now that the bridge is fixed,” she said while visiting Lowell Park during the Rivertown Fall Art Festival last weekend. The things that go on downtown feel manageable, she said, not like the 2004 Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at Lumberjack Days that drew 55,000 people. Mayhem ensued, and the famously chaotic event still lingers in local imagination.