The Landing Minnesota River Heritage Park in Shakopee rose in status this month: It is now a special recreation feature of the metro area's regional park system.
With the regional ranking, the 88-acre Three Rivers park joins six other attractions with regional designation: Como Zoo and Como Conservatory in St. Paul, Noerenberg Gardens in Wayzata, Silverwood Park in St. Anthony, Gale Woods Farm Park in Minnetrista, and Square Lake in Washington County, whose exceptionally clear water is a big draw for scuba divers.
The Landing is a history park where "costumed interpreters and authentic buildings help recreate late 19th-century life in Minnesota, a time when settlers were establishing farmsteads and villages on the frontier," its website says. Families and school classes are the primary audience for the park, said Jefferson Spilman, supervisor of the park.
Attendance was about 25,000 last year, he said. Visitors come to the park to learn about how people lived in an 1840s river town, he said.
Regional status, awarded by the Metropolitan Council in early December, makes the park eligible for state and regional park funding, including Legacy Amendment grants. The council also made 17 more trails part of the regional trail system.
"One of the things that is key to something being deemed regional is whether it is serving a regional audience," said senior Met Council park planner Jan Youngquist. "Twenty-eight percent of the visitors to the Landing come from outside the seven-county metro area."
Three Rivers Park District bought the park -- then known as Murphy's Landing -- from the city of Shakopee in 2002 for $1. Since then, Three Rivers has improved buildings and built a new restroom for the park.
It sought the regional designation in hopes of receiving funds to develop it further, said associate superintendent Tom McDowell. If money comes through, one of the first priorities is to build a new visitor center and parking amenities, with longer term goals of providing new experiences that might include a dock out into the river, Spilman said.
Until this year, entry fees were charged at the park. In 2010, anticipating the change in designation, Three Rivers made entrance to The Landing free, as it is at the rest of Three Rivers' regional parks.
Visitors may walk the trail along the river or stroll around and view the historic buildings from the outside without paying a fee, Spilman said.
He expects free admission and the bald eagles along the river to bring more bird watchers and nature lovers to the park.
Three Rivers will continue to charge for park programs. Anyone who wants to ride the horse-drawn trollies or participate in activities or tour the inside of the historic buildings must pay a fee: $5 for adults and $3 for children up to age 17.
The park has one building original to the site -- a grist mill that has been there since the 1800s, Spilman said. Other structures of the same vintage were moved to the park to be saved from development, and gradually the village took shape.
On weekends this month the park also celebrated early holiday traditions.
Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711
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