By Nancy Goodman
Washington County Historical Society
Mahtomedi is a small city on the east shore of White Bear Lake with a long, rich history. It grew from a colony of summer cottages and now extends from Dellwood to Interstate 694, and from the county line (Century Avenue) to the City of Grant (Ideal Avenue). The name Mahtomedi comes from the Dakota name of the lake - mato', the grey bear, and mde, a lake.
In historic times, White Bear Lake was in the lands disputed by the Ojibwe bands to the north and the Dakota who lived mostly on the Minnesota River. Neither nation had permanent villages in the area, because it was too often visited by hunting and war parties. In 1837 the Indians ceded all their lands west of the Mississippi to the United States government. By the fall of 1847 government surveyors were marking out the section lines in preparation for the land sales, which began in 1848. A road from Stillwater to Little Canada and St. Paul was laid out south of White Bear Lake in 1847. Soon people from St. Paul began to discover the beauty of the area.
Probably the first picnic to White Bear Lake that ever occurred was recorded in the St. Paul Democrat July 22, 1851: "A picnic party of 14 or 15 ladies and gentlemen went out last week to White Bear Lake, 10 miles north, and spent a day very delightfully at fishing and hunting." It was certainly not the last. Picnickers were attracted to the lake, which became known as a "wonderful health resort." Settlement in the area began in the 1870s.
When Minnesota became a state, in 1858, Grant Township was organized under name of Greenfield, named by Socrates Nelson for his former home in Massachusetts. In 1864 the township was renamed in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant. In December 1918 Mahtomedi became a part of Lincoln township, which was organized out of the western sections of Grant. Lincoln also included the villages of Dellwood and Wildwood (Willernie), along with the east half of White Bear Lake.
Mahtomedi, a village consisting mostly of summer homes, was platted in July 1883 by the First Mahtomedi Assembly of the Chautauqua Association. The Chautauqua concept originated in New York to train Sunday school teachers, but soon introduced correspondence courses, lecture-study groups, reading circles and summer assemblies, filling a need for adult education. The Assembly built several cottages and a fine tabernacle seating 3,000 people on the southeast side of White Bear Lake. In 1887 the Mahtomedi Chautauqua Herald announced Mahtomedi was a place where people could find a summer retreat "free from the use of intoxicants, gambling, dancing and the annoyance of Sabbath breaking in the way of Sunday games and boating."
Tent villages sprang up. One summer there were more than 3,000 people in tents during Chautauqua. Stillwater's Sam Bloomer and wife, Nellie, were proprietors of a tent village. A large amphitheater was located northwest of Hamline Lake. In 1888 the YMCA built a clubhouse on the lake with dock, boathouse and dining room. A spacious hotel was also built for those who did not wish to rough it in tents.
The St. Paul and Duluth railroad reached the east side of the lake in the early 1870s, following the general route of Dellwood Avenue, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul Suburban Railroad Co. reached the area in 1892. In 1899 the Twin City Rail Transit Company began regular streetcar service to Mahtomedi and Stillwater. The company also established Wildwood Amusement Park and picnic grounds on the southeast shore of White Bear Lake, just north of the present Wildwood Park. It was an immediate hit with St. Paulites who rode out on the streetcars for 10 to 15 cents-no admission was charged to get into the park. The park featured a roller coaster, plus other rides such as the High Striker, Ferris Wheel, Carousel and Giant Airplane Ride out over the water. You could buy refreshments such as coney islands, hot dogs, popcorn, lemonade, ice cream cones and soda pop. Attractions over the years included traveling shows and balloon ascents. On weekends 1,000 people daily came to the park; weekdays saw 400-500 daily.
West of the rides was the bathhouse and one of the lake's finest bathing beaches with water chute, spring boards, and baseball played in the water on Sundays and holidays. You could rent fishing boats and, until the 1920s, steamboats made regular tours around the lake: the "Saint Paul" had a dance floor and orchestra. West of the beach was a picnic pavilion with kitchen.
The park's dance pavilion boasted a fine restaurant and promenade that overlooked the lake. The pavilion was a regular stop for bands such as Guy Lombardo, Red Nichols, Fats Waller, Glen Gray and others. The coming of the automobile was the beginning of the end for Wildwood Park: people became more mobile and could travel where they liked. Loss of business and the depression forced closing of the park in 1932. The dance pavilion stayed until 1937 and the park was dismantled in 1938.
The Wildwood Park Association owned much of the remaining land by the lake and platted Lakeview addition in 1892, Oak Grove in 1904, Eastshore in 1906 and Forest Heights 1914. Wildwood Manor (now Willernie), a small community of summer cottages on narrow streets and small lots now entirely surrounded by Mahtomedi, dates from 1914. It was a sort of suburb for Wildwood Park, and had a few year-round residents.
In 1922 Al Karpis, Arther (Doc) Barker and Kate (Ma) Barker rented a cottage in Mahtomedi and were said to frequent Dick's Inn. Residents found them quiet, well mannered and bill paying. When the FBI began making inquiries, the gang made a quiet departure. In 1930 members of a Kansas City gang were executed on Lincolntown Road, near the amusement park. Other well-known gangsters that resided for a time in the area were John Dillinger, Marie Marchetti, Bugs Moran and Gus Nichols. Some of these were thought to live in White Bear, but in 1932 the White Bear newspaper indignantly stated that the gangsters' hideout was "over several miles from here-it is in Washington County where all the others mentioned held forth."
In August 1931 residents voted (225 to 180) to incorporate as the city of Mahtomedi. Over the years Mahtomedi, through petitions, annexed other sections of Lincoln township, and in January 1972 the merger of Mahtomedi and Lincoln officially took place.
For more information you can read "Mahtomedi Memories" by Alice R. Smith, Sharon F. Wright, and Judy Kaiser published in 1976. Also visit the Washington County Historical Society Research Center in Stillwater.