Introducing the New Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

Archives volunteers in the early 1980’s, from left, Betty Peck, Joyce Quinn and Grace Knowlton. Photo: Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society

Lake Minnetonka Magazine respects the importance of local history, and each month offers Discover in this section. Contributors include the Minnetonka Historical Society, which has a column this month about Minnetonka’s Birdwing House. Other contributors have included representatives from the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka, Wayzata and Westonka historical societies, but change is afoot for those entities. Along with the Museum of Lake Minnetonka (steamboat Minnehaha), they combined to become the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society (LMHS).

LMHS will continue the mission of telling the story of Lake Minnetonka by collecting, preserving and sharing its history, according to Lisa Stevens, LMHS board member. It will focus on Deephaven, Excelsior, Greenwood, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, Minnetrista, Mound, Orono, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Victoria, Wayzata and Woodland.

LMHS will have one of the largest archival and three-dimensional collections of Lake Minnetonka history available in-person and online, and the new organization plans to share the story of Lake Minnetonka in “new and innovative ways to new audiences,” Stevens says.

According to Stevens, other plans include “housing consolidated archives in one location to allow for best preservation practices and convenient public access; sharing the lake’s history through expanded public programs and experiences around the lake, as well as in their current museums in Excelsior, Mound and Wayzata; and returning the historic 1906 streetcar boat Minnehaha to active operation on Lake Minnetonka,” she says.