“I would have the City itself a work of art,” proclaimed landscape architect Horace Cleveland about his plan for the Minneapolis Park System. The system was ultimately named The Grand Rounds because it links parks and parkways in a 50-mile loop that wins the highest praise from open space connoisseurs. For example, landscape architectural historian William Tisher calls the park system “perhaps America’s finest urban open space network.” And Alexander Garvin in The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, calls it “the best-located, best-financed, best-designed, best-maintained park system in America.”

The Stone Arch Bridge, built in 1883, anchors the Downtown Riverfront segment of the Grand Rounds and carries bicyclists across the Mississippi River, linking the Minneapolis and St. Paul trail networks.

Minneapolis gained a big advantage by starting its park planning relatively early. Between 1880 and 1885, the city tripled in size. This growth rate did not go unnoticed. In 1883, the voters approved a referendum to create a board of park commissioners independent of city government with the power to issue bonds and levy taxes. Shortly thereafter, the commissioners approved the first plan for the Grand Rounds.
Today, the Grand Rounds is a 50-mile chain of connected parks, preserves, paths and parkways. The total park system encompasses 6,400 acres, strategically located so that green space is within six blocks of every house in the City of Minneapolis. In 1998, the Grand Rounds was designated as a National Scenic Byway, making it the first national scenic byway to be located entirely within a major metro area.

The Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway is divided into seven districts. The Downtown Riverfront District offers several historic attractions from the half century (1880 to 1930) when the flour mills and their complex of canals and raceways constituted the largest water-powered industrial complex in the world and made Minneapolis the nation’s largest producer of flour. Visitors can learn about this era at Mill Ruins Park, the Milling Museum (located within the ruins of the Washburn A Mill) and the Stone Arch Bridge, a National Heritage Engineering Landmark built in 1883 that now carries bicyclists and pedestrians across the Mississippi River, linking the Minneapolis and St. Paul trail networks.

Heading south from the downtown, the Mississippi River Byway District provides bike trails and parkways through the University of Minnesota campus and the Mississippi River Gorge. Turning west, the Minnehaha District celebrates the Native American legends immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. Minnehaha Falls is the focal point of this district, but visitors can also find other themed attractions here including Lake Nokomis, Lake Hiawatha and the Longfellow House, a two-thirds scale replica of the poet’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Chain of Lakes District lies at the southwest corner of the loop. In warmer weather, the five lakes here accommodate swimming, sailing, fishing, boating, canoeing and wind surfing. In winter, these parks are equally popular for skating, ice hockey and broomball. And, as in every segment of the Grand Rounds, the paths here are filled with joggers, bicyclists, roller skaters and pedestrians enjoying the scenery.

The Theodore Wirth District incorporates 759-acre Wirth Park, which includes the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, the first public wildflower garden in the United States. The Victory Memorial Byway District follows a ceremonial parkway connecting to the North Mississippi Regional Park. Lastly, the Northeast Byway District follows the St. Anthony and Stinson parkways, completing the 50-mile loop.

Horace Cleveland, architect of the Grand Rounds, articulated why Minneapolis should concern itself with parkland acquisition in 1883, long before open space preservation was a household word: “Look forward for a century, to the time when the city has a population of a million, and think what will be their wants. They will have wealth enough to purchase all that money can buy, but all their wealth cannot purchase a lost opportunity, or restore natural features of grandeur and beauty, which would then possess priceless value…” For over 100 years, Minneapolis citizens have acted on that understanding and seized the opportunity, leaving a priceless gift to this and future generations.