The 120th Anniversary— Steamboat Minnehaha
Looking around our neighborhoods as we enter May, it’s easy to see the energy shifting. The days are longer, the air is warmer, and some especially cold-hardy residents are already tooling about in their boats. Truly, it’s the beginning of my favorite season—summer. This May, however, is a bit more special than others; it’s the 120th anniversary of the initial launch of Steamboat Minnehaha!
That most famous boat got its start in Excelsior on May 02, 1906. Of her five other sisters, Stillwater, Harriet, Como, Hopkins, and White Bear, Minnehaha was the first to be launched and have her boilers lit up. So, how did this come to be? In short, the Twin City Rapid Transit Company commissioned six identical boats to be built by R.C. Moore’s Wayzata Boat Works. The parts were cut in what, today, is the 6 Smith restaurant, shipped by train to Minneapolis, and assembled at the streetcar company’s shop. From there, the boats were loaded onto streetcar tracks and sent to Excelsior. Each steamer was 70’ in length and 15’ in width, seating 150 guests, and featured a 200 horsepower steam engine to drive a single four bladed propeller. Their displacement of 31 tons gave them a draft of 5' 7.5” which is remarkably deep by today’s standards on Minnetonka.
From the onset, Minnehaha and sisters were a success and, at their peak, serviced twenty-six stops across Lake Minnetonka. On average, the boats ferried some 200,000 passengers around the lake each year and, in the process, became icons of their era. As with every economy, the boom wouldn’t last forever and, in 1926, all six original streetcar boats were decommissioned and either scrapped, sold, or sunk. Wildly, this year is also their 100th anniversary of sinking. Como, White Bear, and Minnehaha were sunk north of Big Island that summer and, as most will tell you, Minnehaha alone was raised from the lake bottom in 1980 and returned to active service from 1996-2019.
Had it not been for Minnehaha’s raising and restoration, it’s quite likely that she and her sisters would be just as little remembered as any of the other steamboats of Minnetonka’s past. That is to say, not too well remembered at all. She is known, however, and she is loved dearly by the local residents of the 21st century.
So, to Steamboat Minneahaha, who has long been laid up in her storage barn, happy birthday! Our community would not be the same without your influence, and our waters have shimmered a little less brightly since your departure. May you return to the warm summer’s water soon!
Written for publication in Tonka Living Magazine & Skipper Living Magazine, May, 2026.
Bibliography of Sources:
A Directory of Old Boats, McGinnis, 2010. Pg. 69 - 70
A Record of Old Boats, Edgar, 1934. Pg. 55 - 57
LMHS’ Steamboat Minnehaha website: https://steamboatminnehaha.org/history/
Postcard photos sourced from the Minnetonka Minute private archive.
