History

Creating, protecting and enhancing Minnesota's parks and trails since 1954

The history of the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota began, appropriately enough, at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at a meeting in Itasca State Park. In September, 1954, Minnesota State Parks Director U.W. Hella, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Clarence R. Magney and other citizens from around the state went to the Itasca State Park Association meeting and formed the Minnesota Council of State Parks. Judge Magney, (for whom Judge C.R. Magney State Park near Grand Marais was named), served as the first chair. At that time, membership was limited to 16! In later years the membership limit was raised to 50, still a far cry from the 3,300 members we have today.

In 1967, the Minnesota Council of State Parks formed the Minnesota Parks Foundation as the land acquisition arm of the Council and a vehicle to receive gifts of money, land and stocks to help not only state parks, but county, municipal and metropolitan parks and other conservation groups as well. Their first acquisition project was to acquire the land for Afton State Park. The Council and Foundation merged to form the Minnesota Parks & Trails Council in 1987, and the name was further refined in 2000 to the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota.

From 1967 to present, the Parks & Trails Council has acquired land valued at more than $11.75 million for the state's park and trail systems. Cumulatively, the Parks & Trails Council has acquired more than 8,700 acres of land for parks and trails, with an untold value. To put this in perspective, consider that in 1954 the state park system consisted of 65 units totaling 88,000 acres. By 1974 it had increased to 86 units with 160,000 acres. As of 2007, there are 67 state parks, 6 state recreation areas, 8 waysides and 1 state trail and approximately 247,000 acres within the system, with nearly 8 million visitors per year.

Today, although the founders, true "giants" of conservation leadership, are for the most part gone, their legacy lives on in the continued work of the Parks & Trails Council. With your help, we can continue the work for another 50 years!