Lake Hiawatha Park is full of mature trees, wide-open spaces and a beautiful lake. This park is ideal for enjoying a stroll around the lake or a picnic.

As you walk about the playground area you might notice the exciting new apparatus or the colorful four-square and hopscotch lines set right into the surface. For more action visit the soccer or softball fields or pitch a few horseshoes in the pits. If you still have energy to spare take a swim at the beach, play a game of horse at the basketball court or a game at the tennis courts.

Still looking for more? In the winter Lake Hiawatha Park has an ice rink and a hockey rink. While you might not be able to fish in the winter without some serious tools, in the summer you can enjoy casting off the fishing dock on a warm evening.

These are only a few of the endless activities that you can enjoy when you visit a Minneapolis park. Discover the outdoors in your neighborhood!

Lake Hiawatha and the surrounding area were purchased after a 20-year planning process in 1922 for $555,000. When it was first acquired it was nothing but swampy land and it was thought that the unsightly marsh could be transformed into an attractive park property in four years.

The park covers an immense 266 acres, with the lake accounting for 55 of those acres and eight acres dedicated to the playground area. The park has been altered and improved over the years from a swamp to the stunning recreation area it is today.

Highlights of these changes include the first shelter built in 1929, the Hiawatha Club House erected in 1932 and more recently renovations to both the shelter and the clubhouse. A new accessible playground was installed in 2001.