Lake Minnetonka
| Lake Minnetonka | |
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| Location | Hennepin and Carver counties, Minnesota, United States |
| Coordinates | 44°56′00″N 93°34′00″W / 44.93333°N 93.56667°WCoordinates: 44°56′00″N 93°34′00″W / 44.93333°N 93.56667°W |
| Primary inflows | Six Mile Creek |
| Primary outflows | Minnehaha Creek |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 14,528 acres (59 km2) |
| Max. depth | 113 ft (34 m) |
| Shore length1 | 125 mi (200 km) |
| Surface elevation | 929 ft (283 m) |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Minnetonka is an inland lake located approximately 15 miles (24 km) west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The lake lies within Hennepin County and Carver County and is surrounded by 13 municipalities. At 14,528 acres (59 km2), it is Minnesota's ninth largest lake and is popular among boaters, sailors, and fishermen. It is also one of Minnesota's most affluent residential areas.
The first people who inhabited the Lake Minnetonka area were likely indigenous natives who migrated to the region at the end of the last ice age circa 8000 BCE. Later peoples who inhabited the area between 3500 BCE and 1500 CE are often referred to collectively as the "Mound Builders" because they constructed large land features serving spiritual, ceremonial, burial, and elite residential functions. The Mound Builder culture reached its apex circa 1150 CE and ceased to exist circa 1500 CE.
By the 1700s Lake Minnetonka was inhabited by the Mdewakanton people, a subtribe of the Dakota Nation. Although their primary settlements lay within the Minnesota River Valley, the Mdewakanton frequented Lake Minnetonka to hunt, fish, and collect maple syrup. Spirit Knob, a peninsula near present-day Wayzata, held spiritual significance for the Mdewakanton. Following the Dakota War of 1862, however, the Dakota were banished from Minnesota and forced to leave the area.
The first Euro-Americans known to have visited Lake Minnetonka were two teenage boys, Joe Brown and Will Snelling, who canoed up Minnehaha Creek from Fort Saint Anthony in 1822. For three subsequent decades, however, few other Euro-Americans visited the lake or even knew of its existence.
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