Museum of Lake Minnetonka
| Living history museum | |
| Headquarters | 37 Water Street Excelsior, Minnesota |
| Website | http://www.steamboatminnehaha.org |
The Museum of Lake Minnetonka (MLM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization which maintains and operates the Lake Minnetonka streetcar steamboat Minnehaha. The MLM formed during a restructuring of the Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) in 2004 and is headquartered in Excelsior, Minnesota. Its mission is to "preserve Lake Minnetonka's history through acquiring, restoring, and presenting items that help tell the story of the lake's colorful past."
The Minnehaha was built by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) in 1906 and provided fast and reliable transportation for the residents of Lake Minnetonka for much of the early twentieth century. She ran alongside her sister vessels Como, Harriet, Hopkins, Stillwater, and White Bear. TCRT had commissioned Wayzata boat builder Royal C. Moore to design these identical "Express Boats" in 1905. Each were 70 feet (21 m) long, 14 feet 10 inches (5 m) wide, drew 5 feet 7 inches (2 m) of water, and were powered by a single coal-fired boiler and triple-expansion steam engine. The sleek, launch-style hull of the craft, modern for the time, made the boats exceptionally stable and efficient as they cut through the water at a cruising speed of approximately 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). Parts and materials for the boats were prefabricated at Moore Boat Works in Wayzata and assembled at the TCRT streetcar shop in south Minneapolis. From there the finished craft were transported via railroad flatcar to Excelsior and launched into Lake Minnetonka.
Express Boat service first began on May 25, 1906 from Minnetonka Beach. Later that year a streetcar transfer terminal was completed in Excelsior, and all routes (four in total) embarked and disembarked from there. The primary function assigned to the Express Boats was to provide fast and reliable transportation for the seasonal residents of Lake Minnetonka who commuted to work in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The boats stopped at 26 designated landings around the lake and, if flagged down, at suitable private docks. Since the boats were essentially an extension of TCRT's streetcar system, they were painted in the same color scheme as the company's streetcars (yellow and maroon) and were furnished with many of the same fittings. Several nicknames developed for the vessels as time passed. These included "yellowjackets" and the more popular term "streetcar boats."
...
Wikipedia