Cottage Grove, Minnesota, sits on the north shore of the Mississippi River, near the confluence of the St. Croix River. From some locations in the city, a person can see sweeping views of the river, Grey Cloud Island and the backwaters of the mighty Mississippi.

While the views of the river are spectacular, there has historically been little opportunity to get on the river and enjoy the fascinating habitats that create those views.

“We have more shoreline than any town in the state, but there are many large-acre lots there and no public access,” said Zac Dockter.

Dockter has worked for Cottage Grove for more than 20 years. For the last several years, he said the city’s administration has been very intentional about gaining land for public access to the river and the ecological and recreational opportunities it provides.

Cottage Grove is 10 miles south of St. Paul. The land was platted in 1871 but wasn’t incorporated as a city until 1974 when it became an important part of the southeast portion of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Since then, it has grown from a population of about 13,000 to more than 38,000 in the 2020 U.S. census.

It was in 2020 that Dockter and a group of interested individuals undertook a Mississippi River Access Strategy Report and studied nine possible land parcels under consideration for purchase as parkland accessible to the river. “We looked at all the opportunities and created a scoring matrix. It took us four months.”

In preparing the report, he said, the group examined ways city residents could gain access to the river for high-quality recreation space and to have single and medium-density housing that would be mutually beneficial.  

The goals included using existing roadways for future development and park access, protecting mature native plants, providing enhanced natural landscape to create riverfront habitats and using existing elevation changes and grades to provide views, stormwater drainage and greenway trails.

Dockter believed that the site selected should also provide opportunities for connecting surrounding recreational areas and water trails.

Of the nine sites studied, the best option with the highest score was the former Mississippi Dunes golf course, a privately owned public course that closed in 2017.

When complete, the riverside park being built on the property will include a nature-based playground, four-season clubhouse, picnic area, tiered seating area for an outdoor classroom, fishing pier, boat ramp, dock for launching canoes and kayaks, and boat trailer parking. Dockter said the park will be completed in stages over about three years. “So far, we’ve cleaned up the existing trails and cut some new ones.”

The land for the new park was part of several transactions that included about 90 acres for residential development by a commercial developer, 37 acres for the riverfront park and 12 acres for the adjacent Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area. Dockter said the state Department of Natural Resources expects to acquire an additional 38 acres for that area.

Cottage Grove purchased the first 20-acre parcel for $1 million, with half of the money coming from a state DNR grant and half coming from Washington County’s Land and Water Legacy Program. That program was a bond referendum passed by voters in 2006 that authorized as much as $20 million in taxes to be spent on parks, land preservation and water protection. Washington County currently has more than 1,000 acres in that program.

The riverfront park project gives the city nearly 2,800 linear feet of shoreline and direct access to a portion of the Mississippi National River and Recreation area, the only national park site dedicated exclusively to the Mississippi River. This, along with the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area which was established in 1976, helps in coordinating planning and management of the resources shared between the communities along this stretch of the river.

Dockter said one of the goals of creating the park is to protect and restore the native areas. In the Mississippi River Access Strategy Report, he wrote about the character of the river and the surrounding area.

“The river represents one of the most diverse and important natural resources in the U.S., serving as the migratory flyway for more than 40% of all North American waterfowl and shorebirds,” he noted. “The river is also home to at least 260 species of fish, 50 mammal species, 145 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 38 species of mussel.”

Dockter talks enthusiastically and with appreciation about the prospect of the new park. “It took a lot of resources and a lot of willing participants to do the study and to acquire the property.”

The result will be that residents of Cottage Grove and the surrounding Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area will have direct access to the Mississippi River. “The cool part about it is being able to get on the water and explore,” Dockter added. “Do you know many people are afraid of the Mississippi River? Hopefully, this will dispel some of that.”

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