Hidden Beach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hidden Beach, is a popular and quite famous beach on the east side of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The beach is famous for once being the only nude beach in the Twin Cities, although nudity is much less common there than it once was. The beach is hidden down a block long path through the forest which leads to the shore of Cedar Lake. The beach is officially recognized under the name Hidden Beach by the city of Minneapolis -- although Hidden Beach is not recognized as an "official beach area", and therefore has no lifeguard and is technically illegal to swim at.
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[edit] Culture
The beach is almost always occupied during spring through fall, with a large cast of every-day regulars. During the summer, the beach is usually occupied by dozens of people at a time who come from all walks of life. It is not unusual to see upper middle-class neighbors, for example, conversing with the homeless; or to see bike-gang punks conversing with Rastas. The beach is also a meeting point for many hippies and travelers, such as "non-members" of the Rainbow Family and frequenters of Harmony Park in southern Minnesota.
The atmosphere is typically very friendly. Artists and musicians are frequently seen practicing their talents. Many beach goers participate in the game of "Rock Golf"--made popular largely due to the efforts of Larry D., a long time Hidden Beach regular and self-proclaimed "Beach Commander". It is not uncommon to see dogs running loose without a leash, open alcohol containers, and occasional nudity.
Another popular attraction at Hidden Beach is the Mud Pit, located on the eastern side of the beach, where visitors often jump in the mud and later rinse off in the lake. One of the most famous beach regulars is the "Mud Man", who greets beach goers ("Good afternoon!"), informs them of the status of the mud pit ("It's ready!"), and also keeps a count of the number of mud pit bathers for every day, week, month, and year. The Mud Man also clears the mud pit of foreign objects such as beer cans and sticks.
Beach goers, especially regulars, often adorn special tie-dye t-shirts which are made and given away for free by a long time regular known as Kevin. These distinctive tie-dye shirts often feature a lion family-crest type symbol, with or without a black star placed on each shoulder. Over 5,000 of these shirts have been given away at Hidden Beach.
The trails surrounding the beach are also popular walking paths, and connect up with the near-by Kenilworth trail, one section of the paved Cedar Lake Trails.
The beach has long been a concern to the surrounding neighborhood because of the level of noise, illegal activities, and high level of traffic that it brings. The level of safety is particularly a concern at night, when rowdy beach goers are much harder to control.
[edit] History
Before 1860, Cedar Lake had a much different shape, and most of the woods surrounding Hidden Beach, particularly to the south east, were areas of water and wetland instead. In 1867 the southeast bay of Cedar Lake was filled in to create a major train yard and in 1878 a large scale ice cutting operation known as Cedar Lake Ice Company was founded on the lake’s north eastern shore, which shipped ice to places as far away as St. Louis. By 1900 Dingley’s boat house occupied the end of a thin peninsula on the eastern side of the lake, which eventually widened and became the site of today’s Hidden Bach.
Despite the large railway operations going on nearby, the land surrounding Cedar Lake’s eastern shore was sold to build houses, hotels, and other such structures between 1908 and 1975. Unlike today, houses occupied both sides of Upton Ave S.
Sometime in the 1960s, Hidden Beach came to prominence. At the time, the beach was only a small grassy clearing by the shore, led to by a deer path sized trail. It eventually became a notorious nude beach. The near-by rail yard brought many travelers and vagabonds to the area.
Most of the railway yard closed by the mid 1980s, and the tracks and buildings were removed. In 1988, the primarily wealthy residents in the surrounding neighborhood paid to buy the land to the west of Upton Ave S, between the lake and the road, and turned it into a city park with a vision of establishing a nature park in the heart of the city.
[edit] Restoration
[edit] Concerns and Controversy
In 1995, residents in the neighborhood surrounding Hidden Beach used money from the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan (NRP) funds to hire off duty police officers to patrol the beach more frequently. This was done officially through the Kenwood Isles Area Association (KIAA). The reasons behind this stemmed from a concern over illegal activities at the beach. Residents claimed that they were concerned with their safety and wanted to crack down on nudity, drug use, parties, and crime. It was also clearly evident that a lack of an official entrance to the beach represented a major obstacle for the park police to patrol and gain access freely. Opposition to the concerns claimed that the primarily wealthy residents in the surrounding neighborhood wanted to reduce and eliminate non-residents from the beach. Police during the controversy publicly agreed with the opposition to the concerns by reporting that crime was not any higher at the beach than it was at many other official beaches in Minneapolis. The Kenwood Isles Area Association pushed the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for a solution.
The lesser of the concerns regarding the park were ecological concerns in regards to an invasive species outbreak of Buckthorn over an area of 70% of the park.
The Park Board decided that both concerns were valid reasons for a renovation. The plans for renovation were made official by the Board in May 2002. That summer, the beach received a major makeover when it and the paths leading to it were cleared of most of the surrounding buckthorn. Non-invasive trees were also cut down in order to widen the main path to the beach enough to allow police squad cars to drive through the park.
[edit] Unwanted Vegetation Removal: Plans and Progress
Buckthorn and nearly all other foliage surrounding the beach was mowed down in August 2006 to an even more drastic extent than in previous years. Click here to see the makeover. The large areas of green vegetation that once gave Hidden Beach its name are now covered with wood chips and stumps (leading to one of the beach's new monikers--"Broken-Toe Beach"). The make-over has created beautiful wide views of the surrounding lake, but damage to the ecosystem due to erosion and loss of protective foliage is easily visible in the several downed trees and increasingly muddy water.
Rumors have circulated about plans to turn Hidden Beach into an official beach with real sand and a stationed lifeguard, but no visible progress has yet been made in this regard.
