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Concept
Wayzata, Minnesota
Summary
Wayzata (waɪˈzɛtə ) is a small lakeside city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is about west of Minneapolis on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. Wayzata is known for its small-town character and quaint downtown area along the lake.
As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,688. A line of the BNSF Railway runs through town.
The name "Wayzata" comes from the Dakota word meaning “north” or “north shore.” The Mdewakanton, a subtribe of the Dakota nation, treasured Lake Minnetonka—the "Big Water"—as a place for hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild rice and maple sap. Spirit Knob, a peninsula in Wayzata Bay, was regarded as a particularly sacred place. The Dakota resided in this area of Minnesota until 1851, when the Treaty of Mendota was signed and land west of the Mississippi was opened for Euro-American settlement. Most Dakota were exiled from Minnesota after 1862.
Oscar E. Garrison originally platted Wayzata in 1854. In 1855, it saw an influx of settlers, who built a sawmill, a hotel, and a blacksmith shop. Most early settlers made their living by clear-cutting the land to grow corn and wheat. In 1857, this flourishing economy was nearly terminated by a grasshopper infestation, but the community rebounded when ginseng was discovered in the remaining hardwood forest. Ginseng root was in great demand as an aphrodisiac in China. During this boom, Wayzata became a collection center for ginseng roots discovered around Lake Minnetonka.
In 1867 the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad extended its tracks to Wayzata, making it the area's transportation hub. The railroad was particularly important to local farmers because they now had easy access to markets in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and beyond. The railroad also made Wayzata the original "gateway" to Lake Minnetonka, which was billed as a place of commanding beauty and good health.
In the 1860s and 1870s many small hotels and boarding houses were erected around Wayzata and Lake Minnetonka to accommodate tourists.
Official source
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