Charles A. Lindbergh State Park

Protected area in Minnesota, United States

United States historic place

Significant dates

Charles A. Lindbergh House and Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Minnesota State Register of Historic Places

The boyhood home of aviator Charles Lindbergh stands in the park donated in memory of his father.
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Interactive map showing the location for Lindbergh State Park
Location	Morrison County, Minnesota, United States
Nearest city	Little Falls, Minnesota
Coordinates	45°57′26.78″N 94°23′23.24″W / 45.9574389°N 94.3897889°W / 45.9574389; -94.3897889
Built	1906
Architect	Carl Bolander
NRHP reference No.	70000303
Added to NRHP	November 20, 1970
Designated NHL	December 8, 1976

United States historic place


Charles A. Lindbergh State Park WPA/Rustic Style Historic Resources
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district

Water tower and picnic shelter, constructed 1938
Location	Pike Creek Township
Coordinates	45°57′28″N 94°23′26″W / 45.95778°N 94.39056°W / 45.95778; -94.39056
Area	9 acres (3.6 ha)
Built	1938–39
Architect	National Park Service, State of Minnesota, Works Progress Administration
Architectural style	NPS Rustic
MPS	Minnesota State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style MPS
NRHP reference No.	89001655
Added to NRHP	1989-10-25

Charles A. Lindbergh State Park is a 569-acre (2.3 km) Minnesota state park on the outskirts of Little Falls. The park was once the farm of Congressman Charles August Lindbergh and his son Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator. Their restored 1906 house and two other farm buildings are within the park boundaries. The house, a National Historic Landmark, and an adjacent museum are operated by the Minnesota Historical Society, known as the Charles Lindbergh House and Museum. Three buildings and three structures built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s were named to the National Register of Historic Places. These buildings include a picnic shelter and a water tower, built in the Rustic Style from local stone and logs, and have remained relatively unchanged since construction. Although the property includes shoreline on the Mississippi River, the Lindbergh family requested that the park not include intensive use areas for swimming or camping, so development was kept to a minimum.

History

Charles August Lindbergh, known as C.A., was a prominent lawyer and real estate trader in Little Falls. In March 1901 he married Evangeline Lodge Land, the college-educated descendant of two notable Detroit medical families, who had come to Little Falls the previous autumn as a teacher. She, C.A., and his two daughters from a previous marriage moved to a property, which C.A. had purchased for a dairy farm three years earlier. They had a three-story house built on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. A tenant's house was built across the road for the farm workers. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in 1902, and would be the couple's only child. A barn was built later that year, and the farm was populated with cattle, goats, hogs, sheep, chickens, and pigeons as well as cats and dogs.

On August 5, 1905, a fire started for unknown reasons on the third floor. The house burned down to its stone foundation, but the Lindberghs and their servants escaped injury and managed to save many of the household items. The Lindberghs had a new house built on the foundation of the first. However it was much smaller, due to C.A.'s overextended finances and a growing strain in the marriage. The new house fit awkwardly onto the footprint of the old, necessitating a short hallway with seven doors leading off. The basement, intended as a library for C.A., and the upper floor was never finished. Instead, C.A. entered politics and in 1907 began serving the first of five consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. For the next decade the younger Charles spent much of each year in Detroit and Washington, D.C., living only two or three months at the house in Little Falls. However, Charles would credit his time spent on the farm and playing along the Mississippi for his strength and self-reliance. The unfinished upper floor became Charles' exclusive play area, and upon hearing an unusually loud engine one day in 1911 he climbed out onto the roof and saw his first airplane.

Evangeline's relationship with C.A. and his daughters worsened, and in 1917 she and Charles moved back into the house year-round. Charles continued sleeping in his bedroom, which was really a screened-in porch, on all but the very coldest winter nights. He began overseeing the farm and was an early adopter of mechanization technology. Charles left in 1920 to attend college and returned only once, in 1923, arriving in his Curtiss JN-4 plane and landing in a field on the west side of the property. In the next two years the barn burned down and C.A. died, and the farm was largely neglected. After Charles Lindbergh became famous in 1927, souvenir seekers frequently broke into the empty house and caused extensive damage.

Encouraged by locals hoping to see the house protected, the Lindbergh family donated the 110-acre (0.45 km) farm to the state of Minnesota in 1931 as a park in memory of C.A. The family worked with the Minnesota Historical Society to restore the home, and donated many original furnishings. The Works Progress Administration developed the park for recreation. In 1969 the house and its grounds were transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society. In what was to be his final public address, Charles spoke from the porch of his boyhood home at the 1973 grand opening of an adjacent interpretive center. He died the following year. The visitor center initially focused on the three generations of Lindberghs in America, at the request of the spotlight-leery Charles. However, a 2002 remodeling doubled the exhibit space and added more about the aviator himself.

In 1989 the WPA developments were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a 9-acre (3.6 ha) historic district. The district contains six contributing properties—two buildings (a picnic shelter and latrine), two structures (the water tower and a retaining wall along Pike Creek), and two objects (drinking fountains near the picnic shelter). All were built between 1938 and 1939. They are considered historically significant as examples of New Deal federal work relief and Minnesota's state park development, and architecturally significant for their National Park Service rustic design. The same picnic shelter design was used in Lake Bemidji State Park.

Park grounds

The land is glacial till deposited between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago. Slate boulders carried in by glaciers from farther north are visible in the bed of Pike Creek. The vegetation remains similar to its pre-settlement composition of pine forest with oak and prairie openings. Damming has raised the water level of the Mississippi substantially from the days when Charles Lindbergh swam in it.

The park has a campground with 38 sites, 15 of those with electrical hookups. There is also a group campsite that accommodates up to 30 people, one walk-in campsite, and a canoe-in site along the Mississippi River.

References

"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
Cathy Alexander (February 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Charles Lindbergh House" (pdf). National Park Service. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying 3 images (976 KiB)
Anderson, Rolf T. (September 9, 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Charles A. Lindbergh State Park WPA/Rustic Style Historic Resources" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved January 11, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh. G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1998.
Franklin, Robert. "There's more Lindbergh now at his boyhood home. Little Falls center reopens with twice the space." Star Tribune August 9, 2002.
Lindbergh, Charles A. Lindbergh Looks Back: A Boyhood Reminiscence. Minnesota Historical Society Press: St. Paul, 2002.
Meyer, Roy W. Everyone's Country Estate: A History of Minnesota's State Parks. Minnesota Historical Society Press: St. Paul, 1991.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Charles A. Lindbergh State Park signage, brochures, and website.
"Rustic Style Architecture in Minnesota State Parks: Charles A. Lindbergh State Park". Minnesota Historical Society. 1989. Retrieved May 18, 2006.

External links

Protected areas of Minnesota

National

Parks	Voyageurs
Monuments	Grand Portage Pipestone
Rivers	Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway
Scenic Trails	North Country Trail
Wildlife Refuges	Agassiz Big Stone Crane Meadows Glacial Ridge Hamden Slough Mille Lacs Minnesota Valley Northern Tallgrass Prairie Rice Lake Rydell Sherburne Tamarac Upper Mississippi River
Wetland Management Districts	Big Stone Detroit Lakes Fergus Falls Litchfield Minnesota Valley Morris Windom
Forests	Chippewa Superior
Natural Landmarks	Ancient River Warren Channel Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Itasca Natural Area Keeley Creek Natural Area Lac la Croix Research Natural Area Lake Agassiz Peatlands Natural Area Pine Point Research Natural Area Upper Red Lake Peatland
Wilderness	Agassiz Boundary Waters Canoe Area Tamarac

State

Parks	Afton Banning Bear Head Lake Beaver Creek Valley Big Stone Lake Blue Mounds Buffalo River Camden Carley Cascade River Charles A. Lindbergh Crow Wing Father Hennepin Flandrau Forestville Mystery Cave Fort Ridgely Fort Snelling Franz Jevne Frontenac George H. Crosby Manitou Glacial Lakes Glendalough Gooseberry Falls Grand Portage Great River Bluffs Hayes Lake Hill-Annex Mine Interstate Itasca Jay Cooke John A. Latsch Judge C. R. Magney Kilen Woods Lac qui Parle Lake Bemidji Lake Bronson Lake Carlos Lake Louise Lake Maria Lake Shetek Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine Maplewood McCarthy Beach Mille Lacs Kathio Minneopa Monson Lake Moose Lake Myre-Big Island Nerstrand-Big Woods Old Mill Rice Lake Saint Croix Sakatah Lake Savanna Portage Scenic Schoolcraft Sibley Split Rock Creek Split Rock Lighthouse Temperance River Tettegouche Upper Sioux Agency Whitewater Wild River William O'Brien Zippel Bay
Recreation Areas	Big Bog Cuyuna Country Garden Island Greenleaf Lake Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle La Salle Lake Minnesota Valley Red River Saint Croix Islands
Waysides	Caribou Falls Devils Track Falls Flood Bay Inspiration Peak Joseph R. Brown Kodonce River Ray Berglund St. Croix Boom Site Sam Brown Memorial
Forests	Badoura Battleground Bear Island Beltrami Island Big Fork Birch Lakes Blackduck Bowstring Buena Vista Burntside Centennial Chengwatana Cloquet Valley Crow Wing D.A.R. Emily Finland Fond du Lac Foot Hills General C. C. Andrews George Washington Golden Anniversary Grand Portage Hill River Huntersville Insula Lake Jeanette Kabetogama Koochiching Lake Isabella Lake of the Woods Land o'Lakes Lost River Lyons Mississippi Headwaters Nemadji Northwest Angle Pat Bayle Paul Bunyan Pillsbury Pine Island Red Lake Remer Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood Rum River Saint Croix Sand Dunes Savanna Smokey Bear Smoky Hills Snake River Solana Sturgeon River Two Inlets Waukenabo Wealthwood Welsh Lake White Earth Whiteface River
Scientific and Natural Areas	List of scientific and natural areas

Local

Parks	County and regional parks Three Rivers Park District

Other

Minnesota Historical Society	Alexander Ramsey House Birch Coulee Battlefield Charles A. Lindbergh House Comstock House Folsom House Forest History Center Forestville Fort Renville Fort Ridgely Fort Snelling Grand Mound Harkin's General Store James J. Hill House Jeffers Petroglyphs Lac qui Parle Mission Lower Sioux Agency Marine Mill Mill City Museum Mille Lacs Indian Museum Minnehaha Depot Minnesota History Center Minnesota State Capitol Morrison Mounds Oliver Kelley Farm Sibley Historic Site Snake River Trading Post Split Rock Lighthouse Stumne Mounds Traverse des Sioux Upper Sioux Agency W. W. Mayo House
Nature centers	List of nature centers
Hiking	List of hiking trails

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

v t e National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota
Homes	Charles A. Lindbergh House and Park F. Scott Fitzgerald House Frank B. Kellogg House James J. Hill House Thorstein Veblen Farmstead O. E. Rolvaag House Oliver H. Kelley Homestead Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home Andrew John Volstead House
Commercial enterprises	Pillsbury A-Mill Washburn "A" Mill Peavey-Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator Plummer Building Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine Mountain Iron Mine Lake Vermilion-Soudan Iron Mine National Farmers' Bank St. Croix Boom Site
Military	Fort Snelling
New Deal	Rabideau CCC Camp St. Croix Recreational Demonstration Area
Prehistoric	Grand Mound Kathio Site
Lighthouse	Split Rock Lighthouse

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Lists by county	Aitkin Anoka Becker Beltrami Benton Big Stone Blue Earth Brown Carlton Carver Cass Chippewa Chisago Clay Clearwater Cook Cottonwood Crow Wing Dakota Dodge Douglas Faribault Fillmore Freeborn Goodhue Grant Hennepin Houston Hubbard Isanti Itasca Jackson Kanabec Kandiyohi Kittson Koochiching Lac qui Parle Lake Lake of the Woods Le Sueur Lincoln Lyon Mahnomen Marshall Martin McLeod Meeker Mille Lacs Morrison Mower Murray Nicollet Nobles Norman Olmsted Otter Tail Pennington Pine Pipestone Polk Pope Ramsey Red Lake Redwood Renville Rice Rock Roseau St. Louis Scott Sherburne Sibley Stearns Steele Stevens Swift Todd Traverse Wabasha Wadena Waseca Washington Watonwan Wilkin Winona Wright Yellow Medicine
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks Voyageurs National Park
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

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