Remember the giant waterslide?

As you leave Waseca on old Highway 14 east toward Owatonna. you pass by Kiesler’s Campground and the southeast boat landing of Clear Lake. North of the boat landing is a large hill known as “Maplewood.” 

For the past 25 years, the Clear Lake Association, along with the city, hosts a spring park cleanup. Families and individuals of all ages report to Maplewood, where they are assigned a park where they are asked to pick up trash, gather sticks or branches, and perform other tasks to make everything look ship shape. After their task is complete, they report back for camaraderie, hot dogs, chips and snacks, coffee, pop or other beverages. For the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed serving hot dogs and treats to cleanup participants alongside Joan Mooney. The last couple of cleanup Saturdays have been very cold and windy. We serve the goodies in a large pavilion originally built by the Boy Scouts at the top of the hill. The building is constructed of clay tile and brick; it  was built in 1929, and is still in excellent condition. I’m sure some repairs have been made to it over the years. It was a pleasure watching people warm themselves at the large, built-in fireplace, talk, laugh, and sip hot coffee or a beverage. 

I hear that Maplewood Park was the center of Waseca’s cultural and social life back in the late 1800s. That’s some 130 years ago, so no eye witnesses are alive to interview and tell stories. I took some questions to the Bailey House of the Waseca County Historical Society; Joan and Virginia sent me home with a folder of information. It was fascinating research. 

In the late 1800s there was a “Chautauqua” movement that began in New York and moved west. One of the movement’s goals was to intertwine education and entertainment; lectures, dance, music, drama, and art were some of the key components. The idea was to introduce this culture to others while also presenting information and practices they could use in everyday life. Chautauqua came to small towns; the ideal setting was among trees, by a lakeshore, or in a park. 

As we were informed in “Field of Dreams,” “If you build it they will come.” It certainly turned out to be true in this case: Maplewood became a combination of a dinner theater, the Orpheum, and, on a much smaller scale, Valley Fair. The park was the center of Waseca’s cultural and social life for at least 15 years.

At the top of the hill was a luxury hotel, probably the finest in Minnesota. It had three levels with porches and promenade decks, a large lobby, parlor and dining room. The hotel featured great food and provided 40 rooms for guests. Just south of the hotel was an auditorium. It had a roof and open sides and a folding canvas for bad weather. Even with a seating capacity of more than 500, Chautauqua brought overflow crowds. The auditorium offered week-long entertainment by musical organizations, outstanding speakers, plays, and science lectures. Supposedly William Jennings Bryan and Mark Twain each spoke there. Just west of the auditorium stood the Chautauqua Hall, a building patterned after a Greek temple with a floor and roof supported by pillars. One of its uses was teaching crafts and skills for young people.

A giant waterslide ran down to Clear Lake: It started from the highest point on Maplewood hill. The waterslide was constructed of wood–which causes me to think of slivers–but apparently they weren’t a problem, since people kept using it. A steamboat named the Commodore was purchased from Lake Minnetonka for $1,200 by Ira Trowbridge and A.P. Jamison; the boat offered cruises on Clear Lake and transportation to guests for many years.

Maplewood also featured a store which offered groceries to guests and campers during a busy summer season. For entertainment there was a one-lane bowling alley, probably the first in Waseca County. There were 30 private cottages on the grounds owned by names like the Mayo brothers, Trowbridges, Everetts, and other prominent families. The ground also included sites for campers. At the main entrance there was a barn accommodating a considerable number of horses belonging to campers and visitors.

Visitors came from everywhere to vacation and experience Chautauqua. They came by horse-drawn vehicles, walked out from Waseca, or came by train. Trains arrived at the Maplewood depot daily, 16 in all from 9:45 a.m. until 9:40 in the evening. They came from Iowa to the south and Minneapolis to the north picking up visitors along the way. Horse-drawn buses and carriages met all the trains and transported people to Maplewood. So as you can see, Maplewood was once “the” place to be. 

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the hotel in 1898. Maplewood began its journey downhill after the hotel was lost; by the mid-1920s the Chautauqua movement came to an end. E.A. Everett purchased the property and gave it to the Cedar Valley area Boy Scouts of America. A $10,000 Boy Scout building was constructed and donated as Camp Everett-Hormel; it still stands today on the area where the hotel used to be.

Maplewood today is that special niche where body and spirit can be reconstituted. If you take a hike through the gate to the top of Maplewood, you just might find your quiet getaway place. You can sit down in the scout shelter and smell the trees, leaves, and wildflowers in bloom. Take a hike on the blacktop path down by the lake and walk with your dog or kids down to the fishing pier. There’s a picnic table for snacks and benches to watch action on Clear Lake. When you get to the pier, turn and look up the hill where the water slide may have been. Ouch, it’s a long way down on a wooden, curvy slide to the water.