Lake Hiawatha deserves a sustainable future.
Manage flooding, honor history, and invite others in.
Hiawatha Golf Course needs to be dramatically reconfigured to allow for sustainable water management and a greater diversity of park activities.
Tell the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board Commissioners to support the Golf Course Area Master Plan so we can build a park that works for everyone and meets the challenges of the future.
Support the Master Plan
The Hiawatha Golf Course Area Master plan was developed over several years with input from community members and Park Board planners and scientists. It retains 9 holes of golf while properly managing water, and allows greatly expanded access to other park users, like walkers, cyclists, and paddlers.
Respect the Water
The Hiawatha Golf Course is set on a former wetland and requires pumping of between 240 to 400 million gallons of groundwater annually to remain usable. It flooded catastrophically in 2014 and again in 2019. Given the increasing impacts of climate change, it is certain to flood again. It is not possible to maintain 18 holes of golf on this land while managing water levels in a sustainable way.
Honor the History
The Hiawatha Golf Course has an important legacy in the development of black golf in Minneapolis—it was the home course for pioneering golfer Solomon Hughes, who led the way on integrating clubhouses at city courses. There are many ways to honor this history and honor today’s communities of color in South Minneapolis that don’t require an 18 hole golf course. The Park Board should more fully engage with residents of color to determine the most meaningful ways to incorporate this history into the Area Master Plan.
Honor the Land
The Hiawatha golf course and park, like much of the Twin Cities, is located on Dakota land. Before the arrival of Europeans, it was stewarded for thousands of years by the Dakota people and their predecessors. Any plan for this site should support the right of Dakota peoples to access the land for traditional uses, and should promote balanced uses of the land that are more aligned with Dakota culture and principles.