Scandal and slavery by Lake Minnetonka

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By the Waters of Minnetonka author Eric Dregni.  Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota Press

By the Waters of Minnetonka author Eric Dregni.
Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota Press

Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka has a well-known history as a vacation destination for wealthy visitors.

It is home to mostly year-round residents who have torn down quaint vacation cottages for lakefront McMansions or renovated them to keep their charm.

But there is another side to this vacationers’ delight. And Eric Dregni’s new book “By the Waters of Minnetonka” reports little-known facts, stories of opulence, sizzling scandal and some unpleasant history about the summer hotspot.

Dregni’s book covers such things as the destruction of the early Native American mound builders’ burial grounds and fights with the Dakota tribe for land. He reports on the illegal slaves brought to the lake in the 1800s to harvest ginseng, and on a sex scandal involving the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

He notes the Lake Minnetonka store that inspired “You can’t always get what you want” by the Rolling Stones. And he tells the tale of the 2005 “love boat” sex scandal, leading to misdemeanor charges for four Minnesota Viking football players.

Dregni is an associate professor of English and journalism at Concordia University in St. Paul. Minn. He authored Minnesota Marvels; Midwest Marvels; In Cod We Trust; Never Trust a Thin Cook and Other Lessons from Italy’s Culinary Capital; and Vikings in the Attic. Recently he discussed his most recent publication with Great Lakes Echo.

 

Great Lakes Echo: I know you are familiar with literature because you are an English professor, but what made you want to get into actually writing books?

Eric Dregni: “I stumbled into writing about Italian motor scooters for my first book and discovered that I loved the research and writing involved. In the end, I can hold the final result in my hands — and put that part of my life on the shelf, literally.”

 

Great Lakes Echo: A lot of your works are about Minnesota. What attracts you most to Minnesota as inspiration for them?

Eric Dregni: “I’m from Minnesota (even if I was born in Wisconsin) and keep coming home. Only after living abroad for several years was I able to see the Midwest with fresh eyes and discover our sometimes strange lives here.”

 

By the Waters of Minnetonka book cover

Great Lakes Echo: How did you come up for the idea of the sailboat illustration for the front cover of By the Waters of Minnetonka?

Eric Dregni: “I wish I could take credit for it, but the U of M Press organized that. Doesn’t it look great?”

 

Great Lakes Echo: What was your favorite fact you discovered about Lake Minnetonka while researching for the book?

Eric Dregni: “I’m a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, so I loved discovering that his spectacular Little House was built in Deephaven. To visit this remains of his masterpiece on Lake Minnetonka, I had to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (in Manhattan) where rooms are on permanent display. Wright’s topsy-turvy love life didn’t sit so well with the puritanical folks in Minnetonka, so he was arrested for “white slavery” when he brought his married lover to the lake when he was still married as well.”

 

 Great Lakes Echo: Did you find anything you discovered truly shocking?

Eric Dregni: “The most shocking is that a few slaves worked harvesting ginseng and that others worked at Fort Snelling and elsewhere even though the Minnesota Territory was free. The upside is many lake dwellers refused to associate with the slave owners and brought their business elsewhere. Siding with the Republican Lincoln during the Civil War was by no means a done deal.”

 

Great Lakes Echo: Is there an appropriate way to celebrate the Native American history at Lake Minnetonka?

Eric Dregni: “An excellent question. A good start would be to incorporate more native history into public school lessons.”

 

Great Lakes Echo: In your preface, you wrote that most brief histories of the lake gloss over “unsavory moments,” what did you think needed the most clarifying?

Eric Dregni: “The Native American history is likely the most in need of re-examination. I also think we need to learn more about the Volstead Act/Prohibition because we have this idea that it was foolish law by uptight teetotalers that resulted in an utter failure. This isn’t entirely true. Lake Minnetonka has always been a pleasure playground and a battleground between the Wets and the Drys.”

 

Great Lakes Echo: Is there any hope for the preservation of the rich history of Lake Minnetonka or will there just be a kind of “pave paradise and put up a parking lot” cycle of tearing down structures and building on the lots?

Eric Dregni: “Well, much of the tearing down has already occurred. I’m hoping with the publication of this book that the remaining structures will be preserved. I have hope. A classic trolley has returned to Excelsior and the streetcar boat Minnehaha was raised from the bottom of the lake and lovingly restored.”

 

More information about Eric Dregni and By the Waters of Minnetonka:

 By the Waters of Minnetonka can be purchased here for $29.95.

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