St. Cloud Parks; The Story of Munsinger, Wilson and Riverside

St. Cloud has 100 parks and St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis and I are spending some time examining the history of them.  Wilson Park is named after Joseph Wilson and is located on the northeast side of the city.  Joe's brother John Wilson is considered the founder of the City of St. Cloud.  Kleis says both Joe and John were land developers in the early years of the community in the 1850s.  Kleis says before there were pools in the area residents swam in the river off Wilson, Riverside and Hester parks.    He explains the city had life guards watching the swimmers in the river.

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Kleis indicates there were a lot of accidents in the river where people drown and there were complaints that the river wasn't clean.  That led to the building of a municipal pool.  Kleis says Wilson Park had a boat landing and was a focal point of the city.

Further south along the river is Riverside Park.  Kleis says it was once just called East Side Park.  He says Riverside used to have quite a few log cabins on the property.  Kleis indicates both Wilson and Riverside were considered tourist parks.  In the winter both parks were often used for sledding.

Where Munsinger Gardens is currently there was a saw mill.  The saw mill was owned by Hans Anderson in the late 1800s.  Kleis says the Mississippi River was used quite a bit for logging.  He says shortly after the sawmill was built by Anderson it was struck by lightning and it burned down.  Anderson rebuilt it and years later it was burned again.  Kleis says this time is was supposedly arson.  Hans died in 1914 after moving to Wisconsin.  His sons founded Anderson Windows.

The saw mill land was purchased by the city and turned into a park called Munsinger Gardens after former park Superintendent Joseph Munsinger.  Kleis says Munsinger was instrumental in the building of many of the WPA wall projects in St. Cloud in the late 1920s.  He says park superintendents were often revered and were a big part of the city's recreation.

Clemens Gardens is located up the hill from Munsinger Gardens.  The property was donated by Bill Clemens for his wife, Virginia.  Virginia had been suffering from an illness which caused her to be homebound.  The gardens were visible from across the street, where they lived.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Dave Kleis, it is available below.