Picturing Lake Minnetonka: A Postcard History

Picturing Lake Minnetonka is a fascinating and nostalgic glimpse of the rise of Minnesota's largest and most beloved summer lake resort. A chronicle of the dizzying changes the lake underwent, this richly illustrated book follows the lake from its days in the 1860s when it was still a fishing spot and secret hideaway to the 1880s when James J. Hill's grand hotels, railroads, and palace steamers dominated the lake, to the turn of the century when the Big Island Amusement Park and the Twin Cities Rapid Transit's express boats and streetcar lines pointed the way to a new era. Ogland captures the bustle and excitement of this time through daguerreotypes, cartes-de-visite, stereoviews, view cards, and the hand-tinted postcards of the day.

At the height of the postcard craze, each hotel on Lake Minnetonka, large and small, offered views of their grand architecture, their beachfront, or their packed porches and dining rooms. Summer tourists eager to show off their new-found wealth and leisure sent thousands of postcards to relatives, sweethearts, friends, and acquaintances. The views on the front of these cards tell us a great deal about what the ideal vacation looked like to turn-of-the-century visitors to the lake.