249-acre park to open in central Minnesota

COLD SPRING, MINN. – Outdoors enthusiasts will have a new option to explore beginning this fall when the 249-acre Chain of Lakes County Park opens in central Minnesota.

It’s the most significant acquisition in almost 20 years for Stearns County, according to Parks Director Ben Anderson, and will provide opportunities for hunting, hiking and other recreational activities.

It’s within walking distance of Cold Spring and fronts on the Sauk River, which connects nearby Knaus Lake with more than a dozen others that total more than 80 miles of continuous shoreline. Future plans include a boat landing, picnic shelter with bathrooms, a fishing pier and availability for primitive camping. The combination could attract people from the nearby St. Cloud metropolitan area and others beyond who are looking for a new destination off the beaten path.

“This is the only publicly owned property on the chain, so I think it’s going to be utilized a lot,” Anderson said. “Usually, when you have a park of this size, it’s managed at the state level, not the county. But what makes it unique is that this will be the first land in the area that is open to limited public hunting that’s not a waterfowl production area or a wildlife management area.”

He credits Pheasants Forever, which engineered the $2.8 million purchase last year. That included $1.95 million from Minnesota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund, as administered by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, $500,000 from an anonymous donor and more than $333,000 from Stearns County, which will oversee the park.

The park will be the first in Stearns County to allow small game and archery deer hunting on its mix of field, remnant prairie, wetlands and wooded areas — the last two of which encompass more than half the total acreage. The property also contains a trout stream and heron rookery.

“The majority of the public lands outstate are not near large population centers,” said Sabin Adams, Minnesota state coordinator for Pheasants Forever, who lives near Osakis. “So having an opportunity to access a large acreage like this is pretty rare. It’s going to give a lot of people an outlet to experience nature without having to go very far.”

The project also was developed in conjunction with the Sauk River Watershed District, which notes that it takes just eight hours for water flowing past the park to reach the intake pipes on the Mississippi River that supply the city of St. Cloud. Keeping that water clean will be an easier task since the Chain of Lakes Park property will stay undeveloped.

“We’re in the process of restoring 117 acres of native prairie species that have deep root systems,” said Tom Poser, natural resources technician for Stearns County. “Without them there would be significant runoff from farming or if the property had become residential. The wildlife benefits will be enormous. It will be a couple of years before you can say it’s a true prairie with wildflower blooms, but it is coming.”

The county is working with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council to complete an archeological review of the site, which is expected to contain the remnants of a 1,000-year-old native campsite as well as Indian burial grounds.

Development of the park amenities is expected to cost $500,000, and Anderson said the county will seek grants to fund that. Annual operating costs, expected to be $25,000 to $35,000, will be covered by the Stearns County parks department.

The park opening is expected to coincide with the Oct. 11 opening of pheasant season.

“We have a fair number of projects, but this was next-level,” Adams said. “We needed a lot of support from all over the place to get it across the finish line. I think our vision resonates with a lot of people, and I think actions speak louder than words. We want to conserve habitat for wildlife, but we also want to do that in places where people can enjoy those lands, too.”