Elk Lake 1640 feet above sea level. The scenery is 

 therefore picturesque and attractive. The Mississippi 

 J^iver Commission several years ago left in care of our 

 State a few elevated observatory platforms, two of 

 which reached by steps now afford visitors an op- 

 portunity to see the landscape. There are about 

 twenty miles of fairly good road within and around 

 the park, but there is need of more roads to enable 

 the public fully to see the scenery to the best advan- 

 tage, including some of the grander bodies of primeval 

 forest. 



Xo one man of course is entitled to the credit of 

 having the legislature of Minnesota set apart the land 

 around Lake Itasca as a public park; but the late 

 Mr. J. V. Brower must have been one of its most 

 active and effective supporters. He was commissioner 

 of the park during the years 1891-1895, and was the 

 author of an illustrated and interesting history of 

 Itasca State Park, \vhich was published by the Minne- 

 sota State Historical Society in 1904. Some of the 

 figures, haw-ever, in the volume, as to the number of 

 acres granted to the State by Congress for the park 

 and that were obtained from the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad Company for it, are exaggerated. 



The act of the legislature of Minnesota of April 20, 

 1891, designated thirty-five sections of land to com- 

 prise Itasca State Park. There are 640 acres of land 

 in a section, according to L T . S. Government survey; 

 and if the sections had all been land, the thirty-five 

 sections would have amounted to 22,400 acres. But 

 looking at the map it would seem that fully a quarter 

 of the area is water. If that is so, the total acreage 



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