Voyageurs National Park
Minnesota
Ellsworth Rock Gardens, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota.
Credit: National Park Service
In Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is working on behalf of the historic Ellsworth Rock Gardens. Within this relatively new and largely wilderness park lies a unique cultural landscape created between 1944 and 1966 by a Chicago contractor during his vacation visits to Lake Kabetogama. Over 22 years, Jack Ellsworth converted a 60-foot granite outcropping into a formal, terraced garden dotted with hundreds of dry-stack retaining walls, water features, vernacular sculptures, objects, and seating, all crafted from native stone using only his own labor and without the benefit of power tools. When the land was acquired by the Park Service in the 1970s, the gardens fell into disrepair as the park was allowed to return to its natural state.
Recently, the National Park Service has taken an interest in reclaiming the gardens and preserving this important cultural resource. Because the gardens were not formally planned, there is very little documentation recording what Ellsworth created. Cultural resource staff at the park created the annual "Ellsworth Blitz" – an intensive week-long work session of brush clearing, archaeological excavation, and stone conservation. Using a grant from the National Trust, the Blitz has also involved training by the Dry Stone Conservancy from Kentucky. Each year, a small group of volunteers, including staff of the National Trust, gather at Ellsworth to clear brush, restore damaged sculptures, and document portions of the site.
