The lagoon is one of the most beautiful features of Humboldt Park, and it provides an essential habitat for a variety of plants and animals. The lagoon also provides activities and enjoyment for park visitors, and we are asking for the support of the Bay View community to improve and protect this vital part of the park. On any given day in the summer, you can find kids fishing, birdwatchers and photographers enjoying the wildlife, redwing blackbirds nesting, and blue herons making their summer homes on the island. In the winter, the lagoon is enjoyed by skaters and hockey players.
The Humboldt Park Friends are working on a phased approach to improving the quality of the lagoon. We will begin with a cattail pull on September 23rd and invite the community to join us.
As we prepare for the event, we wanted to provide a brief lagoon history.
Humboldt Park was originally named South Park and officially opened in the spring of 1891. At that time, the park was completely fenced in. In 1893 the artificial lake, or what we refer to as the lagoon, was completed. The land was excavated at a cost of $1065 by A Gerlach to make way for the lake. The 1891 updates to the park included building a boathouse, which is no longer standing. Rowboats were available to visitors for 10 cents per hour.
A creek was also constructed to manage the overflow from the lake, including several small waterfalls and a miniature pond. In 1894 the lily pond was constructed.
Humboldt Park Friends is committed to improving the lagoon, and we are asking the community to come together to make much-needed improvements. We are so thankful to the community for our previous park improvement campaigns. The community came together to help us achieve the goal of planting 100 trees, and we will celebrate the last group of trees scheduled to be planted this fall.
We will now turn our attention to other park improvements, with the lagoon being a top priority on our list.
Please consider joining us for the cattail pull. You can also contribute financially to our efforts by becoming a member or donating what you can for park improvements. https://www.humboldtparkmilwaukee.org/donate/
For more interesting park history, check out the link below and click on A City Park for The Southside and read more about the park’s history.
