Join us to celebrate the addition of new interpretive signs celebrating the communities who called Swede Hollow home.
Approximately 264,000 people travel through Swede Hollow Park on the Bruce Vento Trail. New interpretive signs will give trail users a reason to get off their bike or slow their walk to learn about the human and natural history of the landscape.
One of the top 20 projects in the Swede Hollow Park Master Plan, the signs feature short histories of the Dakota, Swedish, Italian, Irish, Polish and Mexican communities who called both the hollow and the neighborhood “up on the street” home.
The project – which includes new park entrance and wayfinding signs – was led by the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy, Lower Phalen Creek Project and Saint Paul Parks and Recreation with input from Friends of Swede Hollow, Ramsey County Historical Society, historians from St. Thomas and Celtic Junction Arts Center and many others.
Funding was provided by Bush Foundation, Hardenbergh Foundation and Saint Paul Parks and Recreation through community vitality (CVZ) funds.
Lower Phalen Creek Project was a lead partner and created three of the signs.
With fingers crossed that supply chain or labor shortages don’t delay the installation, an event to unveil the signs is planned for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021 in the park with music, food, self-guided tours and a candle lighting in honor of the indigenous and immigrant relatives for whom Swede Hollow was home.