Best Dog Friendly Parks In Minneapolis Near Me

4worldlovers:
The Meeker Island Dog Park is located adjacent to Meeker Island Historic Lock and Dam site, the site of the first and northernmost lock and dam on the Mississippi. The site is located just west of the intersection of Eustis Street and N Mississippi River Blvd near the border of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The park is located along the river at the bottom of the bluff and can be accessed from the entrance along the Mississippi River Blvd trail. It features a dog run and a dog beach. There is no fence surrounding the park, which is bordered by the Mississippi River and the steep river bluffs.


Please note, Meeker Island Dog Park may close in the event of high waters on the Mississippi River. Please see the Closures and Special Notices page for updates.

Keep your dog in sight and under voice control at all times.

Clean up and dispose of feces left by your dog. Owners must bring pet-waste bags. Bags are not provided on-site.

No aggressive dogs allowed. If your dog becomes unruly or plays rough, leash it and leave immediately.

Female dogs in heat and dogs under the age of four months are prohibited.

Use at your own risk. Owners are responsible and liable for the actions and behavior of their dogs at all times.

It is recommended that children be supervised by a parent or guardian.

4worldlovers: Nicollet Island is located just north of St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, and is crossed by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge connecting downtown and northeast Minneapolis. The island contains numerous Victorian-era homes, and acres of park land and trails for jogging, biking, and walking.

Both the park and island are named for Joseph Nicollet, who visited the St. Anthony Falls area in 1838. Nicollet, a scientist by training, had led many expeditions exploring wilderness rivers in North America and had seen magnificent waterfalls. Yet he described St. Anthony Falls as an “imposing spectacle.”

Nicollet's view, of course, was of a falls in its natural state with its constant roar, boiling mists, and downstream rapids surging amidst tree-studded islands. Eagles nested on the islands and soared overhead. Schools of fish spawned in the rocky shoals below the falls.

The falls, however, wouldn't remain in its natural state much longer. Ten years after Nicollet wrote about the falls, Franklin Steele constructed the first dam in this area to power his sawmill built on Nicollet Island. Steele’s dam began the transition that took the river, once dominated by natural physical forces, to one being increasingly shaped by humans.

In 1865, William Eastman and John Merriam bought Nicollet Island and began construction of an ill-fated water race to power a sawmill located on the island. The tunnel collapsed threatening the integrity of the falls, and perhaps the future of the growing cities on the river's shores whose industry depended on water power. The Army Corps of Engineers finally stopped the erosion by forcing water towards the center of the falls, building a concrete apron to protect the bed of the falls, and constructing a concrete dike across the river just south of Nicollet Island beneath the limestone cap to prevent the rushing from undermining the falls.

Nicollet Island was also been home to a papermill built in 1859, which supplied much of Minnesota’s paper needs at the time. Today, the northern end of the island contains a number of fine, historic homes built in the mid- to late-1800s.

Amphitheater, picnicking, walking and bike paths, concessions, gardens, public art, good views of the horseshoe-shaped dam. The Nicollet Island Pavilion is available for rent.