Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

Nicollet Island is arguably the most unusual park in a city known for its parks. Located beside downtown Minneapolis, it is an oasis of green space in the heart of the urban core. It was once home to some of the city's most prominent industrialists, as well as factories powered by the Mississippi River. But it has undergone a major transformation in roughly the last half century.

Chris and Rushika Hage, authors of a book about Nicollet Island, join Curious Minnesota podcast host Eric Roper to discuss the island's history and how it came to look the way it does today.

Further reading:

How did Nicollet Island become parkland with private housing on it? (May 2019 Curious Minnesota story)

A before-and-after aerial view of the island, showing how it has changed