Redesigning the historic Hiawatha Golf Course in South Minneapolis is still on track, as is the schism that was created when the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) first introduced the plans nearly a decade ago. The course’s history is deeply engaged with the history of racism and integration in Minneapolis, greatly complicating efforts to engineer flood control solutions.
Hiawatha Golf Course has suffered four major floods in the last 75 years, the last occurring in 2014. More than 240 million gallons of groundwater are pumped annually to keep the course dry.
Over the past few years the MSR has reported extensively on the course, its history and significance to the Black community and the controversy surrounding it. Proponents and opponents have emerged, listed here in no particular order: the Black golfers who regularly use Hiawatha, neighboring residents, community folk, and Native Americans who argue that the surrounding land should be returned to its former state.
Several contentious public meetings and related events took place after the MPRB introduced the Hiawatha Master Plan in 2018. After several attempts, the Board finally passed the plan 6-3 in 2022.
Three design concepts for “Hiawatha Links” were unveiled at an August 14 public open house. According to the MPRB, sometime next year it will approve one design that will create “a high-quality, flood-resilient, 9-hole course with a driving range and new golf amenities,” with funding “from a variety of sources” they will need to secure to begin construction sometime in 2030.
Darwin Dean, president of the Minneapolis-based Bronze Foundation, has been among the vocal opponents of reducing the Hiawatha course from 18 holes to 9 holes — his group annually sponsors the Bronze golf tournament there each summer. He says reducing the course to half its current size would not allow them to hold such tournaments.
His foundation also commissioned their “Alternative 6” plan that would help solve the decades-long water flooding problems and keep intact the 18-hole Hiawatha course. They also applied in 2023 for National Register of Historic Places designation and their nomination was accepted.
Dean claims that the Park Board has ignored the Bronze’s Alternative 6 plan as well as the golf course’s historic significance, along with public comments on several surveys. He says that the majority of respondents want the Hiawatha course to stay at 18 holes.
“It is frustrating when the people that are supposed to support and serve you totally ignore what you’re trying to communicate to them, statistical documented facts that the community don’t want what the Park Board is doing,” Dean recently told the MSR. “You have over 400 people saying that [the] golf course should be redesigned to maintain 18 holes of golf.
“They [the MPRB] are totally ignoring the community… They’re supposed to be stewards of the land,” Dean asserts. “They’re not necessarily stewards of the land if you take something away from the community. It’s a form of criminal behavior, and in my opinion, that’s basically what’s going on with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation.”
The MSR contacted the MPRB for comment on Dean’s assertions. Superintendent Al Bangoura and Michael Schroeder both provided joint responses that a Park Board spokesperson pointed out is based on several conversations by both Bangoura and Schroeder.
The joint statements have been edited for clarity:
“The combination of water influences on Hiawatha Golf Course are many and highly technical. The long-range plans…are aimed at a better balance of recreation (with golf as the centerpiece).
“The MPRB has been responding to the Bronze Foundation’s concerns and suggestions since they became interested in the project. Accordingly, the MPRB has responded directly to the parties involved regarding these assertions.
“The MPRB has taken the historic designation seriously. The MPRB is preparing additional studies aimed at understanding the Hiawatha site in a deeper way than the National Register nomination considered.
“The MPRB did in fact conduct a survey (in February) but it was not a statistically valid survey. Because it’s not statistically valid, it’s easy for a group, perhaps like Save Hiawatha 18, to overwhelm an online and unrestricted survey.”
No matter what ultimately happens to Hiawatha Golf Course, a solution satisfactory to all seems unlikely given the many competing interests. But the end of the controversy is still not in sight: “I will debate with anybody at the Park Board level and the city level,” said Dean of the importance of preserving Hiawatha’s place in local Black history, describing it as more than a golf course.
“It is a gathering place that has a golf course on it.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.