EXCELSIOR, Minn. — An old steamboat left on the bottom of Lake Minnetonka nearly 100 years ago is ready to sail again, after an exhaustive effort to bring her back to former glory.
Tom Sweeney and his crew at BoatArt Classic Boat Restorations in Lake St. Croix Beach have been toiling on the steamboat Minnehaha for most of the summer, trying to bring the old ship back to life. It is just the latest chapter in the storied life of a boat launched on Lake Minnetonka back in 1906 to carry passengers across the big lake due to a lack of roads and infrastructure.
One of six ships built and commissioned to shuttle streetcar passengers, the Minnehaha measured 70 feet in length, had a beam (width) of nearly 15 feet and weighed 55 tons. She was decommissioned in 2026 after the road system improved and automobiles became more prevalent. Crews stripped the big boat of its engine, boiler and other parts and the hull was sunk in the middle of Lake Minnetonka, along with the rest of the fleet.
Fast forward to 1979 when a salvage operation brought the Minnehaha back to the surface. The Minnehaha was lovingly restored and relaunched on Lake Minnetonka in 1995.
Time is hard on wooden boats. By 2024 she was ready for another major restoration, and Sweeney was up for the task. After being hired by the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society, the crew used old-world methods, giving new life to every frame, plank and seam.
After nearly 1,000 hours of work, the Minnehaha is ready to sail again but there is another obstacle that looms. Sweeney says due to the boat's size and draft - the distance from the waterline to the boat's bottom - they need a ramp to launch it that has special characteristics. Namely, it has to be particularly long, nearing 200 feet.
The location previously used to launch the Minnehaha and pull her out was a private ramp that is no longer available.