What is the history of the land?

Watershed Area: In the past, there was a pond behind the houses on Upton, in addition to the existing Birch Pond deeper in the woods. On an old topographical map of the woods, the size and shape of this pond was labeled "water". For a mapmaker to label it as such, there would have to have been a sizable body of water.

Because the area is part of the Bassett's Creek and Birch Pond watershed it contained numerous ponds formed by groundwater flow. Below is an aerial photograph from 1939 that shows two sizable ponds and a handful of smaller bodies of standing water. The large pond on the left still exists, but at some point a child drowned in the pond on the right and the city of Minneapolis filled it in with large chunks of cement, asphalt and other debris. Pieces of this fill are clearly visible when walking through the woods, and an entire edge of the fill, 10 to 15 feet deep, is exposed behind Upton Avenue.

Older neighbors remember skiing through the area and using the pond as a swimming hole and skating rink. They also recall the water from the pond flowing across Upton, across Chestnut and through Chestnut Park, just north of Chestnut. There is still a large wetland area in this park, which, depending on rainfall, becomes a lake, swamp, or area of unmowed wetland vegetation. Chestnut Street also fills up with water in a low spot near the wetland. A large drainpipe was installed underground in the park two years ago, but the water still comes back.