Cooling Off at Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis

The Minneapolis lakes must have been especially inviting in the days before air conditioning.

Lake Nokomis is one of the lakes in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The following information on Lake Nokomis is from Wikipedia:

The lake was originally named Lake Amelia in honor of Captain George Gooding’s daughter, Amelia, in 1819. Its current name was adopted in 1910 to honor Nokomis, grandmother of Hiawatha (legendary Indian hero of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha). The lake has an area of 204 acres (0.83 km2).When purchased in 1907, the lake was very shallow, only 5 feet (1.5 m) deep in the deepest spot. Much of it was actually marshland or slough -- a drainage area for the neighborhood. It was deepened by dredging to produce the current lake.

These lines are from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest.