Excelsior

Excelsior founder Robert McGrath

I recently read a comment on my Facebook in which the writer described Deephaven and Excelsior as "the suburbs". The guy was an New Urbanist advocate, and commented quite frankly that; "The problem with the suburbs is that they are filled with suburbanites". I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Truth is, Excelsior is an historic old town by any Minnesota standard. Deephaven too.

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1852 - The beginnings. A large man burst into the St. Charles Hotel in St. Paul. He was carrying a musket and was dressed like a hunter.The office was filled with people interested in the newly opened territory (the Traverse de Sioux had been signed). He tossed down his trophy - a large white pelican. "I have been with two or three gentlemen into a country about 20 miles west of St. Anthony to visit a lake the Indians call Minnetonka (big water). I am going back east to interest a few of my friends to come out this spring and begin a settlement on the shores of the lake."