The Minnesota River may not be a daily focus for many, but it identifies those who live near it.

“The river weaves its way into most all of our history,” said Ben Leonard, director of the Nicollet County Historical Society.

“When people do stop and think about it, I think the river means a lot to the soul of the people and the communities. I think that resonates with people.”

The 325-mile-long river is often out of sight and mind for those who live and work near it. Much of it meanders deep into the woods, quiet and out of sight. When it’s visible along the river towns, it’s often not a focal point — hidden by flood walls, a place to pass over via bridge.

But every few years, when the tributaries from the Pomme de Terre to the Blue Earth release torrents of water, the Minnesota River takes center stage, flooding communities and demanding respect.

10 years later

For much of the 20th century, the Minnesota — once called the “Forgotten River” — was neglected, treated as a place to dump trash, chemicals and get rid of water from the landscape.

But that changed in the 1990s when the Minnesota gained state and national attention and became the focus of the nation’s largest river reclamation project.

Those who are closely connected to and study the river say many indicators show improvement in the past decade or so, while many goals for improving it remain unmet.

The Minnesota had been labeled as one of the dirtiest rivers in the United States. The river still carries high loads of dirt particles that produce a variety of problems all the way to the ocean.

The fertilizer, human waste and other nutrients carried along with that dirt flows down the Mississippi and adds significantly to the so-called Dead Zone at the Gulf of Mexico, where plants and aquatic life are unable to live.

The dirt from the Minnesota River is also the top cause of sediment loading in Lake Pepin.

In 1992, then Gov. Arne Carlson stood on the banks of the Minnesota at Mankato and unveiled an ambitious plan to clean up the river within 10 years. The high-powered political focus brought hundreds of millions of dollars of federal and state money and honed attention on improving the massive watershed that drains much of southern Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program pumped more than $200 million into the basin to purchase more than 100,000 acres of sensitive land along the river to restore it to grass and prevent erosion.

It made it the nation’s largest river restoration project.

Cities along the river, including Mankato, New Ulm, St. Peter and Le Sueur, have since that time built new and improved sewage treatment plants that dramatically reduce phosphorus and other pollutants that enter the river.

Rediscovering the river

“What I’ve noticed is more people are focused on the river in the past decade,” said Carrie Jennings with the Minnesota Geological Survey.

She and others who have watched the river’s progress say that besides on-the-ground projects that have improved the river, the biggest benefit of the increased attention has been a renewed interest in the waterway.

Jennings has done extensive research on the river valley and often leads classes and tours of the rock formations along the river. “I see more people on the river now.”

She said the various groups that work on river improvement are joining forces. “There was a river summit in New Ulm a few years ago that was great. There were a lot of groups who were getting on the same page.”

That summit, in 2005, created the Minnesota River Watershed Alliance. The group meets four times a year and encourages landowners to get involved with river improvement projects.

Patrick Moore, who leads one of the most active and oldest Minnesota River conservation groups — CURE — said technology has connected people along the river.

“When we started 17 years ago, it was hard to get people together beyond your own community. But now with the Internet and e-mail, all these people all along the river who care about it are connected.

“It’s a lot easier to coordinate things and focus on issues. It’s changed things a lot.”

Getting them on the water

Leonard believes people appreciate and feel connected to the river — when they think about it.

“The river isn’t something we think about on a daily basis,” he said.

“I would like to see communities along the river to think of the river more on a daily basis and to treat it as an asset and not just something we have to get across.”

He thinks, in fact, it is the most obvious thing that can set river communities apart from others in the state or the Midwest.

“If we just want to become a Maplewood or something, we’re nothing special. If St. Peter and Mankato and Henderson and the others are going to be special, it’s going to be by focusing on our own history. We have a whole lot of history, and it’s tied to the river.”

Leonard said a start would be to make it easier for people to see and enjoy the river through river walks, river bike trails and promoting more canoe trips and other river events.

Curt Fisher, a longtime Mankato developer, said there is a thirst for more connection to the river. Fisher, who lives along the Blue Earth River, sponsored an event a few years ago that brought large excursion boats to Sibley Park to give public tours on the Minnesota.

“I was just amazed by how many people came out and how fascinated they were with the river. You just have to get them on it.”