Thank Ole for county park

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

LAKE HANSKA TOWNSHIP --Thank Ole for Lake Hanska County Park.

No, seriously.

Had it not been for Ole Systenby, a Norwegian immigrant and nature freak, the oaks, tamaracks, pine, spruces and cedars that provide picnickers and swimmers with all that nice shade wouldn't be where they still are today.

And Lake Hanska County Park might not have been a place to visit on Sunday, either.

Twenty-five years ago, county officials decided to establish Systenby's land as a county park. They named it Lake Hanska County Park. The park sits on the northern shore of the lake.

Lake Hanska is the largest body of water in Brown County and the park has a total of 140 acres of land. Lake Hanska County Park was Brown County's first such endeavor. Lost Dog and Fox Hunters, Treml and Mound Creek county parks followed.

The lake's name is a Dakota word meaning "long water". Lake Hanska was a favorite Dakota spot and Dakota burial mounds were discovered in the park during a search for gravel in 1900. The burial mounds today are considered a state archeaological site. Some 245 skulls were discovered during excavation.

Systenby came to Brown County in 1873 and bought the land that comprises most of the park from two Irish guys named Devine and Casey in 1879. He was once a Brown County commissioner, the mayor of Hanksa and a columnist for the Hanska Herald He also wrote a book about his early experiences.

Legend has it that he was so lonely for his home in Norway that he went up to Walker, Minn., and brought a bunch trees back with him in the early 1900s. He and his children went to work planting and many of those trees still stand in the park today.

The park also houses the cabin that Systenby's relatives built in the 1850s on the edge of Omsrud Lake and later moved to the park in the late 1980s.

In the early days, Ole's property was called Fort Hill Park, so named because Fort Hanska, a Dakota Conflict-era Army outpost was built there on a knob overlooking the lake in 1863. Soldiers of the time liked Fort Hanska because they could go fishing and swimming and the fort's position on the top of the hill allowed them to see for miles around.

The park was first opened to the public in 1904. Ole offered rides on Lake Hanska on a 20-foot gasloine-powered boat called the Hiawatha.Ole also had an amusement park just up the hill from the beach that featured a coffeehouse, a concession stand and a pavillion for rollerskating and dancing. The amusement park was torn down in 1927.

The idea of making Ole's land into a state park started as early as 1928. Yvonne Bloomquist, a Hanska Township native and member of the Lake Hanska Area Association, said many locals tried to get the land designated a Minnesota state park in the 1930s but efforts failed when the state said there wasn't enough land to qualify.

Fast-forward to 1978, when Brown County decided to make the old Fort Hill Park into Lake Hanska County Park after years of deterioration. Bloomquist said she remembers the dedication ceremony, for which 1,000 people came.

"I grew up around here," said Bloomquist, a decendant of the Omsruds, for whom Omsrud Lake is named. "And we swam and had lots of picnics. This was the place to come on Sundays."