Behind the Victory Flagpole - Camden Pumping Station Park
By: Barbara Meyer Bistodeau 01/01/2006
Camden Pumping Station Park—that sounds like a strange name, but that’s what it was called back in the early 1900s. It was a place you could go to drink in all the beauty of the landscaping, the flowers and the trees, and make you wish that you could re-create this same scenery in your own yard!
Families went there on Sundays, dressed in their very best, to take pictures, promenade and to have picnics. They didn’t have backyard barbecues in those days like we have now. In the ‘30s and ‘40s wiener roasts, (or if you lived in St. Paul they were called pow wows), were hitting their popularity. But as you know, picnics have been popular since the Garden of Eden! And most outdoor eating was done at some picnic park or lake.
The Pumping Station Park had a stream running through it and several picturesque bridges that were good for picture taking. The Camden Creek was, in large, water from Shingle Creek. Shingle Creek originated from Palmer Lake which is at about 72nd and Oliver to Xerxes, and almost dead north of Ryan Lake. It winds down pretty much directly south to the railroad yards north of Victory Drive, then south east to the park.
Shingle Creek provided the water that ran through Camden Park and over some beautiful little falls. It also was the water that fed the old swimming pool. The final destination was to run into the Mississippi River near the Camden Bridge.
Webber Park, formerly known as Pumping Station Park and Camden Park, is much different then it used to be.
The old falls was eliminated years ago and the creek was moved behind the new library, up against the fence by the railroad tracks. The lake has shrunk in size and no longer has the creek to supply it—the creek bypasses it. With the construction of I-94, it was necessary to get the creek to flow under the freeway, so an old falls closer to the mouth of the creek was eliminated and a new falls was created upstream in the park, just before the creek flows down under the freeway. It is actually the last thing that happens before the creek leaves the park and enters the Mississippi at the same old location near the Camden Bridge.
The families in the early 1900s were lucky to have the park as it was. It brought a lot of joy to many! But time moves on, things change and it is now functional for this time and day!
Note: Kudos to Ron Manger and Jeanne Meyer Edberg for all their information on Shingle Creek and Webber Park!