Big Woods Preserve - City of Wayzata

The 14 acres of the Big Woods Preserve is one of the last metro remnants of a hardwood forest which once covered all of central Minnesota. Enjoy native wildflowers in the spring and the spectacular fall beauty in a forest filled with sugar maples and basswood trees. March is a time when the sap becomes active and maple tree tapping is occasionally scheduled. The thick forest provides a buffer for the City from the adjacent Interstate 394. This 1930s Tudor Estate was preserved in 2004 by the citizens of Wayzata in partnership with private donors and The Retreat (a recovery organization that occupies the center of the 23 acre site). A rustic path invites visitors to walk through the 14-acre park.

Current educational programming includes the City’s annual maple tree tapping and Wayzata Community Education’s “Hike with a Naturalist” series.

The protected property is a remnant of the distinct regional ecosystem of Minnesota known as The Big Woods (first named les bois franc by early French explorers) which originally covered more than 3000 square miles. It was a huge and startling swath of forest surrounded by prairie and savannah. An early surveyor and geologist N.H. Winchel said in 1875 “The existence of this great spur of timber is a phenomenon in natural history of the State that challenges the scrutiny of all observers. By the 1930s most of the Big Woods had been converted to cropland and now it exists only in scattered pieces such as this one.