Pond-Dakota Mission Park

Leave a Comment / By /
Pond Dakota Mission Park, Bloomington Minnesota

Address: 401 East 104th Street, Bloomington, MN , 55420
Upcoming Events: Jump to Pond-Dakota Mission Park Events

Website: Pond-Dakota Mission Park
Phone: (952) 484-0477
Open House Hours: Saturdays 1-4pm.

Pond-Dakota Mission Park is 40 acre Bloomington park on the bluffs of the Minnesota River and is open every day from dawn to 10 pm. It is built on the grounds of a former mission founded by brothers, Gideon and Samuel Pond. While Saturdays are the best day to visit if you are interested in the historical and cultural significance of the land, families can visit the park and explore the grounds any day.

Trying on clothes from the 1900s at a Sunday Open House at Pond-Dakota Mission Park

The Agnes and Gideon Pond House

The historic 1856 Gideon and Agnes Pond House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, sits in the park. Run by the Pond Dakota Heritage Society and the City of Bloomington, the park is an education site that works to preserve the rich history of and explore contrasting cultural and religious viewpoints of the early Minnesota settlers, the Christian missionaries and the Dakota people of the mid-nineteenth century.

Saturday Open Houses at the Pond House

The Pond House is open on Saturdays from 1 – 4pm. The weekly open houses often have special living-history themes and are very family friendly; we track these on our Family Fun Calendar.

Self-guided tours

Visitors who would like to learn more about this park’s history can follow the walking trails in the park and read interpretive signs describing the history of the Dakota in the Minnesota River Valley, and Gideon and Samuel Pond.

The Gideon and Agnes Pond House at Pond-Dakota Mission Park
Image used with permission courtesy of Bloomington Parks and Recreation

Maple syrup programs

Like many parks in the Twin Cities area, Pond Dakota offers maple syrup programs each March. Learn about the process of making maple syrup with hands-on activities at the park. Each year we collect activities from around the Twin Cities in our article: Maple Syruping with Kids in the Twin Cities.

Variety of maple syrup products at the Pond House in Bloomington, Minnesota

Annual River Rendezvous at Pond-Dakota Mission Park

Each fall Bloomington celebrates the Pond history with River Rendezvous, a living history event that employers over 40 costumed reenactors to provide demonstrations and encourage hands-on participation of the visitors. Families can interactively learn about 19th century pioneer life and trades, Native American life including dance performances, frontier farming, the fur trade, wilderness skills, and fun & games.  For more information call Bloomington Parks and Recreation at 952-563-8693.

Dakota Language summer camps

Each summer Pond Dakota hosts a summer program teaching the Dakota language to anyone who wants to learn – kids and adults. It is one of the more affordable summer camp programs in our annual guide

Further study for history-loving families

For families who would like to learn more about the Pond Family, there are several local options for studying the historic pond house, Native American history in Hennepin County and Pond family:

  • You may want to start on the Pond Dakota website where they go into detail about the lives of Gideon Pond and his brother Samuel. You can also find instructions how to make your own frontier toys, an animal fur identification challenge and print an animal track bingo game to play at Pond Dakota or anywhere,
  • The Minnesota History Center’s library has boxes full of documents related to the Pond family
  • Minneapolis Central Library has a copy of the book, Two Volunteer Missionaries Among the Dakotas, Or, The Story of the Labors of Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond in its 4th Floor special collection for use in the library only. We also link below to the book through our Bookshop store.

More information

Related content

Upcoming Family-Friendly Events


Fun Past Events We Hope to See Again


Please Note: FamilyFunTwinCities.com is an independent website run by Twin Cities families for Twin Cities families. We attempt to include the information we find most essential as parents. We make every effort to keep up with changes. However, we are not employed by or connected to this venue, and information sometimes changes without our knowledge. We recommend calling or checking the venue’s website for up-to-date information.

No. 193

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top