St. Croix River access

When the unofficial boat launch at the NSP landing in Oak Park Heights was closed about 10 years ago, the DNR promised St. Croix River users they would find another location for a public boat launch. A site owned by the city of Stillwater fell through when the city (as usual) got greedy and demanded more money than the DNR was willing to pay. Since then, there has been little said about this. Isn’t it time that people who can’t afford to live on the river get a little more access to the St. Croix River–after all, it is a National Scenic Riverway! Any ideas or suggestions out there?

I would love another public access. I don’t launch at the Boom site bc there are waaayyyyyyy too many people there. When there is little or no people there then you seem to get the people that don’t know how to back up a trailer or load a boat. Personally I launch at a private access in Bayport but that is 8 bucks every time that I launch. I don’t mind paying that much because the launch is nice and neat and then you have a person watching your vehicle while you are on the river. If I am not mistaken, I think that you can launch on the andersen launch for free but there is no parking so if you only have one person then you are out of luck. I would like to see a launch put in right in front of Brothers Bait, just south of Stillwater. Again though there will not be enough parking near by unless Iples sells the land. Don’t see that happening though. That seems to be the only place that I can think of between stillwater and Bayport to put in a launch. Most of the rest of the land is private owners. For some reason I think that things will not change anytime soon. Atleast until the new bridge is built.

I am sure that Turk will have a few things to say about this subject. What do you think Turk???

Happy Holidays gang!

The fact that Lake Minnetonka has more than 12 public launches and the St. Croix has on MN side has 2 from Prescott to the high bridge is confounding. I do not count the Andersen lauch one since there is no immediate parking.

I’ve really just gotten used to it, kind of sad how things just get swallowed and accepted. Since 1999 I’ve made Beanies my home as it’s fast to the Bayport “pool” and Afton and further south.

A simple easy soluiton is to have the DNR buy up 30 spots from the Andersen Parking lot and Wha-La, there would be a new ramp! We all know that the DNR will readily sell public lands to Andersen Corporation to accomidate a new factory, that Andersens then after four years turns around and sells the land to a developer for millions, another story…

That’s my solution and 2 cents.

Keep catchin’

Turk