WEEKEND: DAY THREE - SECTION FOUR
Updated: Aug 18
MOA BOUND
RECOMMENDED TIME WINDOW: 3:30pm - 4:15pm WALKING DISTANCE: .5 MILE
For those with personal cars or taking Rideshare:
Personal cars: Put “Mall of America Transit Station” into your Map App. Once at the mall, DO NOT go into the Transit Station, that is for buses and trains only. Just north of the Transit Station on 24th Ave. S is the entrance to the EAST RAMP. Take that entrance and meet back up with us on the first floor by SEA LIFE.
If you’re wanting to skip the cheaper train experience and just go with the more expensive option of Rideshare: Get picked up in the same roundabout next to Sea Salt you got dropped off in. Ask your driver to drop you off at the East Ramp. Go inside and meet back up at SEA LIFE, which is right inside the entrance.
Turn to the right of the falls and head up to the bridge spanning the falls’ top. Go up the stairs into the flat open area.
Follow the path up to a white house that seems a bit out of place.
This is the John H. Stevens House. Stevens was a settler in St. Anthony in 1849. He built the first wood frame house on the west bank of the Mississippi River (between where the present day Hennepin Avenue Bridge and the art deco Post Office stand), although it is technically the second ever house in Minneapolis, the first being the Ard Godfrey house in Northeast Minneapolis, a few blocks from St. Anthony Main. The house was relocated here in 1896 by a team of 10,000 school children “tugging on huge ropes in relay fashion”. (minneapolisparks.org).
The house was a hub of “civic and social activity, and was dubbed the ‘birthplace of Minneapolis’. In the Stevens’ home, the name ‘Minneapolis’ was chosen, Hennepin County and the Minneapolis school district were organized, and the idea for a state fair originated.” (John Harrington Stevens House Wikipedia)
In 2022, three separate fires were started on the property in three acts of arson. The house may or may not be sealed off upon our visit due to restoration.
A statue of Stevens is onsite as well.
Turn around to the street and spy the old train depot. This is called the Minnehaha Depot, aka the “Princess” Depot.
This Depot was one of three stops on the first railroad line west of the Mississippi to connect Minneapolis with Chicago. Built in 1875, it’s named “Princess” due to its “delicate gingerbread canopy” (minneapolisparks.org). This stop was used by residents as they flocked to Minnehaha Park by train on summer weekends. Passenger service ended in 1920 and remained a freight station until 1963.
Continue walking south next to the parkway.
We’ll see a pathway going up a slight hill to meet up with an extremely busy road. Take the path up to the road. The road is Hiawatha Ave.
Cross Hiawatha over to the 50th St./Minnehaha Park Station. We’ll be going southbound on the Blue Line, so be on the farther side from the park, the side closest to the Tipsy Steer.
We’re going to be catching the 3:54pm train.
The kiosks to buy tickets on the platform are fairly self-explanatory. If you’re wanting to use the train after the MOA to go back to downtown Minneapolis for nightcaps or to your hotel, I’d go with a Day Pass ($4). If you’d like to just do this once, just get a regular adult pass for $2. This is good for 2 and a half hours. The machines take cash, credit or debit cards. It’s kind of an honor system, where we can technically just get on the train without a ticket, but staff may or may not ask us for our ticket while the train is going. Better to be safe.
If we happen to miss the 3:54pm train, or we’re early, trains come through every 12 minutes.
ON THE TRAIN
The train will be coming in hot pretty quickly.
Once onboard, feel free to read the following for some information and then sit back and relax for the 20 minute ride.
This portion of the Light Rail goes to the very end of the Blue Line. It also has some really cool things that we’ll pass through.
However, there’s one landmark of note that I don’t want to butter up as it is quite dark but poignant (referred to quickly on our walk down to the Mississippi along Minnehaha Creek). Extremely relevant to current/recent events.
After we pass the Veteran’s Hospital and its concurrent train station, the tracks angle off to the left as we traverse an overpass spanning the Hwy 62 crosstown freeway.
The square dark grey building off to the left next to the freeway is the Whipple Federal Building.
This is the headquarters for ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, especially brought to public attention during Operation Metro Surge and after. It used to primarily be a Federal service building for Immigration, but it also holds the Department of Veterans Affairs, Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
This last has been cause for many protests. Even before Metro Surge, protests would occur on the regular. But protests have gotten larger and more prominent, for good reason, since the Surge began.
This is the main detention facility where suspected illegal immigrants and legal American citizens are detained. Only 25.8% of detainees have been found with any illegal conduct on their record. In February 2026, it was found that there was a “2,450% increase in people without a criminal record being detained by ICE since Trump took office in January 2025.” (Minneapolis-St.Paul Magazine) Conditions inside are extremely questionable. Most detainees spend a couple days to a week here before being let out without family or anyone to pick them up or sent to other facilities and eventually potentially deported out of the country.
It’s a controversial location with many implications on our current state of politics and democracy, to say the least. But I feel it’s good to be informed about it rather than not.
For now, we’re moving on.
(If so inclined, our Itinerary "Witness to (In)Justice" visits the sites of our two extremely brave neighbors, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, murdered by ICE agents in the winter of 2026, plus other sites of (in)justice, including George Floyd Square.)
As we approach Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, we’ll angle down into the ground, tunneling under the tarmac. We don’t have underground trains here except for this stretch, so we’re not used to these elements. It always makes me excited to come down this portion of track!
Once past Terminal 2, we'll find ourselves going past Fort Snelling National Cemetery on our left. The cemetery “covers 436.3 acres, and as of June, 2024 had over 260,000 interments”. (Fort Snelling National Cemetery Wikipedia)
Past the cemetery, we will find ourselves in the city of Bloomington. We’ll pass through a number of smaller stations, modern apartment and corporate buildings, hotels, before slowing down to a crawl, turning ever so slowly into the Mall of America Transit Station.
This is the end of the line for the train! We’ve reached the MOA!!!
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