City of Otsego awarded a $350,000 grant to help offset the cost
by Joni Astrup
Associate Editor
Carrick’s Waterfront Park, located along the Mississippi River near Highway 101 in Otsego, is expected to see some improvements in 2024 to enhance access to the Mississippi and capitalize on the riverside location.
Plans call for kayak and canoe access including a dock that will be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible. Other amenities will include 8-feet-wide concrete steps to the river’s edge, a picnic shelter, a deck overlooking the river, a short boardwalk, signage and new opportunities for shoreline fishing.
The riverbank will also be restored with native trees and shrubs.
Gabrielle Grinde, of HKGi, went over the details of the proposed improvements at the April 22 Otsego City Council meeting. HKGi is a landscape architecture, planning, and urban design company in Minneapolis.
After hearing the presentation, the City Council voted to approve the plans and specifications for the project and authorize a competitive bid process.
If everything goes according to plan, it’s anticipated that the bid will be awarded on May 28, with construction being done this year.
To help cover the cost of the project, the city has been awarded a $350,000 Outdoor Recreation Grant from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — the maximum grant amount available. Total project cost is estimated at approximately $768,000.
While most of the work on the park is expected to be done in 2024, Paddle Port rental stations are planned to be purchased and implemented in the spring of 2025 as a later phase of the project. Paddle Ports are self-serve kayak rental systems.
Kayaks, life jackets and paddles will be available to rent as a package, according to Parks and Recreation Director Nick Jacobs. They plan to have two tandem kayaks and six single kayaks available.
The kayaks will allow people to traverse the Mississippi from Norin Landing Park at 10599 Kadler Ave. in Otsego to Carrick’s Waterfront Park at 9050 Quantrelle Ave., according to city documents.
Improvements to Carrick’s Waterfront Park, which runs along the Mississippi just east of Guardian Angels, have been in the works for awhile. River access was identified as an opportunity for improvement in the Otsego Parks and Recreation Master Plan, according to Jacobs.
“Since 2021, we have been working on this project,” he said.
Carrick had trading post, ferry in area; son died in the Civil War
There’s some history behind the name of Carrick’s Waterfront Park in Otsego.
The following is from the Otsego Heritage Preservation Commission:
By 1850, Samuel Carrick established a trading post across the Mississippi River from what is now the town of Elk River. At the beginning, his main customers were Winnebago Indians who settled near Otsego. In 1851, Carrick claimed the land nearby for farming, which may have been the first farm by a white settler in Wright County. By 1854, he ran Carrick’s Ferry across the Mississippi near his trading post. He was so well known in the area that the open land south of his claim was known as Carrick’s Prairie.
One of his sons, also named Samuel, served as a private in Company G of the 4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, answering President Lincoln’s call for volunteers in the Civil War. As the 4th Minnesota advanced on Atlanta, Carrick was captured and sent to the rebel prison at Belle Isle, Virginia, for the winter. In the spring, he was sent to the notorious Andersonville Prison, Georgia, where he died in May 1864 at age 31. He had never married nor had children.
Carrick’s brother, James and, his nephew, George, followed him to Otsego Township, took land claims and raised families here; George opened the first farm on Carrick’s Prairie. Another brother, Eli, drowned in the west branch of the Rum River in 1852. Their brother, Charles, farmed in the Dakota Territory.
The Carrick family was originally from Maine.
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