McKusick Ravine

This ravine, historically known as the McKusick Ravine, was the beginning of Stillwater's settlement.

In 1842, Jacob Fisher, a former millwright from St. Croix Falls, was living in the vicinity. Exploring the countryside one day, he found what is today named McKusick Lake. He also discovered the ravine you are in today, and, in a flash of genius, realized he could funnel Brown’s Creek into the lake, and then divert water from the Lake to flow down the ravine. This water power could then be used to power a sawmill in what is today downtown Stillwater. Fisher soon sold his land claim to John McKusick who, along with three other men, formed the Stillwater Lumber Company and, using the water power flowing down this ravine, built the first sawmill in Stillwater in 1844.

In the 1850s, steam power gradually supplanted water power for the sawmills, and the mill stream running down the ravine gradually lost its usefulness. But McKusick continued to see the water power in the ravine, known as the Mill Reserve, as the impetus for an industrial park which would have changed the surrounding neighborhood greatly. It was not until 1880 that McKusick sold the ravine and adjacent property. It became a residential area, Sabin’s Addition to Stillwater.

In the 1990s, the city of Stillwater cleared the ravine of much of the undergrowth, put in a walking path, and routed water once again down the mill stream bed. Today it is one of Stillwater's nicest parks, and the most historical.

—Donald Empson

Donald Empson is the author of several Stillwater neighborhood histories and The Street Where You Live: A Guide to the Place Names of St. Paul.