Cities along the river, including Mankato, New Ulm, St. Peter and Le Sueur, have since that time built new and improved sewage treatment plants that dramatically reduce phosphorus and other pollutants that enter the river.

Rediscovering the river

“What I’ve noticed is more people are focused on the river in the past decade,” said Carrie Jennings with the Minnesota Geological Survey.

She and others who have watched the river’s progress say that besides on-the-ground projects that have improved the river, the biggest benefit of the increased attention has been a renewed interest in the waterway.

Jennings has done extensive research on the river valley and often leads classes and tours of the rock formations along the river. “I see more people on the river now.”

She said the various groups that work on river improvement are joining forces. “There was a river summit in New Ulm a few years ago that was great. There were a lot of groups who were getting on the same page.”

That summit, in 2005, created the Minnesota River Watershed Alliance. The group meets four times a year and encourages landowners to get involved with river improvement projects.

Patrick Moore, who leads one of the most active and oldest Minnesota River conservation groups — CURE — said technology has connected people along the river.

“When we started 17 years ago, it was hard to get people together beyond your own community. But now with the Internet and e-mail, all these people all along the river who care about it are connected.

“It’s a lot easier to coordinate things and focus on issues. It’s changed things a lot.”

Getting them on the water

Leonard believes people appreciate and feel connected to the river — when they think about it.

“The river isn’t something we think about on a daily basis,” he said.

“I would like to see communities along the river to think of the river more on a daily basis and to treat it as an asset and not just something we have to get across.”

He thinks, in fact, it is the most obvious thing that can set river communities apart from others in the state or the Midwest.