Minnesota Goose Garden
The MGG, begun in 1988, honors the Ojibwe culture and features flora used by the Ojibwe Native Americans. Artist Susan Swerda Foss has studied the flora for over twenty nine years. The garden is in the shape of a Canadian Goose, measuring 830 feet long, and the flora is planted so that in the future when the trees reach their mature height the goose will be three dimensional. It is about two thirds of that height now. There is also a gosling of arbors, and a nest with three eggs.
Within the nearly one mile of paths, there are over thirty cement statues of full-size Totem animals and human figures. The entrance to the garden has sculptural figures of ethnographer Frances Densmore (1867-1957) and Ni’sucwe’yaci’kwe with Frances recording the use of flora from her. Ni’sucwe’yaci’kwe (Woman Blown about by the Wind, or Mrs. Jackson) was one of Frances Densmore’s interview subjects who shared her cultural knowledge. All the sculptures were made by Susan Swerda Foss and she is currently working on a new sculpture in the parking area with a 2017 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.