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Twin City Rapid Transit Company promotional print showing the company's Lake Minnetonka attraction, Big Island Amusement Park, which operated from 1906 to 1911 on Lake Minnetonka's Big Island.
The map shows Deephaven, Hopkins, Wayzata, Orono and numerous other Lake Minnetonka communities.
Big Island Amusement Park was a popular tourist attraction on Lake Minnetonka in the first decade of the 20th century. It was originally conceived as an attraction to entice streetcar riders to the edges of the TCRT system at Excelsior.
Contemporary photographs show a beautiful park with new buildings, however the cost of operating the park and the lack of revenue in the offseason, led to the park's closure and abandonment in 1911. The remaining buildings were dismantled and the rebar melted down for the World War I production effort in 1917-18.
We assume that this a reduced-size version of a larger poster that was produced to promote the park during its initial opening. The 1907-1918 dating in the title was added upon this publication and seems intended as a kind of eulogy to the park.
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