{"id":158,"date":"2014-11-04T13:13:59","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T19:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.28.89.84\/~cchs2\/wpcchs\/?p=158"},"modified":"2014-11-12T21:34:09","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T03:34:09","slug":"seminary-fen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carvercountyhistoricalsociety.org\/wpcchs\/history-topics\/seminary-fen\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminary Fen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seminary Fen is located between the cities of Chaska and Chanhassen, just across the river from Shakopee. In the twenty-first century, the site is a rare wetland, but the site was used long before the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) took control in 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

The history of Seminary Fen begins with the sulfur springs on the site. When Dr. Henry P. Fischer moved to the Shakopee area in 1894, he became interested in the sulfur springs and in 1908, he and his wife bought the land. That same year, Fischer teamed up with Dr. Timothy Larson of Jordan and F.W. Goodrich of Eden Prairie to form the Shakopee Mineral Springs Co. The Fischer\u2019s then sold the land to the company but remained living on site. Dr. Fischer continued with the company until it was sold in 1951.<\/p>\n

In November 1908, construction began on a sanatorium on the site. It was a health spa, a place to learn to stay well, not a hospital. The site was originally named the Swastika Sulpher Springs Sanitarium, after the symbol that meant life, power, strength, and good luck. However, the name was changed long before Germany\u2019s Adolf Hitler gave a negative connotation to the word \u201cswastika\u201d. The sanatorium was known as Mudcura by the time the site officially opened in July of 1909. The only thing left behind of the earlier name was a decorative swastika symbol in the main office. The name Mudcura came from the mud baths and mud wraps thought to cure diseases that were given on site.<\/p>\n

Mudcura\u2019s main building included twenty-seven bedrooms for up to fifty guests, a cigar and newsstand, a smoking room, and a barbershop. Patients stayed for days or weeks, visiting one-three times a year. Mud baths and baths in the springs treated arthritis, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, asthma, skin or nervous diseases, kidney problems, and alcoholism. One treatment was to lie on a rattan bed covered from the neck down in heated mud, followed by a massage and wrap in a cool blanket. Other treatments included drinking sulfur water or electric treatments. The rest of the visit was spent relaxing in leisure activities like walks or lawn sports. Records show patients from all over Minnesota, and Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Saskatchewan, Canada.<\/p>\n

In 1951, the sanatorium was sold to the Black Franciscans, Order of Friars Minor Conventual, from Louisville, Kentucky. They named it Assumption Seminary and the site became linked with both the Colleges of St. Catherine and St. Thomas in St. Paul. The Seminary remained in operation until 1970. After that, the property changed hands many times, but remained abandoned. Many legends about the site being haunted sprang up. At times religious music was faintly heard inside the building. However, there is an explanation for this. Across the street are two transmission towers for a Christian radio station, and on foggy nights, the water pipes in the building would pick up the radio signal and transmit it audibly at a low level within the building. On November 8, 1997, a fire broke out at the site, destroying all remaining structures. It is believed the fires were set intentionally, to destroy this haunted \u201cHell House.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the twenty-first century, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has control of the site, still named for Assumption Seminary, as a Scientific and Natural Area (SNA). Seminary Fen is a calcareous fen within a larger wetland complex. Calcareous fens are a special type of wetland that can occur only at the base of slopes or bluffs, where cool , mineral-rich groundwater appears as springs. Water charged with minerals comes to the surface, then saturates and helps maintain thick layers of peat created by the decomposition of the plants that grow in the oxygen-poor water. Seminary Fen\u2019s groundwater drains into Assumption Creek. The cold, clear waters of the creek form one of the Twin Cities metro area\u2019s last surviving trout streams and flow from the fen to the Minnesota River just a mile away. A calcareous fen is Minnesota’s rarest wetland type. Fewer than five hundred survive in the world and Seminary Fen is one of the last remaining fens of this quality. It is home to many threatened and endangered plant species.<\/p>\n

Turning Point:<\/strong> The formation of the Swastika Sulpher Springs Sanitarium at the Seminary Fen site in 1909 begins the history of Seminary Fen as a health and wellness destination, spanning four decades of patients from around the world.<\/p>\n

Chronology:<\/strong><\/p>\n