“Sylvan” is a Latin word that means “woods.” That fits well here. Early Lanesboro planners had New England backgrounds and were used to having parks or “commons” in their villages. That fits well here, too.

That wasn’t always true. Across Parkway Avenue, the Root River flows over the Stone Dam. In Lanesboro’s early days, the river used to actually run through Sylvan Park. That created problems. Floods, for one. (An early school here got moved to the top of Church Hill because of high water). In the 1870s and the 1930s, the flow of the Root was directed away from the Park. The two popular fishing ponds still in Sylvan Park are shadows of that earlier reality.

Sylvan’s history includes periods when it was used as a pasture for cows and sheep. Winter meant ice-skating on its ponds. The Park is home to historical treasures, too, like the log cabin built in the 1920s by Lanesboro’s chapter of the Izzak Walton League, a still-active conservation group. Remnants of the “Bunny Trail” at the base of the bluff rising towards Church Hill remind us that generations of Lanesboro kids hiked that trail daily to get to school. (Some did it twice to come home for lunch!) Look for an original grinding stone from an early Lanesboro mill embedded in the Park’s lawn.

Sylvan Park is a place to relax and play, enjoy a picnic, do some camping, go fishing. It also hosts events (family reunions, concerts, and more) and festivals (the Rhubarb Festival--first Saturday in June, Art-in- the-Park (the day before Father’s Day), and Buffalo Bill Days (first weekend in August). The addition of “Legion Lights” holiday decorations in 2024 has transformed Sylvan Park into an attractive winter destination.

Creating a special place for people of all ages to gather, relax and play was an early Lanesboro dream. That dream more comes true in Sylvan Park!