Why You Should Go...

The park is located just east of downtown St. Paul, along the east side of the Mississippi River. The park features 450 million-year-old limestone and sandstone bluffs, spring-fed wetlands, excellent bird watching opportunities, rich Native American history, and beautiful views of the downtown skyline and Mississippi River.

An outdoor classroom, apiary, and interpretative markers provide added educational opportunities.

After a century of industrial use, the land lay vacant and blighted until a coalition of East Side and Lowertown residents (The Lower Phalen Creek Project), with the help of the City, launched an effort to purchase the land and transform it into a 27-acre Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. Stormwater that previously flowed into the Mississippi River via storm sewers is now recaptured by native plants and is stored in three separate clear water ponds and adjacent wetlands.

Why You Should Go...

The park is located just east of downtown St. Paul, along the east side of the Mississippi River. The park features 450 million-year-old limestone and sandstone bluffs, spring-fed wetlands, excellent bird watching opportunities, rich Native American history, and beautiful views of the downtown skyline and Mississippi River.

An outdoor classroom, apiary, and interpretative markers provide added educational opportunities.

After a century of industrial use, the land lay vacant and blighted until a coalition of East Side and Lowertown residents (The Lower Phalen Creek Project), with the help of the City, launched an effort to purchase the land and transform it into a 27-acre Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. Stormwater that previously flowed into the Mississippi River via storm sewers is now recaptured by native plants and is stored in three separate clear water ponds and adjacent wetlands.

What You Should Know...

Open: Year-Round

Cost: Free

Access: Public Transportation, Service Animals, Pets, Bicycle

There is no access to the Mississippi River from Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary due to the railroads still in use. The park provides nice views of the Saint Paul skyline upriver.

Turkey vultures, bald eagles, and redtail hawks soar along the sandstone bluffs and many songbirds and other migrants flood through here in spring and fall.

Site remediation and stabilization work is ongoing. Today, project partners are restoring the land's ecology and working with Dakota people to interpret Carver's Cave/Waken Tipi, a sacred area in a corner of the sanctuary.

This was also the site of the North Star Brewery built in 1853. The brewery was later bought by Jacob Schmidt, a famous name in Minnesota brewing history.

The park us a significant site for Native Americans. Wakan Tipi (Spirit House), a cave, is located in the sandstone bluff that rims the north edge of the park. The cave still exists, but access isn't possible.

The area was largely abandoned in the 1970s, until being made a Saint Paul park in 2005.