Charles A. Lindbergh State Park

About this park

Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, established in 1931, sits on the Mississippi River just southwest of Little Falls, directly adjacent to the restored boyhood home of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the aviator who completed the first solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927 and whose worldwide fame brought lasting attention to this quiet central Minnesota town. The house, now operated by the Minnesota Historical Society, was built and used by the Lindbergh family primarily in summer, and Charles Jr. himself managed the surrounding farm full-time for two years before leaving for college in 1920. The park is named for the aviator's father, Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., a progressive Republican congressman who represented central Minnesota from 1907 to 1917 before losing a 1918 gubernatorial bid with backing from the Nonpartisan League. A nearby visitor center, open daily each summer, traces three generations of Lindberghs in Minnesota, and the park grounds themselves preserve a historic WPA-era picnic shelter and stone water tower, both built during the Depression using the same craftsmanship found across many of Minnesota's older state parks. Visitors can fish the Mississippi, canoe the smaller Pike Creek, or walk trails through red and white pine, oak, and remnant prairie, watching for bald eagles that frequent the river corridor each spring and fall. The historic Red River Oxcart Trail, a segment of the larger Woods Trail linking St. Paul to Pembina, North Dakota, once passed just east of the park, with Little Falls itself serving as a trading post along that route, a legacy still traceable in the county road that follows the old trail alignment today.