Minnesota Prairie Roots

RED WING HAS BARN BLUFF. Winona has Sugar Loaf Bluff. And Faribault has City View Park.

Now a park may not sound as impressive as a bluff. But the view from City View Park on my community’s east side is pretty spectacular. Plus, driving or walking to the street level location is much easier than climbing a bluff, making the park easily accessible to all.

I consider this park one of Faribault’s best kept secrets. It provides a sweeping view of the valley with local landmarks poking through the landscape. Like the clock tower on Shumway Hall at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. Or buildings on the campus of the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. Seeing those steepled and towering buildings conveys a sense of history in a community rich in historic structures.

From this hilltop location, the land unfolds, touches the sky, connects to a beautiful city below. Any season of the year, this park offers a lovely vista. I’ve picnicked at City View Park in three seasons. Watched fireworks here on the Fourth of July. And in the winter photographed the most stunning sunsets. Orange. Pink. Red. Yellow.

I am, by birth, a flatlander, a daughter of the southwestern Minnesota prairie. There the horizon seemingly stretches into infinity across the wide open, mostly treeless landscape. That presents an ideal stage to spotlight the sun. Painterly sunrises and sunsets and the endless prairie wind are forever imprinted upon my spirit.

Since moving to Faribault some 40 years ago, I’ve lived in the valley, sunsets hidden by the hillside that rises next to my home. I miss seeing the setting sun on a daily basis as I did during my youth. Now I must intentionally seek out the blazing orange orb rather than simply looking across the farmyard.

That sometimes takes me up St. Paul Avenue to City View Park, next to the water tower and across from Trump’s Apple Orchard.

As I walk toward the edge of the hill to look across the valley, I feel small in the immensity of place. Distant landmark buildings ground me. But the view always, always fills me up with a sense of wonder at the majesty of the land, the glory of the sun, the forever of the sky.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling