Settlers on Nine Mile Creek
When I say settlers, I’m not referring to the Lakota Village that was located on Nine Mile Creek, or to William McAfee and his family who built a grist mill on Nine Mile Creek at about 104th Street in 1877. The mill operated until around 1914 when it was dismantled leaving a mill pond behind.
My settlers story remembers Dr. Robert H. Bugenstein and Pat Bugenstein who lived on the west side of the creek, very close to the site of the McAfee Mill.
Dr. Bugenstein was from Cedar Rapids, IA. He graduated from medical school at Iowa State Unuversity and was a pediatrician at Bloomington Oxboro Clinic for 42 years. I suspect some of you entered the world under his supervision!
Dr. Bugenstein and Pat were well known in the community and raised their family in their beautifully situated house on the Creek near the McAfee Mill site.
On July 23-24, 1987, severe thunderstorms, high winds and prolonged extreme rainfall caused the most significant flash-flooding ever observed in the area. The great “Twin Cities Superstorm" of July 1987 caused large amounts of damage in the creek valley. The lubricating rain and undercutting creek banks caused several large land slips along the creek from Penn Avenue south to 106th Street. Huge lot-sized sections of the sandy slopes, including trees growing on them, slid down into the creek.The Bugenstein’s bridge that carried them to Humboldt Avenue washed away. For nearly two years the Bugensteins persisted in living in the house. They carried in supplies and groceries using steep trails to 105th Street. They carried their waste back out - summer and winter.
The City and Nine Mile Creek Watershed District developed plans to restore the valley and creek. Many public hearings followed. The plans included a trail and steel bridges following the creek from Penn Avenue to the Minnesota River. Testimony passionately from debated whether there should be a trail, should it be paved or gravel surface, how wide should the trail be? Sound familiar?
As the plan moved toward implementation, Bugensteins saw their best option would be to sell their beloved home to the City. You can still tell where the house was - on a sweeping creek bend just before the creek starts to descend a steeper section of riffles or rapids leading to the 106th Street Bridge over the creek. Some of the pine trees Bugensteins planted rise as tall sentinels looking over the Creek. I like to rest on the green bench there and remember them.