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All the United States Minnesota Monticello Swan Park
AO Edited

Swan Park

Thousands of majestic trumpeter swans fill this park, sounding distinctly like a certain brass instrument.

Monticello, Minnesota

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Sierra Fontana
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Swan Park.   GREG RYAN / Alamy
Swans in Swan Park.   Martha W McQuade
Swan facts.   johnurbanski / Atlas Obscura User
Swans.   codewordsierra / Atlas Obscura User
Sign describing the discontinuation of the swan feeding program   collinqburke / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Every winter, thousands of trumpeter swans flock to this patch of the Mississippi River. The noise they make is so distinct, it sounds similar to seventh-graders in band practice.

About 2,000 trumpeter swans typically arrive in the area during November. They spend the cold winter months floating and swimming within this section of the Mississippi River, which remains mostly unfrozen because the water is heated from a nuclear generating plant upstream. The beautiful white birds cover the water in clusters of feathered bodies and stay until the lakes thaw and the snow melts from the fields in the spring.

This park hasn’t always been the swans’ go-to winter destination. A pair of trumpeter swans was released in the area in the 1980s as part of a plan to help preserve the species. After more and more were released, a local woman named Sheila Lawrence began feeding them from her backyard (along with the ducks and geese that lived nearby). As time went on and the population grew, the swans realized this particular spot was a great place to grab some easy grub.

Lawrence, who was lovingly nicknamed the “Swan Lady,” took to tossing the birds buckets of corn every year until she passed away in 2011. Her husband Jim Lawrence carried on the tradition in her honor until 2020 when the practice of feeding the swans was discontinued.

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codewordsierra

Edited By

collinqburke, Kerry Wolfe, johnurbanski

  • collinqburke
  • Kerry Wolfe
  • johnurbanski

Published

May 31, 2018

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Sources
  • http://www.monticellocci.com/pages/Swans
  • https://chambermaster.blob.core.windows.net/userfiles/UserFiles/chambers/1243/CMS/Swans/Swans2017-proof.pdf
Swan Park
117 Mississippi Dr
Monticello, Minnesota
United States
45.29725, -93.771175
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