Father Hennepin State Park occupies a 320-acre site on the southeast corner of Mille Lacs Lake, valued for its long sandy shoreline, campsites, and varied habitat of ponds, streams, and woodland. It is named for Father Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan priest who traveled through the region in 1680 and became the first to write extensively about its lakes, landscapes, and the Mdewakanton Dakota after his captivity and release during that journey. The park was established much later, authorized by Minnesota in 1941 after local and Catholic advocacy, but it remained largely undeveloped until 1953. Today it serves both recreation and remembrance of the region’s early written history.