Crowds at the Speed Skating Rink at Powderhorn Park, 1944
From City of Parks by David C. Smith:
“The 1936 Olympic speed-skating trials at Powderhorn Park were poorly attended due to subzero weather, but in other years skating meets at the park drew huge crowds….Ken Bartholomew of Powderhorn was national champion in 1940. When the winter Olympic trials were held again at Powderhorn in 1948, four of the nine U.S. team members were from Minneapolis, including Bartholomew,”(page 145).
“In 1962 the park board moved the speed-skating track from Powderhorn Park, which had experienced record-low water levels, to Lake Harriet. The U.S. Olympic Trials were held on the Lake Harriet track in 1963, and Minneapolis skaters Tom Gray and Marie Lawler made the Olympic team,” (page167).
