History Express

The story of the Express Boats begins in 1905 when the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) opened a new electric streetcar route from Minneapolis to Excelsior. To serve a growing population of summer commuters and tourists and complementing the streetcar schedules in the Lake Minnetonka area, the TCRT had Wayzata boat builder Royal Moore design six identical Express Boats. They were painted yellow with interior caned seats matching their streetcar cousins. Minnehaha was the first to be launched onto Lake Minnetonka in May 1906, followed by Como, Harriet, Hopkins, Stillwater and White Bear. For nearly two decades, the Express Boats served over 200,000 riders annually with slight dips during the influenza pandemic and WWI years.

Affordable automobiles and improved road conditions heralded the demise of the Express Boats as ridership plummeted. Service stopped at the end of the 1926 season and the Como, White Bear and Minnehaha were scuttled off Big Island. The Stillwater and Harriet were scrapped in 1927, and the Hopkins continued as an excursion boat until 1949 when she joined her sisters in their watery gravesite.

The Minnehaha was raised in 1980 and restored and returned to service in 1996, by way of an effort of over 85,000 volunteer hours and costing approximately $500,000. In October 2021, Minnehaha was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

—Liz Vandam

Discover the complete history of the Minnehaha at steamboatminnehaha.org.

Style

Piece by Piece

Jewelry designer creates intriguing boho designs with global elements.

By Mollee Francisco

AMY MOECHNIG knows there is nothing more fun than a new piece of jewelry. As a jewelry designer, she tries to up the ante for the wearer— creating pieces that are not only eye-catching, but ones that also come with a story. “Everything has a story,” she says. “It adds to the uniqueness of a piece.”

Each of Moechnig’s pieces have at least one element guaranteed to start a conversation—a silver lock from Spain, vinyl beads from Ghana, Burmese coins, a piece of buffalo horn, an Afghan bell and more. The Wayzata resident’s collection is a treasure trove of interesting, one-of-a-kind, bohemian-styled pieces that mirror her interesting, one-of-akind, bohemian-styled life.

“I named the company Seven Stone Jewelry after my seven kids,” Moechnig says, explaining that she has three children from a previous relationship, her husband has two children from a previous relationship and they had a set of twins after they were married. It was the arrival of the youngest children that put Moechnig on the path to jewelry design. After years of working corporate jobs, she stayed home with her twins and found herself getting restless. “I was still looking for jobs,” she says.

Her husband, Doug Moechnig, gently suggested that Moechnig take up a hobby to help balance her days. She mulled over his suggestion, remembering that she used to take jewelry classes at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts. The idea took hold, and she started collecting beads and pendants from around the world, quickly amassing a small jewelry arsenal. Before she knew it, Moechnig’s new hobby was taking over their Wayzata home, and her husband had changed his tune a bit. “He was saying, ‘You’ve got to start selling these,’”