Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary (Minneapolis, Minn.), creator.

The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, located in Theodore Wirth Park (first known as Saratoga Park (1889-1890) and later as Glenwood Park (1890-1938)) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1907. Known at that time as the Minneapolis Wild Botanic Garden, the preserve was the culmination of the efforts of four high school botany teachers who, concerned with the impact of the growing city on nature, wished to create a resource through which they could give their students the opportunity to make first hand observations of the native flora of the region. Foremost among these instructors was Eloise Butler, a teacher in the Minneapolis schools since 1874. In 1911 Butler became the garden's first curator with a salary of $50.00 per month, paid jointly by the Minneapolis Park Board and the Minneapolis Woman's Club.

The first of its kind in the country, Butler's garden project was different because it was wild. Rather than creating traditional flower beds, carefully cultivating and pruning, Butler intended to interfere as little as possible with the plants. She tried to provide for them an environment as close as possible to that from which each came. In addition the garden was to host only the native flora of Minnesota. The unique garden soon became the object of many school field trips, girl and boy scout outings, and the like. In 1949 the garden's annual report recorded 43,000 visitors. By 1966 that number had increased to 150,000, including 71 elementary school classes and 24 high school, adult, and non-academic children's groups.

During her lifetime, the garden was Butler's project and her personal mission. As curator, Butler personally conducted visitors through the grounds and was said to keep some of her most prized additions to the garden in a hidden section which she showed only to favored visitors. In 1929 the garden was renamed the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden in her honor. After Butler's death in 1933 while at work in the garden, the curatorship was taken over by her friend and assistant, Martha Crone. Under Crone's care the garden continued to thrive and many new threatened species were added. Due to the generosity of one of the garden's most devoted benefactors, Clinton Odell, the fenced area was expanded and the curator's salary increased. Odell, a former botany student of Butler's and the creator of the famous Burma Shave signs, was also the founder of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., in 1952. Crone's successor, Kenneth Avery, introduced a number of new management practices including controlled prairie burns and the keeping of detailed phenology records noting the first and last bloom dates for each plant species. Following Crone's retirement in 1959, the Park Board dropped the position of curator, replacing it with the position of head gardener in an effort to bring the Butler garden into line with other city parks and gardens. Avery served in this position from 1959 until 1987, when Cary George took over. Other notable changes in the garden have included the erection of the Martha E. Crone Shelter to serve as an office and visitor center (1969) and, in 1984, the addition of a naturalist program. That the relatively secluded location of the garden and its wildness made it a haven for many varieties of birds was recognized since the garden's early years. In recognition of this fact, the garden was renamed the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary in 1969.

Eloise Butler was born on August 3, 1851 on a farm in the town of Appleton, Maine. Her interest in things botanical began as a child when she and her sister Cora were taught to identify plants by an aunt. After completing high school in Lynn, Massachusetts and attending the Eastern State Normal School in Castine, Maine, Butler began what was to be a 38-year career as a teacher, primarily of high school botany. In 1874 Butler moved to Minneapolis, to teach at Center School. In the years until her retirement from teaching in 1911, Butler also taught at that city's Central and South high schools. During her years as a teacher she continued to pursue her own studies in science, taking courses at the University of Minnesota. Her early research concentrated on desmids, a kind of freshwater algae. In 1882 she identified three new species, two of which were eventually named after her.

With the emphasis on scientific observation that is evident in her personal studies, it is not surprising that Butler felt keenly the lack of resources available to her botany students. What began as an effort to provide a needed teaching tool for students soon grew into a second career for Butler. Four years after the founding of the Minneapolis Wild Botanic Garden in 1907, Butler was appointed curator by Theodore Wirth, who was then superintendent of parks in Minneapolis. Her duties and accomplishments included a topographical survey of the grounds and a detailed catalog of the flora then growing in the preserve, the expansion of the garden to include diverse environments such as a bog and a pond, the collection and transplanting of hundreds of plants native to Minnesota, many of which were threatened, as well as conducting visitors through the gardens. In addition to her activities as curator Butler wrote a regular column for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper focusing on city gardens.

On April 10, 1933, Butler died of a heart attack while at work in the garden. According to her wishes, her ashes were scattered in the garden.

Martha Crone was born in 1894 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While her formal schooling ended in the eighth grade, she continued to cultivate an interest in botany and horticulture throughout her life, particularly after meeting Eloise Butler in 1921. Avid members of the Minnesota Mycological Society, Crone and her husband William shared with Butler an interest in mushrooms and often used their mushroom-hunting excursions as opportunities to collect plants for the garden. Crone became Butler's first assistant and took over the curatorship of the Wild Botanic Garden in 1933 after Butler's death.

Among Crone's many achievements in the garden were the addition of wild ferns and orchids and the transplanting of a rare wild poinsettia shortly before the last patch was destroyed near New Ulm, Minnesota in the late 1940s. While Butler's contributions to her field went largely unrecognized by her peers, Crone succeeded in bringing the garden into the spotlight. In 1951 Crone was recognized by fellow plant experts as one of the finest botanists in the country. In 1956 she was awarded a bronze medal for achievement in horticulture from the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

In 1952, with the founding of the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc., Crone added to her duties the jobs of secretary and editor of the Friends' newsletter, The Fringed Gentian . During the winter months when the garden was closed, Crone promoted the garden and the study of botany through her work at the Minneapolis Public Library Science Museum. Even after her retirement in 1959, Crone remained actively involved through the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, serving as editor of the newsletter until 1971. In recognition of her contributions the Friends sponsored the erection of a visitors' center and office, named the Martha E. Crone Shelter. Crone died at age 95 in Minneapolis.

The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden was founded in 1952 by Martha Crone and Clinton Odell as a nonprofit corporation for the purpose of development, preservation, and support of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden. Over the years the group has provided volunteers to work in the garden and financial support for a variety of projects including maintenance, a plant inventory, the purchase of plant materials, signage, publicity, educational and research grants, and the building of the Martha E. Crone Shelter. The group has published its quarterly newsletter, The Fringed Gentian, continuously since 1953.

Biographical and historical data were taken from the collection and from Martha E. Hellander's biography, The Wild Gardener: The Life and Selected Writings of Eloise Butler (North Star Press of St. Cloud, 1992).

From the guide to the Organizational records., 1878-2012., (Minnesota Historical Society)