By the 1700s, the Dakota people inhabited the area, utilizing the lake for hunting, fishing, harvesting wild rice, and setting up maple sugar camps.

The lake holds cultural and spiritual significance for the Dakota people, with sacred sites such as Spirit Knob playing an important role in their traditions and beliefs.

European American settlement began in the 1850s, and with the advent of streetcars, trains, and steamboats, Lake Minnetonka became a nationally recognized vacation destination.

However, as resort areas developed in other parts of the country, Lake Minnetonka's national prominence as a vacation hotspot declined.

Later peoples who inhabited the area between 3500 BCE and 1500 CE are commonly referred to collectively as the "Mound Builders" because they constructed large land features serving spiritual, ceremonial, burial, and elite residential functions.

[5] The Mdewakanton, based in the Minnesota and Mississippi River valleys, used Lake Minnetonka as part of this annual cycle to hunt, fish, and gather resources like wild rice and maple sap.

[6] Big Island served as a key maple sugar camp, while Spirit Knob, a peninsula near present-day Wayzata, holds spiritual significance for the Dakota as an offering site.

[8][9] During the Treaty of Mendota negotiations, the brother of Chief Shakopee II asserted that Lake Minnetonka should be included within their Dakota reservation boundaries.

[12][13] The first white Americans known to have visited Lake Minnetonka were two teenage boys, Joe Brown and Will Snelling, who canoed up Minnehaha Creek from Fort Saint Anthony in 1822.

Travel to Lake Minnetonka remained relatively difficult, however, until the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad extended a line to Wayzata in 1867.

In 1868 he successfully bred a species of apple that could withstand Minnesota's harsh winters and named it the "Wealthy" in honor of his wife.

Many guests hailed from the Deep South and spent entire summers on the lake to enjoy its scenery and cooler climate.

The first inland steamboat ever to be equipped with electric lights, City of Saint Louis, was assembled in Wayzata in 1881 and began servicing lakeside communities and resorts later that year.

Permanent homes and grand country estates also began to appear around the lake as the Twin Cities metropolitan area grew.

In 1905 the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) extended a streetcar line to the village of Excelsior on Lake Minnetonka's southern shore.

Tourists, on the other hand, could board one of three large ferry boats bound for Big Island Park, where they could picnic, enjoy live music, and ride several attractions.

To rid itself of the vessels, TCRT scuttled three of the seven streetcar boats in deep water north of Big Island that summer.

Attractions included a fun house, the Silver Streak, the Scrambler, a carousel, picnic accommodations, and a roller coaster called the Cyclone.

In 1926 architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Olga Hinzengberg were arrested for allegedly violating the Mann Act while vacationing at a cottage in Tonka Bay.

The steamboat Minnehaha, one of the streetcar boats scuttled in 1926, was raised from the bottom of Lake Minnetonka in 1980, restored, and returned to service by 1996.

operated by the Museum of Lake Minnetonka, Minnehaha once again carries passengers between the communities of Excelsior and Wayzata as she did over a century ago.

Lake Minnetonka was formed approximately 10,000 years ago as the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded northward.

[19] Some fish consumption guidelines have been placed on the lake's bluegill, common carp, largemouth bass, northern pike, and walleye.

[19] According to local legend, a sturgeon in excess of 10 feet (3 m) in length has lurked beneath the surface of Lake Minnetonka for many years.

An outbreak of an unidentified waterborne pathogen sickened at least 116 swimmers at Cruiser's Cove, a popular party spot near Big Island, in 2019.

Several cruise companies operate larger excursion vessels on the lake, the largest of which is Al & Alma's 83 foot (25 m) Bella Vista.

In an episode of the television series Beverly Hills 90210, Dylan (Luke Perry) tells Brenda (Shannen Doherty) that his privileged background enabled him to spend summers in Paris as a child.

Thurlow Lieurance's song "By the Waters of Minnetonka" was published by the Theodore Presser Company in 1913 and has since been recorded by artists such as Glenn Miller and Desi Arnaz.

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt's self-titled debut album was recorded at an abandoned summer camp on Lake Minnetonka's Enchanted Island in 1971.

[24] Lake Minnetonka received some unwanted national attention in October 2005 following an incident known as the Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal.