COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. – This week, Anoka County celebrated 50 years of the county park system. Being the first county in the state to establish a county park system, they led the way for counties throughout the state to establish open space and provide recreational opportunities for their residents. The first park established was Kordiak Park in Columbia Heights, and that is where the county held their celebration. The park’s namesake, Albert Kordiak, shared his experiences and trials with trying to start the park system while he was an Anoka County Commissioner.
“This park here was extremely difficult, because at that time counties couldn’t have parks,” said Kordiak.
His fight to establish the park led him to district court, the state legislature, and ultimately to the State Supreme Court, before the county was able to purchase the land that is now Kordiak Park.
That was the 1960’s, when the park system started to grow.
That same decade, the county added Manomin Park, Locke Park and Bunker Hills Park. By the 1980’s, the park system had grown to over 8,000 acres, and today there are over 10,000 thousand acres.
At the celebration, Parks Director John VonDeLinde presented Albert Kordiak with a proclamation from the county board thanking him for his contributions to the parks system.
