It was a Friday evening in late August, the kind that used to mean summer traffic backed up past the beach in town, and the loop trail around Long Lake Park had exactly two other people on it. A woman with a dog. A man photographing a great blue heron working the shallows near the swimming area. The path is paved, flat enough that most of the 1.3-mile loop takes under half an hour, and it has stayed this uncrowded for as long as anyone who lives out here can remember.
A few minutes away, on the corner of Randolph Road and County Road 54, cars were parked along the shoulder for a ribbon cutting outside a gift shop that didn't exist a year ago. That contrast is the story right now. Long Lake hasn't changed. The corner of town next to it has, and quickly.
The Lake That Never Tried to Be the Busy One
Long Lake doesn't have a river or a stream running into it. What fills it is stormwater and groundwater, which is part of why it behaves differently from its neighbors. It's a narrow, deep lake, dropping to 61 feet at its deepest point, and its elongated shape gives it more shoreline than its modest surface area would suggest, more shoreline than every lake in the watershed district except Big Detroit and Melissa.
That shape matters for water quality too. Recent readings put summer clarity between 12 and 19 feet, with a 10-year average around 14.5 feet, and phosphorus levels in the 11 to 16 parts-per-billion range. Those aren't numbers pulled from a lake that got lucky. In 2003 a water control structure went in on a wetland outlet on the lake's north side, turning that wetland into a detention area that cut nutrient loading from the source. The fix reduced algal blooms on that end of the lake and pushed summer clarity up by nearly two feet.
The lake has taken its share of shoreline development too. A parcel survey found that of 183 lots studied, 96, just over half, showed moderate to significant alteration such as rip-rap or sand-blanket beaches. But 87 parcels, close to half, remain in a natural or minimally altered state, and two of the biggest reasons are on opposite sides of the water. Long Lake Park itself sits on the east shore, holding more than 2,200 feet of shoreline the city has kept undeveloped. Across the lake, Concordia College owns land that protects another 2,000 feet in similar condition. Between the park and the college, a good stretch of Long Lake's edge has simply been left alone.
None of that makes Long Lake the lake the town sends visitors to for swim beaches and marinas. That role belongs to Big Detroit, a few blocks over, with its public beach and downtown waterfront. Long Lake keeps its own rhythm instead, and the loop trail around it stays hushed even during the height of summer traffic everywhere else.
A Few Minutes Up Randolph Road, Everything Is New
The corner of Randolph Road and County Road 54 tells a completely different story this year. That's where Ortenstone Gardens and Sculpture Park sits, a 50-acre property gifted to the city in 2024 by the Mark and Cindy Fritz Foundation, named for Cathy Fritz, an avid gardener whose maiden name was Ortenstone. It's free, open dawn to dusk, year-round, on the east edge of town just off the route to Detroit Mountain.
What's out there has grown fast. Barefoot Frida, one of six giant troll sculptures Danish artist Thomas Dambo built around the Detroit Lakes area in 2024, made her permanent home at Ortenstone rather than the other five locations. Jim Dolan's metal horse sculpture, "Togetherness," stands on a hilltop with views across the property. A trio of large-scale pieces by Illinois artist Olga Ziemska, originally installed as a temporary exhibition in 2025, has since become a permanent part of the grounds.
The newest addition arrived this summer. On June 27, artists Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein, working together as the Myth Makers, unveiled "Dancing for Joy," a large bamboo sculpture depicting two egrets, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on site. It's scheduled to stay on display through September 2027. There's something fitting about that choice of bird, given how often the real thing shows up along the Long Lake loop a short drive away.
Then, on August 19, the park opened its first proper visitor center and gift shop, replacing the small merchandise stand that had been operating out of a converted building near the entrance since last year. Project 412's executive director, Amy Stearns, has said the goal is to grow Ortenstone into what she calls
"a nationally significant garden and sculpture park."
Judging by the pace of the last two years, that's not just talk. New sculptures have arrived roughly monthly this summer, and the parking lot, by the nonprofit's own account, has been full nearly every day of the week.
What's Still Up Before Labor Day
For anyone planning a walk out there before the season turns, a few things are worth timing around:
- Naytahwaush artist Kent Estey's three-part exhibit, "Mino-Bimaadiziwin," is on view along Ortenstone's Aspen trail, with companion pieces at the Becker County Museum and Washington Square Mall. It closes September 7.
- The free Music Moments concert series has been bringing regional musicians to the grounds on Monday evenings all summer, most recently Rebecca Davis in early August.
- Friday storytelling sessions have been held near Ziemska's "Hear" sculpture, open to anyone who brings a lunch and a blanket.
- The new gift shop carries Trolls in DL and Charley Harper merchandise alongside snacks and drinks, and its hours have been expanding as visitor traffic grows.
The Trail That's Supposed to Connect Them
Right now, the loop at Long Lake Park and the paths through Ortenstone are two separate walks, a short drive apart rather than a single stretch of trail. But that may not be permanent. Coverage of the sculpture park has noted that plans are underway to connect Ortenstone to the area's nearby trail systems, and the lease agreement governing the property already lists walking trails, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, and bicycle trail riding among its intended uses, language that suggests a four-season connection rather than a summer-only attraction.
For residents on the Long Lake side of town, that's the detail worth watching. The quiet dog-walk loop around the lake and the fastest-growing public space in Detroit Lakes right now sit close enough that a real trail link between them would turn two short, separate outings into one longer one, on foot or by bike, without a car in between.
Long Lake's personality hasn't shifted. It's still the deep, clear, residential lake that never needed a beach crowd to feel worth living on. But the edges of that neighborhood, the stretch of road that used to be mostly farmland between the lake and Detroit Mountain, are busier and more interesting than they've been in a long time, and Labor Day weekend, with Estey's exhibit closing on the 7th, marks a natural point to go see it before the season turns.
If you're weighing a move to this side of town, or you already call Long Lake home and are curious what your property looks like in today's market, Monica Kaiser has spent more than two decades tracking the details that actually shape life on these lakes. Reach out anytime to Request Your Home Valuation, and she'll walk you through what's changed and what hasn't.
