Minneapolis, Minnesota: Urban Shoe Tree

I took a pagan friend to visit the Shoe Tree, thinking that her artistic spirit would appreciate urban art. To my horror, she began crying about the "abuse" that the tree experienced by mean people throwing their shoes into it. It was the last time we did anything together.

On the West bank side of the Washington Avenue Bridge (connecting the West and East banks of the University of Minnesota, there is a tree of shoes which the UMN students add to each year.

We have a wonderful tree in Minnesota that overhangs the Washington Avenue bridge, which spans the Mississippi River. The tree grows from ground level to spread over the second tier of the bridge, its branches laden with hundreds of shoes. They have begun to spread to a few of the nearby trees.

The Shoe Tree, as it is simply called by students at the University of Minnesota, where it is located, is a favorite subject in photography classes or just a great stop on the way to class.

Here is a shoe tree right in the middle of Minneapolis -- not as impressively dense as the Nevada Shoe Tree, but a nice start. It's also not as striking since it isn't the only tree on the landscape, but is interesting for several reasons. Two bicycles hang in the tree. In addition to the urban setting, the presence of the river below makes the viewing experience completely different from the other shoe trees. The neatest thing about visiting this shoe tree is the adjacent bridge -- where you are level with the upper branches.

There is a shoe tree on the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus, right next to the Washington Avenue bridge that connects the East and West banks over the Mississippi River (it's on the West bank). I know it's been there for years, but nobody seems to know exactly how it got started. Ask anybody on campus, and they know what you're talking about.