What to See in Bloomington - Top Sights and Attractions

Water park in Bloomington, Minnesota. Great Wolf Lodge, originally the Water Park of America, was home to the tallest indoor water slide in the U.S. It covered 70,000 square feet with a slide tower nearly ten stories high. It opened in May 2006. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it was a half mile from the Mall of America and close to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

The water park was attached to the Radisson Hotel. Both the hotel and the water park were managed by Evolution Hospitality. In January 2017, it was announced that Great Wolf Resorts had purchased the property. The hotel and waterpark closed for renovations and rebranding as a Great Wolf Resort. Great Wolf reopened the property in December 2017.^[1]

Roller coaster. SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster located at Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota. Standing 74.5 feet tall, it is the tallest roller coaster in the park. It also features a beyond vertical drop. It is the first roller coaster themed to SpongeBob SquarePants, and opened with the Nickelodeon Universe grand opening on March 15, 2008. The ride features a vertical loop, and a heartline roll. The ride was installed by Ride Entertainment Group, who handles all of Gerstlauer's operations in the Western Hemisphere. The roller coaster replaced the Mystery Mine Ride which housed Spongebob Squarepants 4-D, and The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera which was alternately named as Yogi's Big Rescue.^[2]

Ski area in Bloomington, Minnesota. Hyland Hills Ski Area is a ski area in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States, just south of Minneapolis. It is owned and operated by Three Rivers Park District. It is one of the three ski areas in the Twin Cities metropolitan area; the others are Afton Alps, and Buck Hill. As a popular destination located near the Mall of America, Hyland receives 160,000 visitors per year. While Minnesota's winters are cold, the average snowfall is low for a ski area, due to this, there is often use of Artificial snow to help maintain the viability of the slopes.

In 2016 the chalet underwent a $13.3 million renovation that more than doubled the size of the previous. The new chalet is 36,000 square feet, and includes a gear shop, rentals, and a restaurant. The chalet is also open to host private events. There tow rope is the best in the World^[3]

Museum in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Works is an interactive children's museum in Bloomington, Minnesota that focuses on technology and engineering.

The museum was conceived by Rebecca Schatz, a software engineer who was inspired by a visit to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and by the hands-on technical education for children that she observed during a year as a Luce Scholar in Japan in 1984. The Works first opened as a gallery exhibition within the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota in 1995, then moved to a series of temporary locations in shopping centers and to the community center in Edina (Ridgedale - 1995–1997, Eden Prairie Center 1997–1999, Southdale 1999–2002, and Edina Cmty. Center 2003–2011), before finding a larger, permanent home with 40,000 square feet of space in Bloomington in 2011. In 2011 the museum reported annual attendance of 50,000 visitors. Since 2003, The Works has sponsored an annual "Tech Fest".^[8]

Historical place in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Gideon H. Pond House is a historic house in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Pond-Dakota Mission Park, which also includes the Oak Grove Mission site, a cemetery, and the remains of the Pond family farm and orchards. The site is significant within the history of the Minnesota River valley, the Dakota tribe, and Bloomington. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gideon Hollister Pond (1810–1878) and his brother Samuel came to Minnesota with a mission to teach Christianity to the Indians and to teach them agriculture. The Ponds received permission in 1834 from Major Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian agent at Fort Snelling, to establish a mission school near Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun), where a band of Dakota spent their summers. Pond started work on writing a Dakota language dictionary. After a war broke out between the Dakota and the Ojibwa in 1839, the band of Dakota moved to a village near the Minnesota River, and Gideon Pond moved with them. He established a mission along the river bluffs. The area served as a mission between 1843 and 1852, when the Dakota were sent to a reservation further up the Minnesota River as a result of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. At that point, Pond bought this land and became a farmer. He also served as a member of Minnesota territorial House of Representatives 7th District, 1849–1850. Later, Pond started the Oak Grove Presbyterian Church, which was originally located on land which is now the Bloomington Cemetery. The church later moved its building to the corner of Penn Avenue and Old Shakopee Road.

The home, located at 401 East 104th Street in Bloomington, is constructed of red brick and features chimneys serving each room. The home was occupied by Gideon and his wife Sarah, and is now open to the public on a limited basis.^[10]