{
  "dataset_id": "chaska-parks-trails-2026",
  "name": "Chaska, Minnesota Parks and Trails",
  "methodology": "Selected public parks and trail corridors with documented citywide, historical, river-access or regional-network significance; not an exhaustive inventory of neighborhood facilities.",
  "place_id": "https://joshliljenquist.com/chaska/#place",
  "verified_date": "2026-09-18",
  "park_record_count": 8,
  "trail_record_count": 4,
  "parks": [
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-firemens",
      "name": "Firemen’s Park",
      "type": "Community park",
      "setting": "Downtown · Firemen’s Clayhole Lake",
      "significance": "Chaska’s primary family active-use park combines Clayhole Beach, fishing, open space, a boardwalk, performance space and the Curling and Event Center campus. Its clayhole setting also preserves a visible connection to the city’s brickmaking landscape.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/653/About-Parks-Recreation",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-veterans",
      "name": "Veterans Park",
      "type": "Community park",
      "setting": "North side of Firemen’s Clayhole Lake",
      "significance": "The park occupies the lake’s north side on the Minnesota River bluff and includes the Veterans Memorial Plaza, an archery range, a shelter and playground.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-city-square",
      "name": "City Square",
      "type": "Historic civic park",
      "setting": "Historic downtown Chaska",
      "significance": "The central town square is part of the Walnut Street Historic District. Its gazebo, paths, monuments and sacred burial mounds make it both a civic gathering place and a carefully managed historic landscape.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/927/City-Square",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-athletic",
      "name": "Athletic Park",
      "type": "Community playfield and trail access",
      "setting": "West Chaska · river-valley edge",
      "significance": "The regulation baseball facility serves the Chaska Cubs, Legion and high-school baseball and is an official access point for regional and refuge trail connections.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-mcknight",
      "name": "McKnight Park",
      "type": "Passive community park",
      "setting": "Lake Jonathan",
      "significance": "A water-and-woodland park serving northern Chaska, with trail access and a more passive recreation role than the city’s major playfield complexes.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-lions",
      "name": "Lions Park",
      "type": "Community playfield",
      "setting": "Ravoux Road area",
      "significance": "An active recreation site supporting field and court sports, seasonal skating and two off-leash dog areas; recent city work has also renewed the playground, shelter and pickleball facilities.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/653/About-Parks-Recreation",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-community",
      "name": "Community Park",
      "type": "Community playfield",
      "setting": "Hundertmark Road area",
      "significance": "A youth-and-adult ballfield complex connected to Chaska’s linear park system and used seasonally for outdoor skating.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "record_id": "chaska-park-winkel-riverbend",
      "name": "Winkel and Riverbend Parks",
      "type": "River-access and overlook parks",
      "setting": "Downtown river edge",
      "significance": "Winkel Park provides documented Minnesota River boat-launch access and levee-trail connections. Riverbend Park links the levee and downtown commercial area while providing a public river-valley overlook.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    }
  ],
  "trails": [
    {
      "name": "Chaska city trail system",
      "status": "Current local network",
      "description": "The City promotes more than 60 miles of trails for walking, hiking and biking. Municipal planning connects roadway trails with creek, lake, neighborhood and open-space corridors.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/653/About-Parks-Recreation",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "name": "Minnesota River Bluffs Regional Trail",
      "status": "Existing regional connection",
      "description": "Carver County describes an approximately 18-mile corridor from Carver to Hopkins, including a Chaska segment with access at Athletic Park and the Chaska Levee Trailhead.",
      "source_url": "https://www.carvercountymn.gov/departments/public-works/parks-recreation/parks-trails/regional-trails",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "name": "Southwest Regional Trail",
      "status": "Developing regional corridor",
      "description": "A planned 13-mile Chaska-to-Victoria corridor with about seven miles currently available. Its long-term role is to connect the river-bluff system with the Lake Minnetonka regional network.",
      "source_url": "https://www.carvercountymn.gov/departments/public-works/parks-recreation/parks-trails/regional-trails",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chaska Lake and refuge connection",
      "status": "Natural-surface corridor",
      "description": "The municipal plan documents a 1.7-mile unpaved trail from Athletic Park through the Chaska Lake unit of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge toward Carver’s riverfront system.",
      "source_url": "https://www.chaskamn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2627/Ch-7-Parks-Trails-Recreation-and-Open-Space-Plan-PDF",
      "verified_date": "2026-09-18"
    }
  ]
}