Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Wayzata, MN

Wayzata is an affluent small city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, about 9 miles west of Minneapolis on the northern shore of Lake Minnetonka, the state's ninth-largest lake.

The name Wayzata comes from the Dakota word "waziyata," meaning "north" or "north shore," and the city is nicknamed "The Gateway to Lake Minnetonka."

Wayzata was first platted by Oscar E. Garrison in 1854 and was officially incorporated as a village in 1883.

Wayzata boomed briefly in the 1850s as a collection center for ginseng roots gathered around Lake Minnetonka, after the root — prized in China — was discovered in the local hardwood forests.

When the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad reached Wayzata in 1867, the town became Lake Minnetonka's transportation hub, with large steamboats like the 300-foot Belle of Minnetonka, said to carry 2,500 passengers, meeting the trains.

Railroad magnate James J. Hill famously feuded with Wayzata after the village ordered his tracks moved in 1883: he demolished the downtown depot and declared residents could "walk a mile for the next twenty years" to catch a train, before relenting and building a new depot in 1906 that he called the "handsomest" on the entire Great Northern line.

One of the Twin City streetcar "Express Boats" that served Wayzata, the Minnehaha, was sunk in Lake Minnetonka in 1926, raised from the depths in 1980, restored, and returned to passenger service in 1996.

The Ferndale Shore of Wayzata became home to grand country estates of Minneapolis milling and business families including the Bells, Crosbys, Peaveys, Pillsburys, and Washburns.

The population of Wayzata was 4,434 at the 2020 census, living in 2,206 households, and its median age of 52.7 years makes it one of the older communities in the Twin Cities area.

More than a third of Wayzata's total area is open water, and its Lake Street downtown along Wayzata Bay is known for upscale shopping and restaurants.