The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a top visitor attraction in the metro area, is more than 1,200 acres of gardens and tree collections, prairie and woods and miles of trails. As a premier northern garden, the Arboretum was borne out of the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center and established in 1958, with the Men’s Garden Club of Minneapolis, Lake Minnetonka Garden Club, Minnesota State Horticultural Society and other community supporters credited with promoting the arboretum idea, raising funds and looking for a site, as a gift to the University of Minnesota.