Location
Wayzata is in Hennepin County This name was formed by slight change from Waziyata, a Dakota word meaning "at the pines, the north." Wazi is defined as "a pine, pines," and Waziya, "the northern god, or god of the north; a fabled giant who lives at the north and blows cold out of his mouth. He draws near in winter and recedes in summer." The suffix ta, denotes "at, to, on" (Riggs, Dictionary of the Dakota Language, 1852, pp. 192, 239). The name Wayzata, originated by white men, refers to the location at the north side of the east end of Lake Minnetonka, not to pine trees, which are found nearest, in very scanty numbers, on the Mississippi bluffs at Dayton and on Bassett's and Minnehaha Creeks in Minneapolis. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
