As early as the 1880s observant people realized that the development of the city of Minneapolis was incompatible with the retention of native habitat. West of the city in the Saratoga Springs Addition, residents successfully petitioned the new Minneapolis Park Board to obtain a segment of that area to preserve for future generations. With various name changes and adjustments in size, this became what is now Theodore Wirth Park.

A small section of this new park was particularly attractive to Eloise Butler and her teacher colleagues. They were having great difficulties familiarizing their students with plants growing in their natural surroundings, as development was wiping out these areas. This spot would be accessible and attractive for that purpose.

As the Park Board had done little with the entire park due to lack of funds, this small group decided that something must be done to protect the unique native flora of the small area they had selected. That area included a swampy bog, fern glens, hillsides, upland hills and trees and nearby, the Great Medicine Spring. Following the submission of a petition on April 1st, 1907 the Park Board moved on April 15th to set aside a portion of this area as a Natural Botanical Garden but soon it was known as the "Wild Botanic Garden." At this time the Garden was just a designated area of the park, known then as Glenwood Park. The Garden boundary would not be delineated by a fence until 1924.

Eloise Butler became the most prominent guardian and promoter of this natural space. She would officially be appointed Curator of the Garden in 1911.

A large portion of Eloise Butler’s Garden Log for 1907 is devoted to notations of plants observed within the area of the newly established Wild Botanic Garden. This record established beyond anything else what plants were indigenous to that area. She would later record various notes about finding plants she had not noted previously.

Eloise noted that the spring season was “backward”. She was referring to the abnormal cold temperatures that occurred in April and May when daily temperatures were consistently under average by as much as 15 to 20 degrees. Most snow had melted in March and little fell thereafter until there was a two day snowfall on April 27-28 of 13 inches.

In this, the first season of the officially formed Garden, Eloise would immediately begin to bring in plants that were not represented there. As these were all obtained in the metro area, they are all native to the state. Her first recorded entry of actually placing plants into the Garden is dated April 29th when she planted two Pitcher plants in the bog that she obtained from Mahtomedi, Minn.

In late May she brought in from the “government reservation” (which is presumably the area of and around Fort Snelling):

• Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus), in the Garden today.
• Bird’s-foot Violet (Viola pedata) fig.-b
• Canadian Wildginger (Asarum canadense L.),
• Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata L.),
• Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra Cucullaria (L.) Bernh.) and
• Sharplobe Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis Schreb. var. obtusa (Pursh) Steyerm.) (Photo at top).

From the area of Glenwood Park itself (Now Theodore Wirth Park), she introduces:

• Greater Yellow-lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium pubescens now classified as Cypripedium parviflorum Salisb. var. pubescens (Willd.) Knight),
• Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens Aiton) and
• Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis L.).

From White Bear Lake come:

• More Pitcher Plants,
• More Greater Yellow-lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum Salisb. var. pubescens (Willd.) Knight))
• Moccasin Flower or Stemless Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium acaule), fig-c, [This is a rare native plant that is very difficult to transplant and have survive. The repeated appearance of this plant on the Garden acquisition list over many years up through Martha Crone’s curatorship is ample evidence of that difficulty]
• Bluebead or Yellow Clintonia (Clintonia borealis), fig e, (M.C.). It is native to the NE Quadrant of Minnesota.
• Water Arum (Wild Calla) (Calla palustris L.), and
• Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) Native to Minnesota but not widespread. Present in the Garden today.

From Washburn Park she obtains:

• Bristly Greenbrier (Similax hispida - now classified as Smilax tamnoides L.). (M.C.)
• Common Moonseed (Menispermum canadense L.)

From Minnehaha:

• Creeping Root Violet (Tall Stemmed) (Viola rugulosa - now classified as Viola canadensis L. var. rugulosa), fig-f, (M.C.)
• Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus). (M.C.)

In early June she sources from the vicinity of the Lake Street Bridge (Minneapolis):

• Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), fig.-d, (M.C.) which is native to the eastern section of Minnesota.
• Eastern (Virginia) Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginicum L.),
• Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Salisb. ex Nutt.) and
• American Hornbeam or blue beech (Carpinus americana now classified as - Carpinus caroliniana), (M.C.), which is considered native to the state by some sources.
• An unidentified Cherry.

Summer temperatures returned to the norms expected for the season and there was plenty of rainfall. As was her custom, Eloise traveled back to Malden, MA to visit her sister Cora Pease. As Eloise was still teaching at South High School in Minneapolis, summer was the only time she could make a visit. By 1910 however, the Garden duties were too much for her to be absent and the summer trips then ended and were replaced by winter trips, beginning in 1911, after her retirement from teaching. It is not clear from her Garden Log exactly when she returned to Malden as here are no entries in the Garden Log between June 3rd and July 2nd and then there is another gap between July 2 and September 17th. If she had returned during June, the long later gap in the record is unexplained.

In the July 2nd entry she notes receiving from Malden Mass (either she had already been there and brought these back or they were sent by her sister Cora):

• One Northern Spicebush (Benzoin aestivale now classified as Lindera benzoin (L.) Blume var. benzoin), Not Native.
• Two Common Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis L.) and
• A clump of American Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle americana). fig-g. Rather rare in Minnesota, reported only in four counties bordering Wisconsin - Houston, Pine, Chisago, Washington. It is now on Minnesota's “Special Concern List”.

There are several Autumn Garden Log entries; the first on September 17th. All the remaining log entries for 1907 concern the introduction of plants into the Garden from various sources in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It would be 1908 before more introductions from the East Coast would arrive in the Garden.

Additional specimens of the same plants brought in this past spring and listed above in the "Spring" section included Wild Calla, Moccasin flower, Downy Yellow Violet, Greenbrier, Wild Blue Phlox and Wahoo.

New introductions would be:

• Adam & Eve (Puttyroot) (Aplectrum hyemale) an orchid, fig h, (M.C.) Uncommon but considered native in a number of counties of the SE section of the State.
• American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.), fig j, (M.C.) Native, reported in scattered counties mostly in the SE Quadrant, but also as far north as Mille Lacs and Jackson in the SW. Now very rare and on the States “Special Concern List”. A plant with a long folk and native medicinal history.
• Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), (M.C.) Common throughout Minnesota except the far Arrowhead.
• Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.),
• Downy Phlox (Phlox pilosa), fig-i, (M.C.) Native to almost all of Minnesota except the northern tier of counties and the Arrowhead.
  
• Great Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya) Present in the Garden today.
• Great St. Johnswort (Hypericum ascyron),
• Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) (M.C.) This is a native bog shrub with leathery green leaves. It transplants fairly well.
• Ostrich Fern (Onoclea struthiopteris - now classified as Matteuccia struthiopteris). Present in the Garden today.
• Silky aster (Western Silver Aster) (Aster Sericeus - now classified as Symphyotrichum sericeum (Vent.) G.L. Nesom),
• Showy Orchid (Orchis spectabilis - now classified as Galearis spectabilis (L.) Raf.), fig-l. (M.C.). A native orchid of counties in a diagonal from the SE corner of the state toward the NW corner - basically the old Big Woods.
• American Bellflower (Campanula americana L.),
• Virgin’s Bower (Clematis virginiana L.),
• Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa), fig-k, (M.C.) Native to the wooded counties in the SE Quadrant of the State as far north as Pine county.
  

Her last log entry would be on Nov. 5th. The autumn weather was fairly normal for temperature until mid December when temperatures were warmer than normal. Some snow fell in December, but there was no accumulation until the very end of the month. September had one three inch rainfall and then October and November were very dry.