Downtown East in Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)
The Falls of St. Anthony
Photographed By McGhiever, August 4, 2023
1. The Falls of St. Anthony Marker
Inscription.
The Falls of St. Anthony. .
1. The Falls of St. Anthony. This cataract, in which the Mississippi drops about seventy-five feet, is formed by the jutting edge of a hard layer of limestone over a bed of soft sandstone. In pre-historic times, the falls was located near the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers about eight miles downstream. Through the years, as sections of the hard limestone layer broke off, the falls gradually receded to its present location. If this natural process had continued upstream another 300 yards, the upper end of the limestone shelf would have been reached and the falls would have degenerated into a stretch of uncontrolled rapids. During the 1870's, the Corps of Engineers constructed a concrete cutoff dike beneath the limestone cap, as well as a rock and timber apron along the face of the cataract. The Falls of St. Anthony was thus preserved in its present condition for power and navigation.,
2. Nicollet Island. As late at the 1850's, separate communities were growing up on the two sides of the river. The city of St. Anthony stood on the northeasterly bank, the smaller village of Minneapolis on the southwesterly side. Between them, Nicollet Island remained untouched except for the highway which connected bridges across the two branches of the Mississippi. Grand Island, as it was once called, was not yet in demand for industry or improvement. St. Anthony and Minneapolis were consolidated into a unified city in 1872.,
3. Red River Cart Trail. Started in 1844, this famous trail from Pembina, North Dakota to St. Paul, Minnesota followed Main Street through the town of St. Anthony. Furs and buffalo robes were brought to the head of navigation of the Mississippi River in St. Paul by the forerunners of modern trucks. In 1858, 600 carts passed through St. Anthony enroute to St. Paul bringing goods valued at $200,000 from the Canadian border region and taking back supplies of every description to the Pembina settlers. Few carts made more than one round-trip each year. Main Street is still used today as an important transportation artery within the city.,
4. The Upper Lock St. Anthony Falls Upper Harbor Project. This structure is the uppermost step on a great stairway of water, the Upper Mississippi River nine-foot channel. The completed system of 20 locks and dams, constructed and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, enables deep-draft river vessels to ascend 420 feet of elevation along the 699-mile route from St. Louis to Minneapolis. The Upper Lock has a lift of 49.2 feet, the highest on the Mississippi River. It was dedicated and opened to commercial navigation on September 21, 1963.,
5. St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory. Staffed and operated by the Engineering Department of the University of Minnesota, the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory is a center for the training of graduate students in hydraulics and fluid mechanics. The laboratory has earned a world-wide reputation in the field of basic and applied research and in the design of hydraulic structures. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other governmental agencies concerned with water resources development, work closely with the laboratory staff in connection with the design and operation of structures to aid navigation and flood control.,
6. Lucy Wilder Morris Park. From that vantage point the Franciscan Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, first viewed the great water fall in July 1680. Father Hennepin and a single companion beached their canoe some distance above the cataract and walked through the woods to that point. It is believed that the Falls was directly in front of Fr. Hennepin's view, the cataract having receded only to that point in the 17th century. The Franciscan missionary gave it the name "The Falls of St. Anthony" in honor of his patron saint. A bronze plaque commemorating Father Hennepin's visit was placed on a large boulder on the site by the Minnesota Chapter, Daughters of the American Colonists, Lucy Wilder Morris, president.,
7. The Stone Arch Bridge. The bridge was completed in 1883 by James J. Hill, then president of the Great Northern Railway. The Stone Arch Bridge has been an important railroad link between the great wheatfields of the northwest and the largest flour mills in the world. During construction of the Upper Lock, the Corps of Engineers replaced a section of the original bridge with a steel structure in order to provide adequate clearance for commercial vessels using the waterway.,
8. The University of Minnesota. Land was purchased for the site of the university on October 21, 1854. Two years later an additional twelve acres was sold to the university by Calvin Tuttle, the original owner of the land, for the price of one dollar. From those beginnings, the University of Minnesota has grown into one of the most important institutions of higher learning in the United States. On the horizon can be seen Northrup Memorial Auditorium, the cultural center of university life and the home of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.,
9. The Lower Lock and Dam St. Anthony Falls Upper Harbor Project. Located about one-half mile downstream from this point, the Lower Lock and Dam has a lift of 24.9 feet. Passage by river craft through the Falls of St. Anthony is made in two steps. The up-bound vessel is locked through the Lower Lock into the Intermediate Pool between the two structures, and then through the Upper Lock into the navigation channel above the falls. The Lower Lock and Dam was completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1956.,
10. The Great Mill Explosion of 1878. On May 2, 1878, a huge explosion destroyed the Washburn "A" Mill and leveled several other mills and factories in the immediate vicinity. All Minneapolis was shaken by the blast. On a large tablet set in the wall of the rebuilt Washburn "A" Mill is an inscription in memory of the 14 men who perished in the mill and to the 4 others in the vicinity who lost their lives that fateful spring day.,
11. The First Mills. The first sawmill powered by the falls was built in 1821 by soldiers from Fort St. Anthony to provide material for the new fort. Fort Snelling, as it is now called, is located on a high bluff about eight miles downstream at the mouth of the Minnesota River. The first grist mill was built next to the sawmill to grind wheat raised near the fort to feed the soldiers and their stock. Water was diverted directly from the brink of the falls through wooden flumes to provide power to the mills. In the decades that followed, civilian settlers in the area followed the example of the soldiers of the 5th Infantry, developing the great milling industry around the falls. While the lumbering industry is no longer prominent in the immediate area, the grain mills near by and the grain terminals and elevators along railroad arteries in Minneapolis still give to the community its world famous name, "The Mill City.",
12. Stevens House. In 1849, the land west of St. Anthony was a part of the Fort Snelling Reservation. Permission was given to Col. John Harrington Stevens to settle on the reservation, providing he maintain a toll-free ferry for the soldiers stationed at the fort. The lumber for the Stevens House was brought across the river from the town of St. Anthony. With the industrial development of the west bank of the river, the house had to be moved from its original location. Still in good condition more than a century after its construction the Stevens House now stands in a park near the Falls of Minnehaha in South Minneapolis.
1. The Falls of St. Anthony
This cataract, in which the Mississippi drops about seventy-five feet, is formed by the jutting edge of a hard layer of limestone over a bed of soft sandstone. In pre-historic times, the falls was located near the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers about eight miles downstream. Through the years, as sections of the hard limestone layer broke off, the falls gradually receded to its present location. If this natural process had continued upstream another 300 yards, the upper end of the limestone shelf would have been reached and the falls would have degenerated into a stretch of uncontrolled rapids. During the 1870's, the Corps of Engineers constructed a concrete cutoff dike beneath the limestone cap, as well as a rock and timber apron along the face of the cataract. The Falls of St. Anthony was thus preserved in its present condition for power and navigation.
2. Nicollet Island
As late at the 1850's, separate communities were growing up on the two sides of the river. The city of St. Anthony stood on the northeasterly bank, the smaller village of Minneapolis on the southwesterly side. Between them, Nicollet Island remained untouched except for the highway which connected bridges across the two branches of the Mississippi. Grand Island,
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as it was once called, was not yet in demand for industry or improvement. St. Anthony and Minneapolis were consolidated into a unified city in 1872.
3. Red River Cart Trail
Started in 1844, this famous trail from Pembina, North Dakota to St. Paul, Minnesota followed Main Street through the town of St. Anthony. Furs and buffalo robes were brought to the head of navigation of the Mississippi River in St. Paul by the forerunners of modern trucks. In 1858, 600 carts passed through St. Anthony enroute to St. Paul bringing goods valued at $200,000 from the Canadian border region and taking back supplies of every description to the Pembina settlers. Few carts made more than one round-trip each year. Main Street is still used today as an important transportation artery within the city.
4. The Upper Lock St. Anthony Falls Upper Harbor Project
This structure is the uppermost step on a great stairway of water, the Upper Mississippi River nine-foot channel. The completed system of 20 locks and dams, constructed and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, enables deep-draft river vessels to ascend 420 feet of elevation along the 699-mile route from St. Louis to Minneapolis. The Upper Lock has a lift of 49.2 feet, the highest on the Mississippi River. It was dedicated and opened to commercial navigation on September
Photographed By McGhiever, August 4, 2023
2. The Falls of St. Anthony Marker overlooking the falls at the Upper Lock
21, 1963.
5. St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory
Staffed and operated by the Engineering Department of the University of Minnesota, the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory is a center for the training of graduate students in hydraulics and fluid mechanics. The laboratory has earned a world-wide reputation in the field of basic and applied research and in the design of hydraulic structures. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other governmental agencies concerned with water resources development, work closely with the laboratory staff in connection with the design and operation of structures to aid navigation and flood control.
6. Lucy Wilder Morris Park
From that vantage point the Franciscan Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, first viewed the great water fall in July 1680. Father Hennepin and a single companion beached their canoe some distance above the cataract and walked through the woods to that point. It is believed that the Falls was directly in front of Fr. Hennepin's view, the cataract having receded only to that point in the 17th century. The Franciscan missionary gave it the name "The Falls of St. Anthony" in honor of his patron saint. A bronze plaque commemorating Father Hennepin's visit was placed on a large boulder on the site by the Minnesota Chapter, Daughters of the American Colonists,
Lucy Wilder Morris, president.
7. The Stone Arch Bridge
The bridge was completed in 1883 by James J. Hill, then president of the Great Northern Railway. The Stone Arch Bridge has been an important railroad link between the great wheatfields of the northwest and the largest flour mills in the world. During construction of the Upper Lock, the Corps of Engineers replaced a section of the original bridge with a steel structure in order to provide adequate clearance for commercial vessels using the waterway.
8. The University of Minnesota
Land was purchased for the site of the university on October 21, 1854. Two years later an additional twelve acres was sold to the university by Calvin Tuttle, the original owner of the land, for the price of one dollar. From those beginnings, the University of Minnesota has grown into one of the most important institutions of higher learning in the United States. On the horizon can be seen Northrup Memorial Auditorium, the cultural center of university life and the home of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.
9. The Lower Lock and Dam St. Anthony Falls Upper Harbor Project
Located about one-half mile downstream from this point, the Lower Lock and Dam has a lift of 24.9 feet. Passage by river craft through the Falls of St. Anthony is made in two steps. The up-bound vessel is locked through the Lower Lock into the Intermediate Pool between the two structures, and then through the Upper Lock into the navigation channel above the falls. The Lower Lock and Dam was completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1956.
10. The Great Mill Explosion of 1878
On May 2, 1878, a huge explosion destroyed the Washburn "A" Mill and leveled several other mills and factories in the immediate vicinity. All Minneapolis was shaken by the blast. On a large tablet set in the wall of the rebuilt Washburn "A" Mill is an inscription in memory of the 14 men who perished in the mill and to the 4 others in the vicinity who lost their lives that fateful spring day.
11. The First Mills
The first sawmill powered by the falls was built in 1821 by soldiers from Fort St. Anthony to provide material for the new fort. Fort Snelling, as it is now called, is located on a high bluff about eight miles downstream at the mouth of the Minnesota River. The first grist mill was built next to the sawmill to grind wheat raised near the fort to feed the soldiers and their stock. Water was diverted directly from the brink of the falls through wooden flumes to provide power to the mills. In the decades that followed, civilian settlers in the area followed the example of the soldiers of the 5th Infantry, developing the great milling industry around the falls. While the lumbering industry is no longer prominent in the immediate area, the grain mills near by and the grain terminals and elevators along railroad arteries in Minneapolis still give to the community its world famous name, "The Mill City."
12. Stevens House
In 1849, the land west of St. Anthony was a part of the Fort Snelling Reservation. Permission was given to Col. John Harrington Stevens to settle on the reservation, providing he maintain a toll-free ferry for the soldiers stationed at the fort. The lumber for the Stevens House was brought across the river from the town of St. Anthony. With the industrial development of the west bank of the river, the house had to be moved from its original location. Still in good condition more than a century after its construction the Stevens House now stands in a park near the Falls of Minnehaha in South Minneapolis.
Location. 44° 58.882′ N, 93° 15.475′ W. Marker is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Hennepin County. It is in Downtown East. Marker can be reached from Portland Avenue. Marker is at the St. Anthony Falls Lock & Dam, now a visitor center operated by the National Park Service. Marker is on a plinth immediately adjacent to the falls. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis MN 55401, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Credits. This page was last revised on April 24, 2024. It was originally submitted on August 8, 2023, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This page has been viewed 77 times since then and 25 times this year. Last updated on August 29, 2023, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photos:1, 2. submitted on August 8, 2023, by McGhiever of Minneapolis, Minnesota. • J. Makali Bruton was the editor who published this page.
