A Tale of Two Waterpower Companies

A Tale of Two Waterpower Companies. . , The Saint Anthony Falls Water Power Company (SAFWPC) and the Minneapolis Mill Company (MMC) were chartered by the territorial legislature in 1856, two years before Minnesota achieved statehood. The companies were on the frontier of America, and on the frontier of waterpower technology, which was rapidly evolving., A few decades earlier, entrepreneurs in East Coast cities like Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, had developed sophisticated dam and canal systems to increase the amount of power that could be extracted from a river. The MMC followed this pattern on the west bank of the Mississippi and improved upon it, with mills lining an innovative power canal by the 1870s. Things went less smoothly on the east bank. The SAFWPC was undercapitalized, disorganized, and unlucky, and the investors squabbled. The company floundered until James J. Hill got involved in 1880. With construction of the Pillsbury "A" Mill soon thereafter, the east bank finally rose to its potential., In 1889, the waterpower companies took over responsibility for the falls from the federal government. Both had just been acquired by the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, Limited, a merger by British capitalists of the C.A. Pillsbury and Company and Washburn Mill Company (although not rival Washburn-Crosby Company). The conglomerate controlled about one-third of the city's milling capacity, major grain terminals in Minneapolis, rural grain elevators, and all of the waterpower at the falls., Although operated as a single subsidiary, the companies survived as separate entities for just over a century until both were dissolved in 1957., The water rights of the two companies are clearly shown on this 1893 drawing: MMC took the flow of the west channel, with SAFWPC on the east., Sage of the River , Engineer William de la Barre was born and educated in Austria. Although he came to Minneapolis in 1878 to help C.C. Washburn after the "A" Mill exploded, De la Barre's attention was soon drawn to Saint Anthony Falls. He oversaw the river's development for nearly half a century, increasing the power generated at the falls more than six-fold, from 9,000 to 58,000 horsepower., De la Barre began running the Minneapolis Mill Company in about 1882, adding the Saint Anthony Falls Waterpower Company in 1889 when both were acquired by the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company. Waterpower proved a better investment than the competitive flour-milling industry. Investor W.D. Washburn wrote to De la Barre in 1907: "The Water Power now seems to be about our only assured resource. The Milling activity seems almost deplorable.", De la Barre designed wasteways to reduce the river's battering of the falls and oversaw the apron's constant maintenance. He pushed for construction of the lower dam and hydroelectric plant in the 1890s and the Hennepin Island hydroelectric plant in the following decades. Although less active in his later years, he remained involved in the river's development until his death in 1936. According to the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, De la Barre had "the honor of knowing the Mississippi at Minneapolis better than any other man.", Some thought De la Barre's plans for a lower dam and hydroelectric plant were folly, but he prevailed: the plant began powering streetcars in 1898, about the time this photograph was taken. The plant operated until 1987, when its foundation failed and it was demolished. Minneapolis City Hall, which towers in the background, stands today, but the two river bridges are gone., William de la Barre in about 1885, shortly after he began managing the Minneapolis Mill Company.