Reshaping the Island

Reshaping the Island. . , In 1860, Silas Farnham bought a sawmill on Hennepin Island that had been built four years earlier, and soon J.A. Lovejoy became his business partner. The long pond leading to their mill was a prominent landmark. Its west wall formed part of the dam across the Mississippi., As sawmills moved away from the falls, maintenance of the millpond declined. In 1885, an engineer reported that the west wall "is in bad condition, liable to give way with the first heavy flood. It is a menace to the apron below it. There seems little probability of the parties owning this dam doing anything to strengthen it." That became even less likely after the mill's machinery was taken out in 1888., William de la Barre solved the problem by replacing the millpond with a "wasteway", a canal to divert water around the falls during floods. While the first wateway (in front of you) helped tame the river's milder fluctuations, it was no match for a deluge in April 1897 that toppled much of the wateway's stone wall along the falls. The wall was rebuilt and a second wasteway (behind you) was added, where Farnham and Lovejoy's abandoned sawmill had stood until 1892., The gates that let water into the wasteways were sealed with concrete and soil several decades ago. The National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics has reintroduced water to the wasteways, which are being used for scientific experiments., Before , After , "Last evening, about 5 o'clock, nearly 200 feet of the four-foot retaining wall between the race and the apron of the main falls went down under the tremendous pressure of the water. The result of this break is the ruin of the magnificent waterfall that was one of the chief attractions at the river." Minneapolis Journal, April 7, 1897, 1893 , The west wall of Farnham and Lovejoy's millpond extended upstream, above the falls, forming part of the horseshoe dam., 1898 , Part of the horseshoe dam was moved east when the first wasteway was built. The upstream end of the wasteway was aligned with the crest of the apron at the falls., 1951 , Both wasteways were filled with water in this 1951 photograph.