Tailrace Skyline

Tailrace Skyline. . , Waterpower Engineering , Almost immediately after lands on the west side of the Falls were opened for private development in 1855, the Minneapolis Mill Company began to exploit the use of waterpower for commercial purposes. In 1857, the company began work on a canal which would bring water at the "above the Falls" elevation, full of potential energy, to mill sites located well back from the river's edge, multiplying the number of potential users of their waterpower rights and, thus, their potential profits. This canal was originally built to be 215 feet long and 62 feet wide and was later deepened and enlarged to over four times its initial length., Components of the waterpower system were a dam which impounded water into a millpond, the headrace canal which brought water from the millpond into the canal system, a gatehouse which controlled the flow of that water, the main canal itself, and the tailrace canal that returned spent water to the river. Headrace tunnels at each mill drew water from the canal into a flume leading to turbines, and the tailrace tunnels returned spent water from each mill to the main tailrace canal., Wood planking covered the canal to facilitate movement between the mills, and, in 1878, a railroad trestle was erected above it to bring freight service directly to the mills. The next year, another elevated railroad trestle was built adjacent to the tailrace canal to serve mills on that side of the canal., The waterpower canal allowed the development of a densely-packed mill district, with waterpower leased to individual manufacturers. The adoption of "New Process" milling in the 1870s offered the potential of a large output of high-quality flour from nearby wheat sources. With these catalysts, sixteen new mills were constructed along the waterpower canal between 1870 and 1880, and, by the 1880s, a total of about twenty-five flour mills, a woolen mill, a sawmill, and the city waterworks lined the canal in what was the country's most densely-industrialized direct-drive waterpower district., The granite gates of the Minneapolis Mill Company's gatehouse are shown in this view of ca. 1895., Eventually, the independently-owned mills were consolidated into larger companies, and the waterpower owned by the Minneapolis Mill Company was acquired by the Pillsbury Washburn Flour Mills Company, an English syndicate, in 1889., By the 1930s, the critical mass of the flour-milling industry had moved on to other cities, and most of the west-side mills were at least partly demolished. Until filled in as part of the construction of the adjacent lock in 1960, however, the canal and tailrace system was still used to generate hydroelectric power., The changing west-side skyline: 1867-1905 , 1867 . 1880 . 1885 . 1905, Fort Snelling: Soldiers at the Falls , Fort Snelling as depicted by Seth Eastman in 1833., Following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Fort Snelling was established in 1819 as a remote outpost in the Northwest Territory. It was one of a system of forts extending from Lake Michigan to the Missouri River. Situated at the confluence of the Mississippi and other Minnesota rivers, ten miles downriver from the Falls, the fort controlled the river highways and was the center of activity for white and Native American traders and travelers. The U.S. Army built roads, established farms, and regulated white settlement., Two views of the government mills in the 1850s., In 1821, soldiers from Fort Snelling built a wood-framed sawmill and, in 1823, completed a stone grist (flour) mill near the foot of present-day Portland Avenue; they also established a small farm. These mills were the first to exploit the power of the Falls for production, using a wooden sluiceway that directed water from above the Falls to a waterwheel. Lumber milled here was used for construction at the fort. The lands on the west bank of the river at the Falls remained under control of the Fort Snelling reservation until 1855, when they were opened to private ownership and development., Map of Minnesota Territory, 1850, showing location of the Falls and Fort Snelling, Waterpower Canal and Tailrace: A Cutaway View , . Milling companies built headrace tunnels to bring water from the main canal to turbines. Individual tailrace tunnels returned the spent flow to the main tailrace canal. , . Water flow was controlled by gates in a gatehouse located between 5th and Portland avenues. , . Wood planking covered the canal. , . Railroad trestles were built above the canal in 1878 and next to the tailrace in 1879., Sawmills , Our Guide to the Falls , William G. LeDuc, ca. 1855. , William was dazzled by the potential of lumber but did not anticipate that flour milling at the Falls would greatly outstrip the importance of sawmilling.,

The natural advantages for the lumber business are as perfect as the most skillful could have contrived. The Logs that are floated down the river, are by a Boom thrown across the river from the upper point of Nicollet Island, turned into the commodious Basin formed by the dam, Nicollet Island, and the left bank of the river. This Basin is large enough to contain millions of logs.

William G. LeDuc, , ca. 1851, Lumbermen arrived in Wisconsin Territory in the 1830s seeking the white pine resources of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers; the first sawmill in what is now Minnesota was established at Marine on the St. Croix in 1839. Franklin Steele and other early investors saw that the Falls of St. Anthony were well situated downstream from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin "pineries" that promised a seemingly limitless supply of timber. Lumber production would dominate the first decades of settlement at the Falls, with spring bringing an influx of new timber in enormous log booms floated down the river. After being processed and sorted at the Falls into piles which were sometimes 60 feet high, the finished product was shipped to new settlements via the river and then by rail., Steele's 1848 sawmill, built over the east channel at the tip of Hennepin Island, was the first commercial operation at the Falls. By the 1850s, fifteen lumber mills were built on platforms extending out from the east and west banks of the river. In the 1860s, lumber production rose from 12 million to 91 million board-feet. Steam power and the railroads, as well as platform fires, encouraged the migration of the sawmills, along with related industries such as sash, door, and blind factories, upriver to Shingle and Bassett's creeks. By the late 1880s, no sawmills remained at the Falls. Minneapolis production, however, continued to lead the nation through the peak year of 1899, when over 594 million board-feet of lumber were produced. Minnesota's big pine-logging era came to an end in the late 1920s with the closing of firms such as the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company in Virginia, Minnesota, once the world's largest white-pine lumber company. An often complex network of companies and investors linked the mills and factories at the Falls with others in cities such as Brainerd, Little Falls, Crookston, Cloquet, Duluth, and International Falls., Log flumes and west-side sawmills, ca. 1865. Sawmills were usually one-story buildings resting on stone or pilings, with machinery in the lower level., Pioneer sawmill, 1865. Such mills relied on circular and gang saws., Evolving sawmill technology as illustrated in Mississippi Valley Lumberman, July 1888., A Tale of Two Cities , St. Anthony and Minneapolis , The towns of St. Anthony on the east bank and Minneapolis on the west bank competed for early primacy. St. Anthony, platted seven years earlier, took a quick lead, but Minneapolis proved the stronger rival in the long run, with early banking and commerce centered here.,

This [St. Anthony] will evidently be the great town of the Territory

William G. LeDuc, ca. 1851, St. Anthony , Mill-site developer Franklin Steele (1813-1880) obtained much of the land on the east side of St. Anthony Falls in 1838 and constructed a dam across the east channel and a sawmill in 1848. In 1849, Steele registered the plat for a townsite, which he named St. Anthony. By 1850, more than 600 residents lived in the town, and by 1855 the population had grown to 3,000., In 1872, the former towns of Minneapolis (at left) and St. Anthony (at right) were joined as Minneapolis., Minneapolis , John Stevens (1820-1900) built the first house on the west side of the river in the winter of 1849-50. At that time, the west-side land was part of Fort Snelling Military Reservation. Clear title to other settlers on the west side of the river was not available until 1855, and not until 1856 was the Town of Minneapolis authorized by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature. Once the land was opened to settlement, development expanded rapidly, and the concentration of industry along the west-side canal was among factors supporting its greater growth. St. Anthony and Minneapolis merged as Minneapolis in 1872., Other Industries at the Falls ,

The Woolen [illegible] made over one hundred and [illegible] thousand yards of cloth the past year, and the ... woodenware establishment sent to market a large quantity of [illegible]. With all of these things to their [illegible] the product will be when the waterpower is properly developed.

Merwin's Directory of Minneapolis and St. Anthony, 1867, Wool, cotton, and paper mills, as well as a variety of other manufacturers, were also part of the west-side milling district, although most of the early mills were eventually converted to grain production. The North Star Woolen Mill, however, was established in 1864 and continued production until the 1940s., North Star Woolen Mill interior, 1905., Paper manufacture was very successful in a number of upper Mississippi River towns, such as Grand Rapids and Little Falls, but it did not have an important presence at the Falls. The Minneapolis Paper Mill was in operation between 1867 and 1889, when it was purchased by the Hennepin Paper Company. They soon moved the business upriver to Little Falls and sold the mill to C.A. Pillsbury and Company for use as a warehouse., Minneapolis Skyline , 1904 . ca. 1920 . 1960 . 1974 . 1980, The Minneapolis skyline in 1857 showed only the beginnings of growth at the Falls of St. Anthony. The Minneapolis Mill Company had just began construction of a canal that would attract mill owners who purchased the waterpower., The Government Mills shown above were erected in 1821-23 near the foot of present-day Portland Ave. S. This photo was taken form the roof of the Winslow House hotel on the east bank, approximately where Lourdes Square townhomes are located today., One hundred years ago, the Minneapolis economy was built on flour and lumber production and on manufacturing. The city's 1900 population was 202,718, reaching 380,582 in 1920. Thousands of European immigrants found employment in the city's expanding industries. A new generation of multi-storied masonry buildings lined downtown streets and reflected the city's economic strength., Hennepin Ave. and Fourth St., looking west, 1904., Trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, ca. 1925.