Mills and Millraces

Mills and Millraces. . ,

In its heyday, the West Side Milling District was a maze of interconnected buildings–perhaps the largest flour milling machine ever built.

St. Anthony Falls Rediscovered (1980), 1898, By 1900, the milling district around the Falls of St. Anthony was the world's leading direct-drive waterpower center and the leader in world flour production. Many of the water-powered system components, including the Falls, dams, spillways, canals, and tailraces, can be seen in and around Mill Ruins Park. The foundations of many old mills form the heart of the park, and the remaining mill buildings, now recycled into new uses, including housing, offices, and museums, line its edges., 1857-1870 , About 25 companies leased the waterpower and built mills along the main waterpower canal in the first decade of commercial development at the Falls. In addition to ten flour mills, there were sawmills, machine shops, and textile and paper mills. The early flour mills were heavy timber-frame buildings that used traditional millstone technology. They were often clad in wood and were very prone to fire., 1867 , The first generation of traditional mill buildings along the west side waterpower canal was short-lived., 1870-1880 , With the increased concentration of flour manufacturing along the canal in the 1870s, large new mills reflected advances in technology, including revolutionary milling practices such as the "New Process" that eliminated flour discoloration and gluten deficiency. The new generation of large masonry buildings were multi-storied structures engineered specifically for flour manufacture., By 1885, new construction had largely replaced the earlier generation of mills; the platform sawmills at right were gone by 1887. , Beginning in the 1880s, Minneapolis' reputation as Flour City was promoted in postcard and other advertising., 1880-1930 , The 1880s and 1890s brought the corporate consolidation of milling companies and adoption of technology such as steel rollers. New bridges and railroad trestles serving the mills enhanced the manufacturing process, and electricity and steam began to supplement waterpower., 1907, After 1930 , Flour manufacturing in Minneapolis declined steeply by 1930, reflecting changes in freight and tariff policies and the shift to milling centers in Chicago, Buffalo, and Kansas City. Fires and demolition altered the mill skyline., In the 1930s, the west side milling district was a smoky industrial zone. General Mills' advertising of the period (at left) showed a more idealized view., A Minneapolis flour mill, ca. [illegible]. Designed for function, each component of the building had a purpose. (Based on diagram in Northwestern Miller, 1894), 1869, Mill Ruins Park , Mill Ruins Park, opened in 2001, includes the ruins of nineteenth-century mills, the restored waterpower canal deck and main tailrace, and other features that tell the story of the human presence at the Falls of St. Anthony., The park encompasses the original property of the Minneapolis Mill Company, the consortium which started development of the west-side waterpower resources in 1857, including its waterpower canal, control gates, and main tailrace. By 1885, over 30 industrial buildings, including 25 flour mills, lined the canal., In addition to these historic hydropower components, the park preserves the foundations of the mills that lined the north side of the waterpower canal. In construction between 2000 and 2003, the main tailrace and several mill foundations were excavated and restored and a wood-plank roadway was reconstructed at the location of the original wooden canal deck. Future public archaeology programs will interpret the history of the Falls of St. Anthony and the development of the world's largest flour-manufacturing center., The Main Tailrace , The main tailrace, looking upriver, ca. 1895., The Minneapolis Mill Company letterhead (1885) features the main tailrace and the Falls of St. Anthony. Missing from the view is the Stone Arch Bridge, completed in 1883., The main tailrace, looking downriver, ca. 1895., Atlas of the City of Minneapolis, C.M. Foote and Co., 1892., The main tailrace canal which runs through the heart of Mill Ruins Park is part of the waterpower system begun by the Minneapolis Mill Company in 1857. In cooperation with the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company on the east side of the river, a V-shaped dam was built across the main river channel and water was directed into mill ponds and spillways. In the same year, the Minneapolis Mill Company built a canal to bring water to the west-side mills at the "above the Falls" elevation, full of potential energy. That canal runs along the alignment of present-day West River Parkway. From the canal, water flowed through headgates into the mills along the canal and dropped down shafts through turbines that powered milling machinery. Finally, water was discharged through tailrace tunnels into the main tailrace canal and thus back to the river, below the Falls. Water flow into the main canal was regulated by wood gates below a gatehouse. The first wood gatehouse structure was replaced in 1885 with a brick building, and the old wood gates were replaced with granite., Waterpower was leased to mill and factory owners, and each user's allocation was carefully monitored. Due to the heavy appropriation of water for milling, the Falls only produced the maximum flow of over 10,000 cubic feet per second during the spring floods. After 1900 and the completion of the Mississippi River Headwaters Reservoirs in northern Minnesota, fluctuations in this flow were stabilized., When milling along the riverfront declined in the early twentieth century, many of the mills were partly demolished, and the canal and tailraces were filled in. These historic treasures were rediscovered with the construction of the first phases of Mill Ruins Park in 2001-2003., Our Guide to the Falls ,

It has a perpendicular fall of near 20 feet and rapids above and below over descending surfaces... in some places. Rocks of an acre in extent with a declination of about 1 upon 100 and a surface as smooth as a polished floor have a descending sheet of water of a foot or two in depth dashing over them with the velocity of an arrow with a surface as brilliant as a mirror. There are chasms on either side where the water foams and careens into madness....

William G. LeDuc, at the Falls of St. Anthony, ca. 1851, William Gates LeDuc (1823-1917) was a native of Ohio and an early promoter of Minnesota. A lawyer and bookseller, he arrived in St. Paul in 1851 and established a bookstore. In the next year, he helped his brother Joseph start a bookstore on Main Street in St. Anthony. As author of the Minnesota Yearbook (1851-53), William promoted the potential of the state's resources., William participated in many of the early political events of the Territory and State of Minnesota. A brevetted Brigadeer [sic] General in the Civil War, he was involved in mill and railroad businesses and served as Commissioner of Agriculture from 1877 to 1881., About 1851, LeDuc recorded his impression of the Falls of St. Anthony and the potential of the area. His writing reflects his interest in nature as well as his investor's instincts., W.G. LeDuc (left) wrote about the Falls at about the same time that photographer Alexander Healer made this 1851 view., W.G. LeDuc manuscript, ca. 1851., Engineering the Falls , The Falls of St. Anthony were the focus of Native American reverence and a sought-after landmark for European explorers. By the 1840s, their potential as a generator of waterpower for mills and factories presented an engineering problem to be solved. Preservation of the Falls' limestone escarpment became increasingly important as industrial activity, including the battering of logs during annual log drives, threatened the brittle protective cap., Beginning in 1866, when a wooden apron was constructed over the falls, the appearance of the rocky ledge was modified to preserve it from further erosion, transforming it from a geologic feature into a stabilized engineering structure. Following the breach of the Falls in 1869, when a speculative tunnel project collapsed and undercut the geological structure of the area, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers installed a massive concrete dike above the Falls. Each following decade brought repairs and improvements to the apron, culminating in the Lower (1956) and Upper (1963) St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam projects, which allowed boats to travel easily to Minneapolis for the first time., The aprons tamed the appearance of the Falls, while many other projects engineered the banks and floor of the river. Despite these modifications, periods of high water still bring the roar and mist at the Falls that Native Americans and early explorers experienced., The Falls before the first apron was constructed, 1851., An early stage of apron construction, ca. 1870., The completed apron., Repairs to the apron, 1895., The apron (at left) in 1910., The apron in 1980., Engineering Timeline: Projects that Changed the Falls and Riverbanks, East Channel/Hennepin Island , 1848 , Dam at north end of Hennepin Island , 1856 , Farnham and Lovejoy Dam , 1871 , East Main Dam , 1890s , Spillway construction on Hennepin Island, Main Dam rebuilt , 1895 , Mpls. General Electric Hydroelectric Plant, Main Channel , 1852 , Channel clearing , 1858 , Main Channel Dam , 1876 , Dike and spill dams , 1930 , West Main Dam rebuilt, East Side , 1866 , Chute Tunnel , 1869 , Eastman Tunnel collapse , 1880 , Main Street Tunnel collapse , 1897-98 , Lower Dam and Hydropower Station , 1987 , Collapse of Lower Hydrostation, Falls , 1866; 1869 , First and second wooden apron , 1872-1884 , Apron repair and construction , 1892 , Apron repair , 1916 , Apron repair , 1955 , Concrete apron, West Side , 1857 , 1st Street (main waterpower) Canal , 1884 , Hydroelectric plant on Upton Island , 1885-1890 , Enlargement of canal; reconstruction of gatehouse and main tailrace , 1887 , Platform sawmills burn , 1956-63 , Construction of Upper and Lower Locks , 1959-1962 , 1st St. Canal and tailrace filled in; gatehouse razed