Electricity and Minneapolis

Electricity and Minneapolis. … Grew Up Together. ,

"The astounding fact about Minneapolis in 198 is that men live there today who can remember when Minneapolis was not. Sixty years ago there was no Territory of Minnesota. These are matters for marvel as one sees this vast expanse of stone on stone, and brick on brick, stretching miles wide below the daytime haze of urban activity brilliant at night with winking city lights." , , "Minneapolis: A Field for the Light and Power Business," Stone and Webster Public Service Journal, 1908

, Bird's-eye view looking N.W. from Court House, Minneapolis, Minn., Electric light went from novelty in the late nineteenth century to necessity by the early twentieth century. Minnesota Historical Society,

"So common is the use of electricity to-day, the telephone, the electric light, the electric cars and the various other electrical inventions are taken so as a matter of course, that it seems scarcely possible that all of them have come into general use since the birth of the Minneapolis boys not yet grown to manhood." , , "Electrical Progress of Twenty-five Years," Minneapolis Journal, November 26, 1903

, History is the story of change., Hennepin Island has had many lives in the past two centuries, majestic wilderness, vibrant sawmilling hub, heart of the city's power grid, sleepy backwater. Its rebirth as a part, owned and operated by Xcel Energy, provides a chance to explore the history of the island and its environs in the middle of the Mississippi, at the brink of Saint Anthony Falls, the birthplace of Minneapolis., Your path to Hennepin Island is a recent chapter in the island's ongoing history. Main Street Station (to your left) stands on a dam built around 1870 for a row of sawmills. The dam was modified when the first hydroelectric plant was erected here in 1894, and again when this plant was built in 1911. The powerful Mississippi was the dam's persistent foe, and by the late 1990s the river was making headway. Leakage was becoming a serious concern for the aging limestone and concrete dam., To address this problem, a new "cell" dam was installed in front of the old dam in 2000. Piles and sheets of steel were driven into the riverbed, forming a series of interconnected cylinders. These cells, about 29' in diameter, were filled with rock. The cell dam now supports the walkway to Hennepin Island. An earth berm is between the new and old dams.