Coon Rapids Dam

During construction of the Coon Rapids Dam in 1913, a small village sprang up nearby and at peak construction became a full community with bunkhouses, mess halls, officials' quarters, a school, a hospital, a sewer system, and even births, deaths, weddings, social events, crime, fires, and a telephone exchange. About 1,000 residents worked around the clock in shifts to build the dam at Coon Creek Rapids, later shortened to Coon Rapids, a site chosen because it was one of the shallowest points on the river, where raccoons populated the shallow waters. The Dunn family sold the last piece of land needed for construction. The dam required 42,000 cubic feet of concrete and 800 boxcar loads of crushed rock, raised the water north of the dam by 15 feet, and generated electricity from 1919 to 1960. In 1998, the original dam was replaced with one using inflatable rubber walls.

Coon Rapids, Minnesota · United States