About 12,000 years ago, glacial Lake Agassiz drained down the River Warren to create the Mississippi River. Some 11,000 years ago, a waterfall about 2,700 feet wide and 175 feet high stood in what is now downtown Saint Paul. Over thousands of years, the falls eroded the soft limestone riverbed and retreated upstream to what is now Saint Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis, carving the only gorge along the entire length of the Mississippi. Named by the Ojibwe, Mississippi means “the father of waters, or great waters.” Early written accounts portrayed it as a great river of winding gorges and white water, with a crooked channel winding between reefs of solid rock and a strong current. The river’s bluffs, bottomland forests, open water, wetlands, and islands followed its natural cycles and provided a haven for wildlife, while fish such as skipjack herring migrated upriver each spring to spawn and many animals thrived in and along the river.
