Father Hennepin Bluffs

In June 1680, Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, first viewed the Falls of St. Anthony from this site and named the falls for his patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua. The waterfall, the most abrupt drop in the 2,200-mile course of the Mississippi River, was responsible for the birth of Minneapolis. This ground, formerly Lucy Wilder Morris Park, commemorates St. Anthony Falls; its original area was three-tenths of an acre and it was owned by the Hennepin County Historical Society. During the summer of 1971, this land and surrounding unused Northern States Power Company acreage were cleaned, revitalized, opened to the public, and the full six-acre tract was renamed Father Hennepin Bluffs.

Minneapolis, Minnesota · United States