A Changing Landscape

Mill Ruins Park occupies Minneapolis's former flour-milling district along the west bank of the Mississippi River, where between 1858 and 1930 the Minneapolis Mill Company waterpower canal helped make the city the nation's leading producer of flour, most of it manufactured in the twenty-five mills lining the canal. Begun in 1857 and completed in part in 1858, the canal system drew power from the Falls of St. Anthony through a dam, headrace, main canal, and tailrace, with individual mill tunnels and flumes feeding turbines before returning spent water to the river. Expanded in 1867 and by 1885, and lined by mills, a woolen mill, a sawmill, and the city waterworks, the canal anchored what became the country's most densely industrialized direct-drive waterpower district, especially after the New Process of the 1870s encouraged major new mill construction. After the flour-milling industry's decline and widespread demolition in the 1930s, the area shifted to warehousing, light manufacturing, and some hydropower use until the Upper Lock closed the canal in 1960, ending the waterpower era. Long-range ideas for a public riverfront park, proposed by H.W.S. Cleveland in 1883 and again in the 1917 Plan of Minneapolis by Edward H. Bennett and Andrew W. Crawford, gained momentum as the area was rediscovered for its history and scenery. The St. Anthony Falls Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, archaeological excavations began in 1983, several industrial buildings were rehabilitated in 1987, and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board acquired the site in 1988. Today the park includes the Falls of St. Anthony, the power canal and tailraces, James J. Hill's Stone Arch Bridge, remnants of early bridges, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Lock and Dam, reused historic mill buildings, and buried mill foundations that still await further archaeological discovery.

Minneapolis, Minnesota · United States