Perseverance Needed

Anoka endured repeated economic and natural disasters yet repeatedly rebuilt and remained a vital community. After Anoka County was organized in 1857 and Anoka became the county seat, the young town was hit by a grasshopper plague that destroyed crops, followed by a financial panic that closed banks, made currency scarce, and sharply increased unemployment. Economic swings continued for decades, and groups such as the Commercial Club sometimes used their own money to help businesses establish themselves, seeking more jobs, income, services, and quality of life. Because Anoka was a lumbering town with mostly wooden buildings, fires were a constant hazard: buildings including the newspaper office burned in 1863, ten stores downtown were lost in 1869, and in 1877 fire alarms led to the loss of 40 buildings and more than 6 million board feet of lumber. The largest fire came on August 16, 1884, when 86 buildings burned and the business district on the east side of the river was destroyed, after which rebuilding began almost at once and brick became the preferred material. Flooding was another recurring threat at the confluence of two rivers, made more frequent and often more severe after the Coon Rapids dam was built in 1913 and ice jams increased. Floodwater covered the end of Second Avenue in 1940, reached its highest level in 33 years in 1952, and in 1965 damaged 59 homes in the worst flood in Anoka's history; redevelopment of floodplain land in 2001 used fill and technology to keep homes above the 100-year flood plain. Despite a folk belief that a tornado could not strike at the meeting of two rivers, a tornado crossed from Champlin on Sunday, June 18, 1939, killing nine people, injuring many others, and affecting about 240 families. The National Guard was called in, rebuilding began before cleanup ended, some residents survived dramatic building collapses, and a last-minute move of the Tenth District American Legion Convention from the National Guard Armory to City Hall may have saved lives because the armory was destroyed.

Anoka, Minnesota · United States