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Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District
Minnesota Book Award Winner!
St. Anthony Falls—the birthplace of Minneapolis—has a storied past. This astonishing work of nature drew the awe and admiration of explorers, its tremendous waterpower provided a basis for economic wealth, and the industries it powered offered settlers countless opportunities to make their living. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Minneapolis evolved from a tourist destination to a sawdust town to the nation's Mill City, firmly establishing itself as the premier city of the Northwest.
In Mill City, explorers, excursionists, early settlers, entrepreneurs, and laborers tell the story of St. Anthony Falls in their own words. Their vivid accounts are paired with historic photographs and artworks that bring their experiences to life.
St. Anthony Falls is the only significant waterfall along the Mississippi River. Nineteenth-century visitors were quick to note the waterpower potential of the cataract, and it wasn't long before sawmills and then flour mills were located along the shore. Drawing on energy generated by the cataract's fifteen-foot drop, Minneapolis was a leading manufacturer of lumber from 1848 to 1887 and the nation's leading producer of flour from 1880 to 1930.
This book includes accounts by the earliest European visitors to St. Anthony Falls, the children who played in the 1880s lumberyards along the banks of the Mississippi River, and workers in twentieth-century flour mills. Primary documents describe innovations in waterpower and the milling process that contributed to the successes of the Mill City. And witnesses to disasters along its shores—including the 1869 tunnel collapse that nearly destroyed the falls and the 1878 Washburn A Mill explosion that killed eighteen workers and leveled the west side milling district—provide vivid narratives of these events and the unity of purpose with which the Mill City's residents worked to ensure the survival of its industries.
Through stories and images, the history of Minneapolis is firmly connected to St. Anthony Falls, where it all began.
Praise for Mill
"Mill City is marvelous history. As a lifelong resident of Minneapolis—old St. Anthony, actually—I now know much more about the environs I've prowled around for so long. The stories and photographs make the history of the mill district come alive."—Don Fraser, former mayor of Minneapolis
St. Anthony Falls—the birthplace of Minneapolis—has a storied past. This astonishing work of nature drew the awe and admiration of explorers, its tremendous waterpower provided a basis for economic wealth, and the industries it powered offered settlers countless opportunities to make their living. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Minneapolis evolved from a tourist destination to a sawdust town to the nation's Mill City, firmly establishing itself as the premier city of the Northwest.
In Mill City, explorers, excursionists, early settlers, entrepreneurs, and laborers tell the story of St. Anthony Falls in their own words. Their vivid accounts are paired with historic photographs and artworks that bring their experiences to life.
St. Anthony Falls is the only significant waterfall along the Mississippi River. Nineteenth-century visitors were quick to note the waterpower potential of the cataract, and it wasn't long before sawmills and then flour mills were located along the shore. Drawing on energy generated by the cataract's fifteen-foot drop, Minneapolis was a leading manufacturer of lumber from 1848 to 1887 and the nation's leading producer of flour from 1880 to 1930.
This book includes accounts by the earliest European visitors to St. Anthony Falls, the children who played in the 1880s lumberyards along the banks of the Mississippi River, and workers in twentieth-century flour mills. Primary documents describe innovations in waterpower and the milling process that contributed to the successes of the Mill City. And witnesses to disasters along its shores—including the 1869 tunnel collapse that nearly destroyed the falls and the 1878 Washburn A Mill explosion that killed eighteen workers and leveled the west side milling district—provide vivid narratives of these events and the unity of purpose with which the Mill City's residents worked to ensure the survival of its industries.
Through stories and images, the history of Minneapolis is firmly connected to St. Anthony Falls, where it all began.
Praise for Mill
"Mill City is marvelous history. As a lifelong resident of Minneapolis—old St. Anthony, actually—I now know much more about the environs I've prowled around for so long. The stories and photographs make the history of the mill district come alive."—Don Fraser, former mayor of Minneapolis
- GenresHistory
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
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27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2024
Our family has always loved the Minneapolis Mill District: especially the Stone Arch Bridge and Mill Ruins Park. This book, which I spotted in the gift shop in the James J. Hill House, is a lovely, compact, accessible tribute to the region’s geography and history, and offers a nice array of first-hand source material (through letters, articles, and journal entries) from people of all all walks of life who saw St. Anthony Falls and the surrounding region in all phases of its “virginity” and subsequent development. Short on pages, long on information, I learned much from this well-researched, well-assembled collection!
March 18, 2012
Great history is this one and well written. If you are interested in the Mills then this one will feed you well.
August 5, 2025
I appreciated the mentions of the destructive power of the St. Anthony Falls (or Minirara to the Sioux, aka the "Irrara" cataracts, "Laughing Water", or Owahmenah to the Ojibwe, p.x, 17), such as at certain points in the early history of the city: the yearly débâcle of lumberer's logs, laying dormant on the frozen water until the spring thaw releases them, all of a sudden (p.49); again, at a time when the sawmills dominated, how the logs floating downstream, uncontrollably tumbling over the limestone ledge, deformed the falls (illustrated in three plates, p.21, pp.52-3); later, when the mills tried to control the waters, how flooding destroyed the half-finished wooden apron (p.70, plate p.71); and the company's underestimating the tunneling effect of the waters, such as in a notorious man-made accident in which a large triangular chunk of Hennepin Island broke off (pp.74-76 "the torrent went down under Hennepin Island, undermined a portion of the island, wrecking several buildings", plates pp.76, 78, 79). Not covered much here is how the falls themselves moved in stepwise progression up the river, over time, as the ledge of the falls was undermined--the geology is explained cursorily (pp. 7-8,19). See this map (from Wikipedia): 
"A diagram showing the recession of the falls between 1680 and 1887"
"A diagram showing the recession of the falls between 1680 and 1887"
The instability of the falls explains why steps had to be taken to stabilize it ("Building an Apron", pp.70-71, 73), if the city was going to continue to use the water as a source of power, first for "Sawdust Town", then for "Mill City", then for hydropower running rapid transit (pp.88-9, with streetcars all the way to Stillwater, 48 miles away, powered by the falls), and eventually for navigation of the upper Mississippi. "The water power of Lowell is a baby compared to ours." (p.72). The book addresses the history prior to the much later tourist moniker of the "City of Lakes", that goes well together with the state's name, Minnesota signifying water-country.
Glossy paperback edition, with 100 black & white plates (including many reproductions of early photography), plus 1 color plate on the back cover (an advertisement for Chas.A.Pillsbury & Co., "merchant millers", Minneapolis, USA). Oddly, some of the printed pages are much fainter than others, at least in my copy-- If it was a conscious decision of the printing house ('printed in Hong Kong'!), it was an annoying one: the faded, old-timey pages are much harder to read. With an index provided, but with some obvious entries missing, such as for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (infra plate p.71: "in 1954 a permanent concrete apron was erected"; p.128, plate p.129), for the Boyden Turbine water wheel (p.107), for the Glacial River Warren (p.8), not even for Union Depot (p.82).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews