Customer Reviews

Falls of St Anthony: The Waterfall that Built Minneapolis

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This is an extraordinarily detailed account of the St Anthony Falls cataract with all the names of it's founding father's, companies and buildings that rose and fell around the whole area. This is a must have for anyone who is interested in the history of the downtown Minneapolis/Gateway/Falls. Having worked in one of the buildings that was talked about in the book for the better of five years I have come to appreciate the wonderful history of Mill City as it once was. I highly recommend this book, especially given the fact that the brand new Mill City Museum will be opening up in May 2003.

I recently visited (Summer 2005) the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis, which is in the remains of one of the flour mill buildings on the west side of the river. I had no clue about Minneapolis's origins as a milling power (both sawmills and flour mills), since the flour-milling heyday ended in the 1930s, and the last flour milling on the west side occurred in the 1960s, before I was born.

The book covers the the time from the discovery of the falls by Father Hennepin in the 1600s, and looks at the events which led to their development as an industrial powersource that didn't end until the middle 20th century.

It is pretty wordy, but well-written, and a reader will feel rewarded by the in-depth knowledge of the area. There are some pictures and maps, but they are not the meat of the book.

If there's one thing against the book, it is age. It was originally written shortly after the west-side milling operations ended, and at the time was titled _The Waterfall that Built a City: The Falls of St. Anthony in Minneapolis_. This, the revised edition (which I have), was written two decades later, but a lot changed in the area, so that some businesses and buildings referred to in the final chapter no longer exist in their locations. Even the last mill on the west side, the Washburn "A" mill, was mostly destroyed by fire in 1991, after the book was written.

This would be a great book for someone who loves industrial history, urban history, or the Twin Cities area.

Couldn't put this book down. Never realized the area history was so rich and significant. Recommend also "City of Parks: The Story of Minneapolis Parks" by David C. Smith which describes a whole other movement that was going on in parallel/juxtaposition with the industrial and business development of the Falls. The story related here has lessons we can draw from and apply in today's world.