Mill City: A Visual History Of The Minneapolis Mill District (Minnesota) [Paperback]

Shannon Pennefeather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0873514475 | ISBN-13: 978-0873514477 | Edition: 1

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 labourers 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 levelled 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

"MILL CITY is marvelous history. As a lifelong resident of Minneapolis, 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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press; 1 edition (May 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873514475
• ISBN-13: 978-0873514477
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > Midwest

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take me to the river..., February 4, 2006

By 

ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mill City: A Visual History Of The Minneapolis Mill District (Minnesota) (Paperback)

By looking at Minneapolis's somewhat neglected, stratified, and industrial riverfront, visitors (and even some residents) may find it difficult to believe that those stiff concrete falls started it all. But their once wildly raging waters attracted tourists, prospectors, and businessmen in droves. Before that, Native Americans thought of the falls and the now lost Spirit Island as sacred places. Later, european settlers saw opportunity cascading over the surreptitously fragile limestone and sandstone drop. Travel writers wrote of their stunning beauty and power. In the end, a collective fascination with that mere sixteen and a half feet of falling water literally fueled the development of a major metropolitan center. The city of St. Anthony sprouted on the falls' east bank in the 1830s by utilizing the churning water for saw mills and grist mills. And once the military released the west bank for public development in the 1850s, a city also started to flourish there. The two river-straddled cities joined forces in 1872 under the common name "Minneapolis". And St. Anthony Falls provided the perfect union for the already highly coupled communities. Though the falls may appear a little less than impressive today they obscure a wealth of history. "Mill City" attempts to reclaim St. Anthony Falls' right to the birthplace of Minneapolis.

The book follows a rough chronological path that starts with Father Louis Hennepin's visit to the falls in 1680 and ends with the era of the Flour Mills in the 1960s. It includes very little information on the pre-european era. The majority of the text comes from contemporaneous personal testimonies of people who visited or settled at the falls. The book quotes directly from the writings of people such as Father Louis Hennepin (he claimed that the falls rose over sixty feet - a slight miscalculation), early explorers Jonathan Carver and Stephen Long, nineteenth century travelers Elizabeth Ellet and Fredrika Bremer, Colonel Josiah Snelling, John H. Stevens (he built the first house on the falls' west bank in 1849; it was later moved to a park near Minnehaha Falls and still stands), early settlers Ann North and Emily O.G. Grey, Coopers, flour packers, and a host of other people who lived and worked at the falls. This approach gives the book an "as it happened" feel. We learn about the riverfront from the very people who lived it.

The falls and the river also proved worthwhile adversaries for early Minneapolitans. The book tells the stories of the disasterous collapse of a tunnel beneath the falls in 1869 (the falls almost disappeared) and the massive Washburn A Mill explosion of 1878. Somehow the riverfront survived despite such tragedies. But it didn't survive economics. The area pretty much dried up after Buffalo, New York became the new center of flour milling in the 1930s. Some mills remained open but the activity ceased on the riverfront until very recently. The book's final chapeter, "reclaiming the riverfront", talks about a revitalization in the 1980s that once again brought people to the falls area. Converted historical buildings became unique shopping centers. But the book doesn't mention the swift decline of this revitalization in the 1990s. Shopping malls became office buildings and the local tourist population thinned considerably. Nonetheless, the opening of the Stone Arch Bridge in 1994 (built in the 1880s) still attracts numerous walkers and sightseers. And the Mill City museum opened in 2003 and brought attention once again to Minneapolis's watery origins. But the area today remains somewhat obscure compared to other bustling parts of the city.

The book also tells other stories between the lines. In the 1820s a sawmill and a gristmill were the first buildings built on the current site of Minneapolis. Lumbering soon exploded throughout the area. But by 1930, only about a hundred years later, the lumber industry had depleted nearly all of the area's pine trees. In the process, log jams and debris choked the Mississippi river and made the falls far less visually appealing. Tourism plummetted. Following the announcement of the construction of an apron on the lip of the falls the Minneapolis Tribune printed "Now is the time for all those who wish to take a final look at old St. Anthony Falls in its natural condition." The year was 1869. Though Minneapolis boomed, its rapid acceleration came at the cost of the natural falls and the area's forests.

And of course the book is loaded with amazing photographs from all eras. Not only that, the first section contains various drawings and paintings of the falls before european settlement. These are worth the price alone.

"Mill City" offers a great introduction to Minneapolis history. It also fosters an appreciation of the importance of the riverfront area and St. Anthony falls. People who read this book can walk across the Stone Arch Bridge, gaze at the modern implements that now scatter the river, and say "it all started here."

4.0 out of 5 stars Good historical read, November 7, 2010

By 

Robert W. Moses "Caladan" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Mill City: A Visual History Of The Minneapolis Mill District (Minnesota) (Paperback)

A good read to learn more about the region and twin cities. I learned a lot and enjoyed the anecdotes. This really fills in a lot if you want to know more about the region, the mills, the falls and the people who settled and built up the area.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read...Very Interesting and well written., December 27, 2009

By 

Pat in Wisconsin (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mill City: A Visual History Of The Minneapolis Mill District (Minnesota) (Paperback)

I realy enjoyed this book. I just finished it last night and I could not put it down once I startd. I used to work in the area and always wondered what it was like before the mills closed. The book walks through a time from the discovery of St Anthony Falls to the builing of the musesums. If you are intersted in the milling of Minneapolis or just St Anthony's history...this book is for you.