Minneapolis

the largest city of Minnesota. The name is a monstrous compound of minne, Dakota for water, and polis, Greek for city. Minneapolis is situated on the Mississippi 2,200 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The site is a wide, level, flood plain encircled by bluffs about 150 feet high. The city lies on both sides of the Mississippi about the Falls of St. Anthony. The banks above the falls are low. The river cuts a deep gorge below. Numerous wagon and railway bridges span the river. A stone arch railway bridge curves from shore to shore at the head of the gorge, and affords passengers a striking view of the falls and the milling district.

The first building was a government sawmill established for the benefit of Fort Snelling. The eastern bank was presented by Franklin Steele in 1838. He laid out the town of St. Anthony. Ten years later he built a sawmill. In 1849 John H. Stevens was permitted to take up a "farm" on the west side. The town of Minneapolis laid out here soon outstripped St. Anthony. In early days they were connected by a suspension bridge. In 1872 St. Anthony was annexed by its lusty rival.

The city owes its early prosperity to the waterpower. It is situated advantageously between one of the greatest lumber-producing regions of the world and a vast area of fertile prairie needing building material. The pine of the upper Mississippi and its tributaries is floated down the river to Minneapolis and cut into lumber, then shipped out into the prairies for hundreds of miles.

The early sawmills were located at the falls, and were operated by water power; but they now use steam, having been driven up river two or three miles to find room to pile lumber. Owing to the impatience with which the forests were culled for the choicest logs, and the vast amount of timber destroyed by forest fires, the winter cut of logs is declining steadily. The magnitude of the lumber industry may be inferred from the number of feet sawed in representative years:

The maximum cut of 560,000,000 was attained in 1901.

A second feature in the upbuilding of the city is the flour industry. The region northwest of the city produces the best flourmaking wheat in the world. Large flouring mills were erected at an early date. The lumber industry has declined, but Minneapolis is still the greatest flour-producing city in the world, its closest rival being Budapest, Hungary. The first flouring mill in the city was built by a detachment of soldiers from Fort Snelling in 1823. The first merchant mill was erected in 1854. The Hungarian process of grinding with rollers was introduced into Minneapolis about 1870. As high as 16,450,000 barrels have been shipped in a single year, but the average output of flour is about 14,000,000 barrels a year, about one-fourth of which is exported to foreign countries. There are a score of large flouring mills. Nearly all are owned by one or the other of three combinations known as the Pillsbury-Wash-burn, the Washburn-Crosby, and the Northwestern Consolidated companies. The mills cluster in a district at the falls. Steam is used to supplement the water power. In 1905 93,263,000 bushels of wheat were received. The mills have a combined capacity of 83,000 barrels of flour daily.

The importance of the flour industry may be indicated:

Minneapolis is the greatest all-rail grain market in the world. The elevator capacity of the city, including fifty houses, is 41,000,000 bushels. As high as 156,000,000 bushels of wheat, oats, corn, rye, barley, and flax have been received in a single season. It is the center of northwestern linseed oil production. The local mills have a capacity for crushing 13,000,000 bushels of flax seed yearly. An immense business is done in shipping malt, ground feed, and the by-products of the mills, as bran, shorts, and oil-cake. Seven thousand cars of oilcake are shipped for Europe yearly.

Other industries have gathered around sawing and milling. Sash and doors, furniture, bedding, moldings, crackers, and breakfast foods are made on a large scale. Cooper shops supply the flouring mills with barrels. There are also manufactures of boots and shoes, woolens, agricultural machinery, office and school desks, linseed oil, paint, and paper. The total manufactures of the year are valued at $150,000,000 and give employment to 30,000 men. Over twenty lines of railway bring in grain and farm produce and carry out groceries, machinery, dry goods, implements, and jobbers' goods of every description.

The location and site of the city favor industrial growth. The city is surrounded by an amphitheater of hills, unusually favorable for the growth of a sightly city. A system of city parks with thirty miles of connecting driveways and boulevards has been laid out on a generous scale. The city schools, including five high schools, are maintained liberally. The state university of 5,000 students is located here. The most noteworthy public building is a combined city hall and court house. It is built of granite and is five stories high, occupying an entire block. The total cost was not far from $4,000,000. There were, September 1,1909, eighteen banks having total deposits of $72,000,000. The bank clearings for 1909 were $1,029,914,855. The assessed valuation for 1909 was $176,000,000. The population of Minneapolis in 1900 was reported officially at 202,718. According to the state census of 1905, the population was 261,974. Estimates made in advance of the census of 1910 claimed 300,000.

See Saint Anthony; Hennepin; Minnesota; Minnehaha