| It must have seemed like the perfect place to | | | | came to the rescue with expertise and federal |
| build a home, with the rivers, the falls, and the | | | | funding. Although the lumber supply would be |
| lakes around them. The Sioux and the Ojibwe | | | | depleted by the early 20th century, wheat was a |
| nations had at one time called this place their own, | | | | renewable resource and the flour mills continued |
| until the Issati Sioux captured a Franciscan | | | | to thrive. Minneapolis led the world in flour |
| missionary, Father Louis Hennepin, around 1680. A | | | | production for several years, until the Great |
| member of an exploratory expedition, he and two | | | | Depression skewed supply and demand. Flour and |
| others involuntarily traveled with the Sioux for six | | | | grain continue to be major industries in the area. |
| months while he renamed the waters on behalf | | | | Minneapolis citizens had their share of excitement |
| of France. Somehow the name of the St. | | | | in the 20th century. Two carburetor builders |
| Anthony Falls survived long after Father Hennepin | | | | decided to build a 25-horsepower flying machine in |
| traveled back to Europe, and the news of the | | | | 1909 (just six years after Kitty Hawk), and |
| natural resources spread. When the Americans | | | | probably inspired a 14-minute flying exhibition at |
| came back to stay, the Indians were eventually | | | | the next Minnesota State Fair. In 1921, the |
| "relocated". | | | | opening act for the city's first vaudeville theater |
| The soldiers from nearby Fort Snelling took local | | | | production was a little known act called the Marx |
| wheat crops and began to build mills near the falls. | | | | Brothers. A violent Teamsters strike in 1934 got |
| The combination of water power and natural | | | | the attention of the government, who had to |
| resources, such as wheat and timber, attracted | | | | intervene to calm things down. Another storm |
| experienced millers from the east, and with them | | | | was weathered in 1946 when Mayor Hubert H. |
| came more settlers, all looking for work. One | | | | Humphrey responded to reports of anti-Semitism |
| enterprising Dakota woman even used her canoe | | | | in Minneapolis by using his office to be a voice for |
| to earn money by ferrying people across the | | | | civil rights. Engineering improvements at the St. |
| Mississippi River. When the press came to town, | | | | Anthony Falls were in place by the 1960s, and |
| the newspapers probably facilitated discussions on | | | | tourism began to soar upon completion of the Mall |
| naming the booming community. They decided to | | | | of America in 1992. |
| combine the Sioux word "minne" with the Greek | | | | Today, Minneapolis consistently ranks as one of |
| suffix "-polis" to name it "the city of water". | | | | the best places to live and work in the United |
| Railroads gave the millers a more efficient | | | | States. Modern developments like the enclosed |
| transportation option, and helped to establish | | | | pedestrian skyway and the Sculpture Garden |
| Minneapolis as a major producer of flour and | | | | continue to inspire some, but to others, the city's |
| lumber. A crisis arose when the structural integrity | | | | character will always be defined by its natural |
| of their power source, the St. Anthony Falls was | | | | resources and its Native American heritage. |
| in question, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | | | | |