Mill District, Minneapolis

Keeping with my "staying home" theme, I did some wandering around in the Mill District. This has been the first weekend without rain for a month, so I was itching to get out and snap some more photos.

The Mill District was born from the only natural waterfall on the Mississippi called St. Anthony Falls, which powered the mills. In its heyday from 1880 to about 1930, Minneapolis was—by far—the world's largest producer of flour. Some of the most ubiquitous American baking and flour brands such as Pillsbury, Gold Medal, Betty Crocker, among others were milled, packaged, and shipped across the world from here.

If not for St. Anthony Falls and flour milling, the city of Minneapolis would likely not exist.

The Mill District has changed dramatically since the mid-20th century. Flour is no longer produced here, and the mills have long since closed. Fires have destroyed some of the original mills, and the remaining have all been converted to condominiums and offices. The Washburn "A" Mill became the Mill City Museum, where visitors can get an up-close tour of the inner-workings of a 19th century flour mill. On the riverbank below, ruins of mills and their canals have been excavated and can be viewed up-close on boardwalks. Recently, the city has proposed excavating the rest of the ruins and restoring the original canal system with an interpretive center, along with a new public plaza and more green space along the river.

Because it was a picture-perfect May evening, people were all over the place, enjoying the spring sunshine. I'll admit that I overdid it with the people shots, but I couldn't resist.

Mill District, Minneapolis
May 12, 2012