Minnesota’s first grains of wheat sprouted in the southeastern part of the state, but the epicenter of production soon shifted to the Red River Valley in the northwestern part of the state. Minnesota produced its first wheat in 1820. But because…

In 1915, flour production in Minneapolis peaked at about two million barrels. From there, the mills started a slow descent from world leadership to only a memory of their former glory. In 1880, Minneapolis was known as the “Flour Milling Capital of…

Gooseberry Falls State Park, situated on the bank of Lake Superior, embodies the shift of land use from extraction to recreation and reveals that the conservation mindset has always been present within the history of Minnesota’s tourism industry. The…

Though abundant and accessible water certainly benefited the population of Minneapolis, it also set up some fundamental problems. An interconnected infrastructure drawing from a mixed-use water source inadvertently created a new vector of disease…

To experienced organizations committed to protecting Minnesota’s natural resources, acid rain presented a major but, ultimately, manageable threat. The citizenry of Minnesota took forceful action through the democratic process, and seemed to value…

The combination of new acid rain scholarship and existing organizations motivated Minnesotans to take action. In 1982, the state passed the Acid Deposition Control Act. This act recognized that "acid precipitation substantially resulting from the…

It is generally agreed that there is a strong environmental awareness in Minnesota -- one that influences the way the state conserves its natural resources. According to a 1981 poll published in the Minneapolis Tribune asking Minnesotans to choose…

The recreational development of Minnesota’s Northwoods was not limited just to resorts. Private cottage development was also underway during the early 20th century and forged a strong bond between regional metropolitan areas and the scenic lake…

St. Anthony Falls and the area surrounding it became the milling capital of Minnesota in the second half of the 19th century. The mills, for both lumber and flour, were built alongside the falls to capitalize the power that the rushing water…

By the early 20th century, Northwoods entrepreneurs increasingly embraced tourism as a reliable business, and in the process transformed the region from landscapes of production, built on extracting the region’s abundant natural resources, into…

The mills of Minneapolis had a humble beginning, but they soon emerged as a world-renowned flour powerhouse. On their path to fame, the mills struggled to tame St. Anthony Falls and to mill and market the coarser varieties of spring wheat that grew…

At the end of the 19th century, logging was an integral part of northern Minnesota’s economy. Although the timber industry gained substantial revenue and fueled development in various parts of the country, its reliance upon trees weighed heavily on…

Minneapolis’ population and size continued to expand throughout the 1880s. Typhoid outbreaks maintained a positive correlation with the population and size of the city. Baffled city officials searched for a source to blame and settled on the…

The first municipal water pump opened in 1867 primarily for the fire department’s use. This pump was located along a canal that fed mills on the west bank of the Mississippi River just north of the city limits. As Minneapolis’ population quadrupled…

Over the next several decades, the exact cause of typhoid remained elusive and contested. As late as 1910, the Minnesota Board of Health insisted that drinking water was not the primary cause of typhoid. Instead, Minneapolis officials attributed the…

In the 1860s, the city of Minneapolis bore little semblance to its modern day metropolitan nature. In comparing the historical map to a present-day map of Minneapolis, the minuscule size of the city becomes evident. The mid-19th century city was…