Minneapolis is a city with a rich history. Besides the Dakota people who were here first, the majority of settlers came to Minneapolis in the 1830s because of St. Anthony Falls, the biggest offshoot of the Mississippi River, and the largest water source power in the Midwest. People need water, therefore, people migrate to where the water is. The falls themselves were named by Father Louis Hennepin, who was one of the earliest explorers of Minnesota. Even though early on, the east side of the river was the place to be with Franklin Steele opening the first privately-owned sawmill on that bank, eventually, the west side of the river grew into the place to be.

Fort Snelling was one of the first important areas of Minneapolis, and much of the early laws revolved around what could and couldn’t be done with military land. For example, one could not build a residence on military land. However, by 1850, Colonel John Stevens finagled his way into 160 acres near the falls—now the site of downtown Minneapolis—which the government gave him as payment of sorts for operating a ferry. From these beginnings, Stevens and others planned the town of Minneapolis, which was put into fruition in 1856. The name itself, originally Minnehapolis, was derived by combining “Minnehaha” meaning waterfalls in Sioux (not laughing waters as commonly believed) and “polis”, Greek for city. The “h” was dropped, giving the current name of the city which means “city of waters.”

Another growing industry was flour milling. The Washburn A Mill, part of the Minneapolis Mill company, was one of the most dominant mills of Minneapolis, even if it was owned by then-governor of Wisconsin, Cadwallader Washburn. Destroyed by fire in 1878, it was rebuilt bigger and better the following year. Of course, flour milling led to grain trading, and by 1885, Minneapolis was number one in wheat receiving in the United States. In one year, 1881 to 1882, the amount of grain shipped from Minneapolis to the east went from less than 200,000 bushels to 2 million bushels. That’s quite a jump. Even today, Minneapolis is still the largest cash exchange market in the world.

It is also interesting to note that historically, Minnesota had its share of underground activity in the 1920’s and 30’s. Minneapolis was a hotbed of organized crime, with the figure of Kid Cann (Isadore Blumfeld) running his operations out of the West Hotel. His operations consisted of activities such as prostitution, bootlegging and racketeering. This is not an era many people know about, but it’s well-documented.

The demographics of Minneapolis have changed over the decades. First came the Scandinavians—Swedes, Norwegians, Danish—then followed many other European immigrants—Germans, French and Irish to name a few. The majority of Minnesota’s historical culture lies in this area. Of course, over time, other people started migrating to Minnesota. Starting in the 1950’s, the Native Americans slowly started trickling back in. Blacks went from 362 in number in1880 to 4,176 in 1930, concentrating in two areas of Minneapolis—in what is known as the North Side and the South Side today.

Once waterways were well established, railways were next on the list. The St. Paul and Pacific Railway built the first tracks between St. Paul and St. Anthony in 1862. From those modest beginnings, the Great Northern was born—going over the river and into Nicollet Island in 1866. Next, the first all-rail line from Minneapolis to Chicago was opened in 1867. What a dizzying pace of growth in such a short time.