River of History
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557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 1 River of History A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 2 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 3 River of History A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area By John O. Anfinson National Park Service with contributions by Thomas Madigan, Drew M. Forsberg and Patrick Nunnally 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 4 Printed by St.Paul District, Corps of Engineers, 2003. 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 5 Table of Contents List of Figures . 6 Acknowledgments . 9 Preface . 11 Chapter 1 . 21 The Geology of the MNRRA Corridor Chapter 2. 39 Early Native American Life in the MNRRA Corridor Chapter 3 . 53 Discovery and Dispossession Chapter 4. 75 Transforming the River I: Commerce and Navigation Improvements, 1823-1906 Chapter 5. 95 Transforming the River II: Commerce, Navigation Improvements and Hydroelectric Power, 1907-1963 Chapter 6. 117 St. Anthony Falls: Timber, Flour and Electricity Chapter 7. 139 The Patterns of Agriculture, Commerce, Industry and Transportation Chapter 8. 163 Settlement and Urban Residential Development Along the River, 1841-1950 Epilogue . 179 Novel and Familiar Places Selected Bibliography . 182 Endnotes. 188 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 6 List of Figures Cover FIGURE 4. Native American petroglyphs from City of St. Paul, 1853. Carver’s Cave. FIGURE 5. Zebulon Pike. Preface FIGURE 6. Stephen Long. FIGURE 7. Little Crow II, Cetanwakanmani. FIGURE 1. Looking upstream at Daytons Bluff and FIGURE 8. Fort Snelling about 1848. St. Paul. FIGURE 9. Kaposia. FIGURE 2. Map of The Mississippi National River and FIGURE 10. St. Paul, 1848. Recreation Area. FIGURE 11. Red Rock and Fawn’s Leap. FIGURE 12. Little Crow. Chapter 1 FIGURE 1. River Warren Falls. FIGURE 2. Map of the MNRRA corridor. Chapter 4 FIGURE 1. St. Paul, 1853. FIGURE 3. Generalized bedrock stratigraphy of the upper FIGURE 2. Map of the MNRRA corridor, 1823-1906. Mississippi River valley. FIGURE 3. Wreck of the Quincy. FIGURE 4. Map of the preglacial bedrock valleys in the FIGURE 4. Major General Gouverneur K. Warren. Twin Cities area. FIGURE 5. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad FIGURES 5a-h. Glacial phases in Minnesota. Bridge, Hastings, Minn., 1885. FIGURE 6. Advance of the Grantsburg Sublobe. FIGURE 6. Oliver Kelley. FIGURE 7. William Windom. Chapter 2 FIGURE 8. Pigs Eye Island before and after closing dam FIGURE 1. Native Americans fishing from a canoe construction. FIGURE 2. Clovis Point. FIGURE 9. Wing dam construction. FIGURE 3. Late Paleo-Indian point. FIGURE 10. Channel constriction at Pine Bend, FIGURE 4. Early Woodland ceramic vessel fragment. Minnesota, 1891. FIGURE 5. Reconstructed Middle Woodland vessel. FIGURE 11. Meeker Island Lock and Dam. FIGURE 6. Late Woodland ceramic types. FIGURE 7. Blue Earth Oneota vessel fragments. Chapter 5 FIGURE 8.Generalized distribution of Native American FIGURE 1. Lock and Dam No. 1 under construction. groups during the mid-1600s. FIGURE 2. Map of the MNRRA corridor, 1907-1963. FIGURE 3. Timber raft and raftboat near Wabasha Street Chapter 3 Bridge in St. Paul, 1900. FIGURE 1. Antoine Auguelle and Father Louis Hennepin FIGURE 4. C. A. Smith Lumber Mill. at St. Anthony Falls. FIGURE 5. Theodore Roosevelt. FIGURE 2. St. Paul, 1853. FIGURE 6. Lower St. Anthony Falls Dam and FIGURE 3. Map of the MNRRA corridor, 1680-1854. Hydroelectric Station. 6 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 7 FIGURE 7. Lock and Dam No. 1. FIGURE 5. Frank A. Johnson brickyard, 1904. FIGURE 8. First lockage, Lock and Dam No. 2, Hastings, FIGURE 6. St. Paul Roller Mill Company, St. Paul, June 27, 1930. 1881. FIGURE 9. Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam under FIGURE 7. Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association, construction. 1955. FIGURE 10. Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock under FIGURE 8. Cattle pen, South St. Paul Stockyards, 1930. construction. FIGURE 9. Meuller and Heinrick’s Brewery, FIGURE 11. Early Coon Rapids Dam. Minneapolis, 1880. FIGURE 10. Point Douglas Ferry, 1902. Chapter 6 FIGURE 11. Railroads at St. Paul, 1931. FIGURE 12. Mississippi River Bridge at Anoka, 1905. FIGURE 1. Reconstructing St. Anthony Falls. FIGURE 2. Hermann J. Meyer Lithograph of St. Anthony Falls. Chapter 8 FIGURE 3. Seth Eastman engraving of St. Anthony Falls. FIGURE 1. Minneapolis skyline over the Mississippi FIGURE 4. Franklin Steele. River gorge. FIGURE 5. St. Anthony Falls, 1859. FIGURE 2. Panoramic Map of Anoka. FIGURE 6. West side platform mills at St. Anthony Falls, FIGURE 3. Village of St. Anthony, 1851. about 1870. FIGURE 4. Hastings, 1850. FIGURE 7. Eastman Tunnel collapse, Hennepin Island, FIGURE 5. Bohemian Flats, Minneapolis, 1880. 1870. FIGURE 6. Gathering wood at Bohemian Flats, 1887. FIGURE 8. Map of Eastman Tunnel disaster and repair FIGURE 7. Little Italy on the Upper Levee, St. Paul. work. FIGURE 8. East River Road, Fridley, 1945. FIGURE 9. Flour mills along the west side canal at St. Anthony Falls, 1885. Epilogue FIGURE 10. Great Northern, Stone Arch Bridge, 1884. FIGURE 1. Wingdams below Ninninger, Minn., 1891. FIGURE 11. Diagram of first commercial hydroelectric FIGURE 2. Wingdams below Ninninger, Minn., 1891, central plant in the country, 1882. detail. FIGURE 12. William de la Barre. FIGURE 13. Mill Ruins Park, Minneapolis. Chapter 7 FIGURE 1. Downtown St. Paul on the Mississippi River. FIGURE 2. Mississippi River Commission Map, 1895. FIGURE 3. Log drivers and log jam above St. Anthony Falls, 1881. FIGURE 4. Bluff top stone quarry, St. Paul, 1885. 7 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 8 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 9 Acknowledgments he Mississippi National River and Finally, the trained and experienced archivists at the Recreation Area (MNRRA), National Park Minnesota Historical Society and the National Archives in Service, and the St. Paul District, Corps of Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., guided me through TEngineers, cooperated to make this study possible, sharing endless shelves of historic documents to the manuscript staff and funding for this work. Personnel from both agen- collections I needed. I owe a special debt to the Minnesota cies helped facilitate a seamless research, writing and publi- Historical Society, for most of the images for this report cation process. MNRRA’s superintendent, JoAnn M. Kyral, come from the society’s archives. and St. Paul District Engineers, Colonels J. M. Wonsik and Under contract, Susan and Dennis Feigenbaum, Kenneth S. Kasprisin recognized the value of this study to Feigenbaum Design Group, provided the design and layout both agencies and provided the leadership to see it through. work. Their immense talents have yielded a product that is Bob Post, the chief of Engineering and Planning for the St. aesthetically appealing and presents the many historical Paul District, in particular, made the partnership work from images with power and clarity. the Corps side. A number of former and current employees of the St. J OHN O. ANFINSON Paul District, deserve special thanks, including Bob Whiting, David E. Berwick, Jane Carroll, Brad Johnson, and Matt Pearcy. I drew on the expertise and knowledge of Jean Schmidt, librarian, and Al Santo, map collection librarian, many, many times. Both thoroughly know their respective collections at the St. Paul District. National Park Service employees also contributed to this study. Kate Hanson, manager for MNRRA’s Stewardship Team,not only made the partnership with the Corps work well, she provided substantive comments and edited the entire manuscript. Don Stevens, senior historian for the Midwest Region Office of the National Park Service reviewed early chapters and offered valuable comments. Without the research and work on the graphics for this study by Sharon Woods and Sara Dummer, the production would have taken much longer. 9 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 10 FIGURE 1. Looking upstream at Daytons Bluff and St. Paul. Artist: Ferdinand Uebel. Minnesota Historical Society. 557016_Book_r 8/5/03 7:57 AM Page 11 Preface River of History dled with the current, they came to the great falls of the Mississippi, which Hennepin named for his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. Here they witnessed a Dakota ceremony to Oanktehi, the spirit of the falls. The Dakota pleaded for safe passage and success in their battles and headed down- n about March 19, 1680, one hundred and twen- stream. The Frenchmen and some Dakota continued down- ty Dakota warriors beached their canoes at the river well past the mouth of the St. Croix, but did not find mouth of Phalen Creek, just below downtown St. de la Salle. The party then headed back to Mille Lacs. Just OPaul. Daytons Bluff, with it large, ancient burial mounds, below the St. Croix, they met Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du loomed above them to their right. To their left rose the hills Luth (who later claimed he rescued them). In late and lowlands on which St. Paul rests today. The Dakota had September, the Frenchmen left the Dakota.1 sallied far down the Mississippi River to attack the Miami The encounter between the Dakota and the French Indians of Illinois. They returned not with Indian prisoners marked a new epoch in the history of the upper Mississippi but three Frenchmen: Michael Accault, Antoine Auguelle and and in the history of what is now the Twin Cities metropoli- Father Louis Hennepin. The captives had been traveling up tan area. For 10,000 years Native Americans had had the the Mississippi hoping to be the first Europeans to discover river to themselves. From March 1680 forward, Europeans the river’s source and the fabled Northwest Passage, the all- and then Americans would increasingly define human inter- water route to the Far East.