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Geography Rivers are the outstanding geographic features of the five Minnesota counties (Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota and Washington) included in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Here the Mississippi pours over the only waterfall in its entire length and is joined by the Minnesota River from the west and the St. Croix from the northeast. A lock now brings watercraft past the Falls of St. Anthony to the upper harbor, in downtown Minneapolis.
The Falls of St. Anthony, given its present name by French missionary Louis Hennepin, is shown in this painting by the artist Henry Lewis as it looked in the 1840s.
Prized by Euro-Americans for its water power, the falls became a saw-milling center and the nucleus of an industrial city in the 1850s. Drawing from Harpers Monthly Vol. XXX No. 1534.
In the 1870s and 1880s sawmills at the falls gave way to flour mills, and Minneapolis became famous as the world's breadbasket. Drawing from Harpers Monthly Vol. XXX No. 1534.
Below the falls, the banks of the river rise steeply, forming a narrow gorge, and it is joined by Minnehaha Creek. This stream rises in a cluster of lakes to the west of Minneapolis. As it approaches the Mississippi, it pours over a scenic waterfall. | |
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