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Feb 4, 2008 2:25 pm US/Central
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Finding Minnesota: Mill City Museum
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
The history of the Twin Cities is tied largely to the milling industry that boomed along the Mississippi.
Now, there is a new tribute to that history in downtown Minneapolis. On the banks of the Mississippi can be found a resurrection of an area that lost its luster for a time, and a rebuilding of the boomtown that once existed here.
From 1880 to 1930, the city was the flour milling capitol of the world.
"There were close to two dozen mills on this side of the river alone," said Laura Salveson, manager of the Mill City Museum, a $31 million tribute to the era.
The history lesson blends then with now. The museum opened in 2003 within the crumbling remnants of the old Washburn A Mill.
Originally built in 1880 by the Washburn Crosby Company, which later became General Mills, the mill was at one time the largest in the world.
"At the time, a huge bonanza of farms in the Red River Valley that were supplying wheat for the mills. Some of them were 60,000 acres," said Salveson, pointing out the impacts of the mills to the region.
Fine white flour was available to the masses, and Minneapolis reaped the benefits. Two giants in the industry stood right across from each other at St. Anthony Falls.
Minneapolis grew up around both the falls and the mills, but eventually the milling industry started to decline. By 1930, Buffalo, N.Y. had taken over.
"That had to do with changes in tariffs, Canadian wheat being allowed in for milling at that point, too," Salveson pointed out.
The Washburn mill stayed open until 1965. A 1991 fire destroyed much of the mill, but what was left is preserved as part of the museum.
The ruins now stand as a picturesque courtyard, a memento of a time gone by. Inside you'll find an education of that history through interactive exhibits that show the power of the falls, the dangers of the mills and the purposes of their products.
You could spend a day just focusing on the marketing of the mills. A chronicle of the marketing efforts born in Minneapolis is presented through old commercials and characters who take visitors through the incredible history, including Pat O'Butter, "the Emissary of Dairy, the King of the Quarter Stick."
A film hosted by Minnesota story-teller Kevin Kling also explores the history of the city.
Don't leave the museum without taking a trip in the flour tower on a freight elevator that takes visitors through the building and through the history of the mill. The trip is narrated by the people who worked at the mill between 1920 and 1965.
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