Saint Anthony Falls

Image:Bierstadt Albert The Falls of St. Anthony.jpg painted The Falls of St. Anthony in 1880, creating an artist's impression of how the falls looked prior to industrialization.]] File:Falls of St. Anthony, by Upton, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818 or 1824-after 1901.png photograph of the falls by Benjamin Franklin Upton]]

File:Falls of St. Anthony, by Upton, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818 or 1824-after 1901 2.png

File:Falls of St. Anthony, by Upton, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818 or 1824-after 1901 6.jpg

The falls hold cultural and spiritual significance for native tribes who frequented and lived in the area. The falls is an important and sacred site to the Mdewakanton Dakota and they called the Mississippi River, hahawakpa, "river of the falls". The falls (Haha) themselves were given specific names, mnirara "curling waters", owahmenah "falling waters", or owamni, "whirlpool" (mniyomni in the Eastern Dakota dialect and owamniyomni in the Teton Dakota (Lakota) dialect).{{cite web|url=http://www.millcitymuseum.org/education/curriculum/TeacherGuide-Power.pdf|title=Recipe for a Mill City, A Curriculum Kit for Minneapolis Third Grade Students|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|year=2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625011425/http://www.millcitymuseum.org/education/curriculum/TeacherGuide-Power.pdf|archive-date=2008-06-25}} Dakota associate the falls with legends and spirits, including Oanktehi, god of waters and evil, who lived beneath the falling water.{{cite web|title=Engineering the Falls: The Corps of Engineers' Role at St. Anthony Falls|url=https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/626089/engineering-the-falls-the-corps-of-engineers-role-at-st-anthony-falls/|publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers|accessdate=July 1, 2021}} A small island in the stream, called Spirit Island, was once a nesting ground for eagles that fed on fish below the falls. Dakota people camped on Nicollet Island upstream of the falls to fish and to tap the sugar maple trees.{{Citation|title=Twelve Thousand Years Ago|publisher=St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board|place=Minneapolis|url=http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/history_12000.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221094434/http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/history_12000.php|archive-date=2020-02-21|url-status=deviated}}

Since the cataract had to be portaged, the area became one of the natural resting and trade points along the Mississippi between Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. The Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) term was recorded as "kakabikah" (gakaabikaa, "split rock" or more descriptively, gichi-gakaabikaa, "the great severed rock" which referenced the jagged chunks of limestone constantly eroding by the falls).{{cite web|url=http://www.preservecampcoldwater.org/susuhistory.htm|title=Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition|year=2000|author=Susu Jeffrey|access-date=June 11, 2008|archive-date=February 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207045534/http://www.preservecampcoldwater.org/susuhistory.htm|url-status=dead}}

In 1680, the falls became known to the Western world when they were observed and published in a journal by Father Louis Hennepin, a Catholic friar of Belgian birth, who had earlier brought the Niagara Falls to the world's attention via a publication.{{cite web |url= http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/eh4.asp |title= A History of Minneapolis |publisher= Minneapolis Public Library |access-date= 2007-05-18 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070420010726/http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/eh4.asp |archive-date= 2007-04-20 }} Hennepin named them the Chutes de Saint-Antoine or the Falls of Saint Anthony after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua.{{cite web|title=L'exploration de l'Amérique du Nord|url=http://www.cosmovisions.com/ChronoAmeriqueExploN.htm|author=Serge Jodra|year=2004|language=fr|trans-title=Exploring North America}} Later explorers to document the falls include Zebulon Montgomery Pike and Jonathan Carver, the first Englishman to undertake an exploration of the west. According to the John Carter Brown Library, "Carver's purpose was to map the land, to befriend the {{sic|hide=y|native Americans}}, and to discover the Northwest passage. His journey began in 1766 and, in some ways, was the precursor of the Lewis and Clark expedition; his book was the first popular American travel book."{{Cite web|title=The falls of St. Anthony in the River Mississippi, near 2400 Miles from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico|url=https://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/JCB~1~1~1184~1430003:The-falls-of-St--Anthony-in-the-Riv|access-date=2020-09-20|website=jcb.lunaimaging.com}} Carver [https://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/JCB~1~1~1184~1430003:The-falls-of-St--Anthony-in-the-Riv?qvq=q:waterfall&mi=23&trs=60# created this early image, an engraving of the falls], in 1778.

Image:Mississippi-Minneapolis-20081006.JPG at Minneapolis in 2008, looking downstream. The bridge in the foreground is the Third Avenue Bridge, behind it are the Upper St Anthony Falls to the left and the upper lock and dam to the right, followed by the Stone Arch Bridge. The new I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge can be seen in the background.]]

In 1817, Major Stephen Harriman Long headed a military excursion up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony near the confluence with the Minnesota River. As a result of his recommendations, the Army established Fort Snelling to guard against Indian incursions against settlers in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Long recorded his experiences of the expedition in a journal, which was first published as Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony, by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1860. In his journal, Long described the "majestic cataract" of the falls and said that "the murmuring of the cascade, the roaring of the river, and the thunder of the cataract, all contributed to render the scene the most interesting and magnificent of any I ever before witnessed."{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stephen_Harriman_Long.aspx |title=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, sixth edition |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |year=2008 |access-date=2011-08-09}}{{cite book |last=Long |first=Stephen Harriman |author-link=Stephen Harriman Long |date= October 5, 1889|title=Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of Saint Anthony In 1817 |url=https://archive.org/details/voyageinsixoared00longrich/ |location= |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |page= |isbn=}}

Following the establishment of Fort Snelling in 1820, the falls became an attraction for tourists, writers, and artists who sought inspiration, even if Hennepin's descriptions were not as majestic as hoped for.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} By the 1850s a romantic "Indian legend" had become associated with the falls (first noted in Long's 1817 journal), describing a wife whose husband had taken a second bride. The offended first wife placed her child (or children) in a canoe and paddled toward the falls, plunging herself and her offspring to certain death as the husband looked on helplessly.{{Citation | last=Horsford | first=Mary | author-link=Mary Gardiner Horsford | year=1855 | title=Indian legends and other poems | chapter=The laughing water | publisher=J.C. Derby | place=New York | pages=23–26 | oclc=697796912}}{{Citation | last=Skinner | first=Charles M. | author-link=Charles Montgomery Skinner | year=1896 | title=Myths and legends of our own land | chapter=Falls of St. Anthony | publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co. | place=Philadelphia | volume=2 | pages=166–167 | oclc=1049906656 }}

By the 1860s, industrial waste had filled the area and marred the falls' majesty. Further competition over the power of the falls on both banks of the river led to the Eastman tunnel disaster in 1869 which could have destroyed the falls. The disaster was fixed with a dike under the falls.

The first private land claim at the falls was made by Franklin Steele in 1838 — though he did not obtain financing for development until 1847, in the form of $12,000 for a nine-tenths stake in the property. On May 18, 1848, President James K. Polk approved the claims made in St. Anthony, and Steele was able to build his dam on the east side of the river above the Falls, blocking the east channel.

File:Mid 1850s Daguerreotype of St. Anthony Falls (cropped).jpg of St. Anthony Falls]]

The dam extended diagonally into the river {{convert|700|ft|m}}, was {{convert|16|ft|m}} high, and was secured to the limestone riverbed. Its thickness tapered from 40 wide at its base to {{convert|12|ft|m}} wide at the top. Steele dispatched logging crews to the Crow Wing River in December 1847 to supply pine for the sawmill, and by September 1, 1848, sawing commenced using two up-down saws. He was able to sell the lumber readily, supplying construction projects in the booming town.{{cite web|title=St. Anthony Falls:Timber, Flour, and Electricity|url=http://www.nps.gov/miss/historyculture/upload/River_Ch_6.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808004853/http://www.nps.gov/miss/historyculture/upload/River_Ch_6.pdf|archive-date=8 August 2007|access-date=2007-05-29}} The new community at the Falls attracted entrepreneurs from New England, many of whom had experience in lumber and milling. He had hired Ard Godfrey to help build and run the first commercial sawmill at the Falls. Godfrey knew the most efficient ways to use natural resources, like the falls, and the great pine forests, to make lumber products.{{cite web|title=1838: Franklin Steele claims land at the Falls|url=http://www.mnhs.org/school/classroom/communities/themes/timeline/st_anthony/blurb.html|work=Timeline|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030503053746/http://www.mnhs.org/school/classroom/communities/themes/timeline/st_anthony/blurb.html|archive-date=3 May 2003|access-date=2007-05-29}}

The house built in 1848 in St. Anthony for Godfrey is the oldest remaining wood-frame house in the Twin Cities.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|loc=pp pdf 119=122}}{{cite web |title=Ard Godfrey House |url=https://www.minneapolisparks.org/parks__destinations/historical_sites/ard_godfrey_house/ |publisher=Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board |access-date=January 1, 2022}}

Steele had the town platted in 1849, and it incorporated in 1855.{{cite web| title = History of the Minneapolis Riverfront District and vicinity| work = Bridges| publisher = Minneapolis Riverfront District| url = http://www.mrdbridges.com/history.php| access-date = 2007-05-29| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070620174608/http://www.mrdbridges.com/history.php| archive-date = 2007-06-20}}{{cite web|title=Old St. Anthony|url=http://www.riverdesign.umn.edu/river_stories/stanthony.html|work=Mississippi River Design Initiative|publisher=University of Minnesota|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070628050238/http://www.riverdesign.umn.edu/river_stories/stanthony.html |archive-date=2007-06-28|access-date=2007-05-29}}

File:SaintAnthonyFalls1860.jpg

By 1854, 300 squatters occupied the west bank of the river, and in 1855, Congress recognized the squatters' right to purchase the land they had claimed. The west side quickly developed scores of new mills and consortia. They built a dam diagonally into the river to the north, which, along with Steele's dam created the inverted V-shape, still apparent today. Steele created the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company in 1856 with three New York financiers, Davis, Gebhard, and Sanford. The company struggled for several years, due to poor relations with the financiers, a depression, and the Civil War. In 1868, the firm reorganized with new officers including John Pillsbury, Richard and Samuel Chute, Sumner Farnham, and Frederick Butterfield.

Image:Sawmills.jpg

As Minneapolis (and its former neighbor across the river, St. Anthony) developed, the water power at the falls became a source of power for several industries including textile mills, wool, machinery, paper, and wood products, of which the North Star Woolen Mill was successful. Sawmills made the falls a major lumber producing area, with the mills largely built on platforms above the limestone cap forming the falls. Subsequently, the dominant industry became flour milling.

The falls industrialization caused problems. Logs, sometimes a hundred at a time, escaped from log booms and hammered the falls. Diversion of water left parts of the limestone cap dry, increasing weathering effects. Shafts and tunnels from sawmills and other users weakened the limestone and its sandstone foundation, accelerating the falls' upriver erosion to {{convert|26|ft|m}} per year between 1857 and 1868. The falls quickly approached the edge of the limestone cap; once the limestone had completely eroded away, the falls would degenerate into sandstone rapids unsuitable for waterpower. To protect the falls and stop upstream progression a protective wood timber apron was built from the edge of the falls sloping downstream. The apron dissipated the energy of the falling water and moved it away from the base of the falls. It also protected from errant logs. An apron built in 1866 lasted until 1867. The Corps of Engineers completed one in 1880 that lasted until destroyed in 1952.{{sfn|Kane|1987|p=64, 68, 69, 79}} It was replaced with a concrete apron.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 2}}

The usual flour milling techniques did not work well for "spring wheat", which is the only kind that could be dependably grown on the rapidly expanding wheat farms in Minnesota and the Dakotas. In the late 1860s, major milling innovations at the falls were a "middlings purifier" and "gradual-reduction" grinding, both borrowed from Europe. Metal rollers replaced grindstones. The changes not only solved the spring wheat problem but produced high quality flour in a milling process that was highly profitable.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 91-93}}{{sfn|Danbom|2003|pp=275-278}} As the result of the new technology, flour mills began to dominate the falls after 1870.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 33, 90, 91}}

Image:stanthonyrecession.jpg

Millers on the Minneapolis side formed a consortium to extract power with the "Lowell model" in which water was supplied in a large headrace "power canal" connecting to the millpond above the falls and extending {{convert|950|ft|m}} parallel to the river below the falls. Mills built on both sides of the power canal diverted upper-level water into waterwheel-equipped vertical shafts (driven through the limestone bedrock into the soft, underlying sandstone) and then through horizontal tailrace tunnels to the falls' lower level. This system was very effective and mills lined the canal. "turning the west side of the river into the country's most densely industrialized, direct-drive waterpower district."{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 87, 71, 90}} The mills on the St. Anthony (east) side of the river were less-well organized for harnessing the power, and therefore industry developed at a slower pace on that side. But the Pillsbury A-Mill, built on the east bank and completed in 1881, was the world's largest flour mill for 18 years.{{cite web |last1=Lissandrello |first1=Stephen |title=NRHP Nomination - Pillsubury "A" Mill |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/b53cc3d8-44ba-4b1c-99d8-f8d7ac97c631/ |publisher=US-DOI-NPS |access-date=July 1, 2021 |date=April 24, 1979}} except for one month It produced about 1/3 as much flour as the entire west side.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 94}} The mills at the falls were very large and substantially automated.{{sfn|Danbom|2003|p=278}} "By the end of the century, they had created the country's greatest waterpower industrial district, which was also the country's leading flour milling center from 1880 to 1930."{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 87}}

By the early 1900s, three companies controlled 97% of the falls flour production. They were the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company (later Pillsbury Flour Mills Company and now General Mills), the Washburn-Crosby Company (later General Mills), and Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company (later Standard Milling Company)."{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 92, 93}}{{sfn|Danbom|2003|p=278}} The Pillsbury and Washburn-Crosby companies were started at the falls.

{{main|Eastman tunnel}}

Image:Pillsbury and Phoenix mills.jpg

The early dams built to harness the waterpower exposed the limestone to freezing and thawing forces, narrowed the channel, and increased damage from floods. A report in 1868 found that only {{Convert|1100|ft}} of the limestone remained upstream, and if it were eroded away, the falls would turn into a rapids that would no longer be useful for waterpower.{{sfn|Kane|1987|p=}} Meanwhile, as the result of a lawsuit, the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company approved a plan for the firm of William W. Eastman and John L. Merriam to build a tailrace tunnel from below the falls, under Hennepin Island, under the riverbed to Nicollet Island. Nicollet Island is {{convert|700|ft|m}} or more above the falls. The tailrace tunnel would allow waterpower development at the Island. This plan met with disaster on October 5, 1869, when the limestone cap was breached.{{sfn|Kane|1987|pp=63–79}}

The leak turned into a torrent of water coming out the tunnel. The water blasted Hennepin Island, causing a {{convert|150|ft|m|adj=on}} section to collapse into the tunnel. Believing that the mills and all the other industries around the falls would be ruined, hundreds of people rushed to view the impending disaster. Groups of volunteers started shoring up the gap by throwing trees and timber into the river, but that was ineffective. They then built a huge raft of timbers from the milling operations on Nicollet Island. This worked briefly, but also proved ineffective. A number of workers worked for months to build a dam that would funnel water away from the tunnel. The next year, an engineer from Lowell, Massachusetts, recommended completing a wooden apron, sealing the tunnel, and building low dams above the falls to avoid exposing the limestone to the weather.{{sfn|Kane|1987|p=63-79}}

The fix for the tunnel disaster was a concrete dike constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The dike was just above the falls and Hennepin Island, from right under the limestone cap down as much as {{convert|40|ft|m}}, and {{convert|1,850|ft|m}} long across the entire river channel. The dike, completed 1876, cut off the tunnel and any possible future bypass channels. A separate problem was damage to the falls and its upstream progression. To stop the damage the Corps built a protective wood timber apron completed 1880. The Corps also built two low dams, completed by 1880, on top of the limestone cap to keep the cap wet. The federal government spent $615,000 on this effort, while the two cities spent $334,500.{{cite book|title=Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District|last=Pennefeather|first=Shannon M.|year=2003|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|location=St. Paul, Minnesota}}

{{see also|Mills District, Minneapolis|Pillsbury "A" Mill|Washburn "A" Mill|Mill Ruins Park|Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company|North Star Woolen Mill|History of Minneapolis, Minnesota}}

{{further|St. Anthony Falls Hydroelectric Development}}

Hydroelectric power production also developed early at the falls. In 1881, the Pillsbury "A" Mill added a Brush Electric arc light plant powered from their turbines; some other mills did so also. In 1882, a Brush hydroelectric central station plant was in use, the third central station in the country.{{cite web |last1=Hess |first1=Jeffrey |title=Minnesota Hydroelectric Generating Facilities, 1881-1928 |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/64500281_text |date=February 1, 1991 |publisher=NPS |accessdate=June 1, 2019}} Multiple sources, including Kane, say this was the first. Hess names two earlier ones, and says this was probably the first central station in its own building (Edison's Pearl Street Station also started producing electric power in 1882 - using steam.) The waterpower companies encouraged or developed hydroelectric plants. Major plants were completed in 1894. 1895, and 1908. (The first large scale production of electricity in the world was at the Adams (Tesla) plant at Niagara Falls starting 1895). As waterpower became available it was used to generate electricity. After the third plant was in operation in 1908, 45% of the waterpower being used was for hydroelectric.{{sfn|Kane|1987|p=172}} One of the historic St. Anthony Falls plants is still operating.

River flow is variable and flour production may have to be decreased with low flow rates. In the winter, mills may shut down because there is not enough water flow. So many mills supplemented water power with steam, starting with a 1,400 HP steam engine at the Pillsbury A mill in 1884. By 1892 ten of the fifteen mills had supplementary steam power. As electricity developed as a power source, some electricity was generated from steam to run equipment. Using electricity from the St. Anthony Falls hydroelectric plants was not very practical because those plants competed for the same water flow. But about 1910 electric power was available from St. Croix Falls and it was used in combination with waterpower and steam, and electricity eventually took over.

{{cite web |title=Washburn-Crosby Milling Complex, West Engine House |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/mn0366/ |website=HABS MN-69-C |publisher=Historic American Buildings Survey |access-date=February 1, 2022}}

"Data pages" provide documentation of the West Engine House of the Washburn A Mill Complex in 1986 and an addendum in 2005(?) after a disastrous 1991 fire. The building housed one of two 1000 HP steam engines that provided some of the power for the mill. The addendum has history of milling and power technology at the falls, particularly for the A Mill. It details the use of waterpower and steam and electricity.

The Mississippi river flow rate changes based on how much rain there is its watershed. Starting 1880, dams were created on the Mississippi further north to create reservoirs - water could be released to increase flow at times when it would be low. This helped both waterpower industries and river navigation. The dams were at Lake Winnibigoshish, Leech Lake, Pokegama Falls, Pine River, Sandy Lake, and Gull Lake.{{sfn|Anfinson|2003|loc="Leech"}}

Image:StAnthonyFalls apron.JPG evident in this photo.]]

St. Paul was effectively the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi. High bluffs on both sides of the river from the River Waren falls and the falls progressing up the Mississippi, made access difficult. In addition the rapid descent of the river from the falls to below what is now the Ford Dam (lock and dam No. 1) made the river shallow and fast running.{{sfn|Anfinson|2003|loc=

"He learned that Minneapolis"

"construct a lock and dam at Meeker Island"}} The Ford dam, completed 1917, extended navigation to a little above the Washington Ave. bridge, with a shipping terminal on the west bank. Locks completed in 1956 at the lower dam and around the falls in 1963 extended navigation out of the river gorge to north Minneapolis. Since those two locks are smaller than most of the locks on the rest of the river, the practical limit for many commercial tows was still further downriver. In 2015, the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock was permanently closed to stop the spread of invasive species, namely Asian carp.{{cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3080|title=H.R.3080 – Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014|website=congress.gov|date=June 10, 2014 |access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web|title=President Obama approves closure of Upper St. Anthony Falls lock|url=http://hometownsource.com/2014/06/11/president-obama-approves-closure-of-upper-st-anthony-falls-lock/|website=hometownsource.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610051159/http://hometownsource.com/2014/06/11/president-obama-approves-closure-of-upper-st-anthony-falls-lock/|archive-date=10 June 2015|access-date=9 June 2015}}{{cite web|title=Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock Closing To Stop Invasive Carp|url=http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/06/09/upper-st-anthony-falls-lock-closing-to-stop-invasive-carp/|website=minnesota.cbslocal.com|date=June 9, 2015 |access-date=10 June 2015}}{{cite web|title=Upper St. Anthony lock closing after half a century; blame the carp|url=http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/06/08/upper-st-anthony-lock|website=mprnews.org|date=June 8, 2015 |access-date=10 June 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/Projects/tabid/18156/Article/571138/upper-st-anthony-falls-lock-closure.aspx|publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers|title=Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock Closure|year=2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610065909/http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/Projects/tabid/18156/Article/571138/upper-st-anthony-falls-lock-closure.aspx|archive-date=2015-06-10}}

Image:Stonearchtruss.jpg was altered to allow clearance for the upper lock.]]

The St. Anthony Falls and the Upper Dam. The upper dam ("horseshoe dam"), built on top of the limestone cap forming the falls, is successor to dams built in the 1850s. The dam increases the head for twoHennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant
A-Mill hydroelectric plants and increases the water level above the falls.Higher water level was used for navigation and is used by the Riverside steam-electric plant upstream. The water level rise from the falls is {{convert|35|ft|m}} and from the dam is {{convert|14|ft|m}}. The lift at this lock, {{convert|49|ft|m}}, is the highest of any lock on the Mississippi.{{sfn|Anfinson|2003|loc="highest lift"}} The upper pool has a normal capacity of {{convert|3150|acre.ft}} and a normal level of 799 feet (244 m) above sea level. The navigation channel required alteration of the historic Stone Arch Bridge, which now has a metal truss section to allow ships to pass below.

File:St. Anthony Falls Lower Lock, empty 2017-07-01.jpg

The Lower St. Anthony Falls Dam, located about a half mile below the falls, was completed 1897 with a water level rise of {{convert|20|ft|m}}.{{sfn|Kane|1987|p=154}} The dam was built for hydroelectric production, and included a power plant. There never was a falls at this location. The dam was rebuilt and locks added in 1956. The rise was increased to {{convert|25|ft|m}}.{{sfn|Feasibility|1984|pp=28,32,37}} The new dam is a gravity-type hydro-electric dam {{convert|26|ft}} in height, consisting of a {{convert|275|foot|adj=on}} long concrete spillway with four tainter gates. The upper pool (sometimes called the intermediate pool) has a normal capacity of {{convert|375|acre.ft|m3}} and a normal level of 750 feet (229 m) above sea level.

The upper and lower locks are each {{convert|56|feet}} wide by {{convert|400|feet|}} long.

The current around the spillway/falls is often swift and dangerous. In 1991, a small boat drifted too close and fell over one part of the dam. One person on board was killed, and one had to be rescued by helicopter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Portals/57/docs/Public%20Affairs/Crosscurrents/1991/Crosscurrents%201991%20Aug_extract.pdf?ver=2016-07-22-142247-123|title=Minneapolis Police Honor Four Lock Operators For Rescue Effort|date=August 1991|access-date=2019-12-15}} Rescues at the site are usually much less dramatic, but continue to happen occasionally.

{{Panorama|image=File:StAnthonyFalls 050515.jpg|height=300px|caption=Panoramic photo from the new Water Power Park, visible from this vantage: the lower portion of Saint Anthony Falls; the concrete wall on the far side of the falls is part of the locks to allow ships to pass the waterfall; to the left is the Stone Arch Bridge, above it is the Guthrie Theater; to the right of the Guthrie are the white silos and reconstructed shell of the former Washburn "A" Mill, now the Mill City Museum; to the right of the museum are a series of redeveloped flour and grain mills making up a significant portion of the city's Mills District.}}

Image:Limestone-sandstone.jpg

Geologists say that the falls first appeared roughly 12,000 years ago about {{convert|10|mi}} downstream at the confluence of the glacial River Warren (at present-day Fort Snelling). Estimates are that the falls were about {{convert|180|ft|m}} high when the River Warren Falls receded past the confluence of the Mississippi River and the glacial River Warren. Over the succeeding 10,000 years, the falls moved upstream to its present location. The water churning at the bottom of the falls ate away at the soft sandstone, eventually breaking off the hard limestone cap in chunks as the falls receded. From its origins near Fort Snelling, St. Anthony Falls relocated upstream at a rate of about {{convert|4|ft|m}} per year until it reached its present location in the early 19th century. In the 6 miles (9.7 km) from the top of the falls (not including the horseshoe dam) to below the Ford dam the river drops 97 feet (30 m), all of it the remnant of the original 180 feet (55 m) falls. The limestone cap gets thinner upriver from the falls, and the cap disappears about {{convert| 1,200|ft|m}} upstream. In a short time, geologically speaking, the falls will reach the end of the cap and become a rapids.

{{sfn|Feasibility|1984|p=133}} Tributaries such as Minnehaha Creek begot their own waterfalls as the Mississippi River valley was cut into the landscape.The river previously split, with two channels around an island where the Minnesota Veterans Home now is. Falls on the east channel progressed faster and cut off the west channel. Minnehaha falls has cut upstream about {{convert|600|ft|m}} from the west channel.

When Father Louis Hennepin documented the falls he estimated the falls' height to be {{Convert|50 to 60|ft}}. Later explorers described it as being in the range of {{Convert|16 to 20|ft}} high. The height of the falls, not including the upper dam, is now {{convert|35|ft|m}}. The river descends downstream from the falls, which might add another {{convert|10|ft|m}} to the falls where they were when Hennepin saw them.

The geological formation of the area consisted of a hard thin layer of Platteville Formation, a limestone, overlaying the soft St. Peter Sandstone subsurface.{{cite web |title=A history of the St Anthony falls |url=http://www.esci.umn.edu/courses/1001/1001_kirkby/SAFL/WEBSITEPAGES/0.html |publisher=University of Minnesota |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502031848/http://www.esci.umn.edu/courses/1001/1001_kirkby/SAFL/WEBSITEPAGES/0.html |access-date=July 20, 2021|archive-date=2015-05-02 }}

Multiple sections can be linked through the menu at top right. These layers were the result of an Ordovician Period sea which covered east-central Minnesota 500 million years ago.{{cite web| last = Anfinson| first = Scott| title = Archaeology of the central minneapolis riverfront| publisher = The Institute for Minnesota Archaeology| year = 1989| url = http://www.fromsitetostory.org/sources/papers/mnarch48/48hist.asp| access-date = 2007-05-08}}

Image:St anthony falls Oct 2005.jpg

The area around the river was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the St. Anthony Falls Historic District in 1971. It includes 8th Avenue Northeast extending downstream to 6th Avenue Southeast and approximately two city blocks on both shoreline.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20040123204331/http://www.minneapolis-riverfront.com/ Minneapolis' official promotional site for the riverfront district]

{{sfn|Nomination|1971|loc=p pdf 21-30 These boundaries were modified in a 1991 revision to the 1971 nomination. The revised boundary is shortened at the upstream end.}}

{{cite web |title=St. Anthony Falls District Map |url=https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/government/St.-Anthony-Falls-District-Map.pdf |publisher=Minneapolis HPC |access-date=July 1, 2021}} Current boundary map The falls are a contributing resource to the Historic District.{{sfn|Nomination|1971|p=pdf 2}} The district's archaeological record is one of the most-endangered historic sites in Minnesota.{{cite web|title=10 Most Endangered Places|url=http://archive.mnpreservation.org/programs/sites-worthsaving/2008-ten-most-endangered/|year=2008|publisher=Preservation Alliance of Minnesota|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071613/http://archive.mnpreservation.org/programs/sites-worthsaving/2008-ten-most-endangered/|archive-date=21 January 2018|access-date=2018-01-20}} The National Register of Historic Places is facilitated by the National Park Service. The national significance of the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District is a major reason why the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area was established along the Mississippi River in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area.

File:St. Anthony Falls, by W. H. Jacoby.png]]

File:St. Anthony Falls, by W. H. Jacoby 2.png

A Heritage Trail plaque nearby says,

For untold generations of Indian people the Mississippi River was an important canoe route. To pass around the falls, the Dakota (Sioux) and Ojibwe (Chippewa) used a well-established portage trail. Starting at a landing below the site now occupied by the steam plant, the trail climbed the bluff to this spot. From here it followed the east bank along what is now Main Street to a point well above the falls.

Water Works park overlooking the falls opened in 2021.{{Cite web |last1=Du |first1=Susan |last2=Eler |first2=Alicia |date=September 20, 2022 |title=Water Works artist Inkpa Mani resigned amid charges of cultural appropriation |url=https://www.startribune.com/water-works-artist-inkpa-mani-resigned-amid-charges-of-cultural-appropriation/600205676/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=Star Tribune |language=en}}

Along with Yosemite Valley, Saint Anthony Falls held a particular attraction for painters of 19th-century landscapes.{{cite book | last=Ibarraran-Bigalondo | first=A. | title=The New American West in Literature and the Arts: A Journey Across Boundaries | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-000-09283-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SebkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT212 | access-date=2023-05-07 | page=212}} The falls were a popular tourist attraction at the time, and were depicted in many paintings, including works by Albert Bierstadt, Henry Lewis, and George Catlin.{{cite book | last1=Spires | first1=D.R. | last2=Roberts | first2=C. | last3=Rezek | first3=J. | last4=Murison | first4=J.S. | last5=Mielke | first5=L.L. | last6=Looby | first6=C. | last7=Lazo | first7=R. | last8=Knight | first8=A. | last9=Hsu | first9=H.L. | last10=Smith | first10=R.G. | title=The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume B: 1820 to Reconstruction | publisher=Broadview Press | year=2022 | isbn=978-1-77048-826-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVxqEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 | access-date=2023-05-07 | page=74}}

Mark Twain visited the falls as part of his journeys recounted in the 1883 memoir Life on the Mississippi; the original printing of the book included a drawing by John Harley of the falls. Twain noted that the waterfall's industrial capacity was "of inestimable value, business-wise, though somewhat to the damage of the Falls as a spectacle, or as a background against which to get your photograph taken".{{cite book |last=Twain |first=Mark |author-link= |date=1999 |title=Life on the Mississippi: Electronic Edition |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainlife/twain.html |location= |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |page= |isbn=}}

File:Albert Bierstadt - The Falls of Saint Anthony.jpg|The Falls of Saint Anthony, a second painting of Saint Anthony Falls by Albert Bierstadt, 1887

File:Travels through the interior parts of North America, in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (1781) (14761927386).jpg|An image of Saint Anthony Falls from Jonathan Carver's 1781 book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, In the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768.

File:Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi - painted by J. Shaw ; engraved by J. Hill. LCCN2014649367.jpg|Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi, painted by Joshua Shaw; engraved by John Hill, 1819. Library of Congress.

File:George Catlin, Ojibwa Portaging Around the Falls of St. Anthony, 1835-1836.jpg|George Catlin, Ojibwa Portaging Around the Falls of St. Anthony, 1835-1836 (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

File:Henry Lewis - Falls of Saint Anthony.jpg|The Falls of Saint Anthony, Alto Mississippi, Henry Lewis, 1847. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

File:MINNESOTA 1856 Falls of St.Anthony.jpg|An illustration of the falls from the 1856 book Minnesota and Its Resources by John Wesley Bond. British Library.

File:George Catlin- The Falls of Saint Anthony.jpg|The Falls of Saint Anthony, George Catlin, 1871. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

File:MARK TWAIN(1883) p594 - MINNEAPOLIS AND THE FALLS OF ST.ANTHONY.jpg|Minneapolis and the Falls of Saint Anthony, an illustration from Mark Twain's 1883 memoir Life on the Mississippi.

File:Pg_55_St_Anthony%27s_falls.jpg|An illustration of the falls and Stone Arch Bridge from the 1893 book The Official Northern Pacific Railroad Guide

File:St. Anthony's Falls and Exposition Building, Minneapolis, Minn (NYPL b12647398-66728).tiff|A postcard printed by the Detroit Publishing Company, c. 1903–04

File:"Discovery of St. Anthony Falls" butter sculpture on display in the Minnesota section of the Palace of Agriculture at the 1904 World's Fair.jpg|Discovery of St. Anthony Falls, a butter sculpture on display at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.

File:Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony.jpg|Douglas Volk, Father Hennepin Discovering the Falls of St. Anthony, c. 1905. Minnesota State Capitol.

• List of waterfalls
• I-35W Mississippi River bridge, collapsed in 2007
• Saint Anthony Main shopping area

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web

|last1=Coddington

|first1=Donn

|last2=Hess

|first2=Jeffrey

|title=Nomination of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District to be on the National Register of Historic Places

|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/0cbb35f0-93c3-456e-a3b9-8027e70f9757

|website= (1971, 1991)

|publisher=US-DOI-NPS

|accessdate=April 1, 2019

|ref = {{harvid|Nomination|1971}}

}}

:The application from the City of Minneapolis to the National Park Service to place the St. Anthony Falls Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places (it was placed there). Consists of the original 1971 section and a much longer 1991 addition. Has extensive information on the significance of the district and descriptions of "contributing resources".

• {{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Lucile |title=The Falls of St. Anthony: The Waterfall That Built Minneapolis |date=1987 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}

:A heavily footnoted standard history of the development at the Falls.

• {{cite web |last1=Anfinson |first1=John |display-authors=etal |title=River of History: A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi |url=https://www.nps.gov/miss/learn/historyculture/upload/hrs-full-comp.pdf |website=NPS |publisher=COE & NPS - National River and Recreation Area |access-date=January 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222110135/https://www.nps.gov/miss/learn/historyculture/upload/hrs-full-comp.pdf |archive-date=February 22, 2017 |date=2003}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Danbom |first1=David |title=Flour Power – the significance of flour milling at the falls |journal=Minnesota History |issue=Spring/Summer 2003 |url=http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/58/v58i05-06p270-285.pdf |access-date=July 1, 2021 |ref={{harvid|Danbom|2003}} |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101194025/http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/58/v58i05-06p270-285.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• * {{cite web |title=Feasibility Report for Hydropower St. Anthony Falls |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a140262.pd |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419215831/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a140262.pd |url-status=live |archive-date=April 19, 2019 |date=1984 |publisher=Corps of Engineers |accessdate=April 1, 2019 |pages= 37, 138–140

|ref = {{harvid|Feasibility|1984}}}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070814023632/http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/106wheat/106wheat.htm Wheat Farms, Flour Mills, and Railroads: A Web of Interdependence, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]
• [https://www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/stanfall.htm St. Anthony Falls page within the NPS Mississippi National River and Recreation Area website]
• [http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/things_heritage.shtml St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board], outlining Heritage Trail and walking tours
• {{Commons category-inline|Saint Anthony Falls}}
• [https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/LocksDams/UpperStAnthonyFalls.aspx U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District: Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam]
• [https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/LocksDams/LowerStAnthonyFalls.aspx U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District: Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam]

{{Mississippi National River and Recreation Area}}

{{Locks and dams of the Upper Mississippi River|before=—|after=Meeker Island Lock and Dam (demolished)}}

{{Registered Historic Places}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Dams in Minnesota

Category:Locks on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota

Category:Geography of Minneapolis

Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota

Category:Minnesota state historic sites

Category:Mississippi Gorge

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

Category:Mississippi River locks

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis

Category:Waterfalls of Minnesota

Category:United States Army Corps of Engineers dams

Category:Tourist attractions in Minneapolis

Category:Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota

Category:Landforms of Hennepin County, Minnesota

Category:Submerged waterfalls