Meet the biggest underestimated place in the north. A dramatic riverfront skyline, three professional sports stadiums within 1.3 miles, so much art you’re literally surrounded by it and a theater on almost every corner. A culture committed to perfecting the craft of the brew, the best park system in the nation, and a foodie paradise where you can get Nordic cuisine for breakfast, Ethiopian for lunch and this thing called a “Juicy Lucy” for dinner – and oh yeah, cocktails on a Ferris wheel. A place to bring your dancing shoes and party at festivals all year round, enjoy four gorgeous seasons surrounded by 13 lakes, the Mississippi River and a waterfall, and meet friendly locals who can’t wait to show you why they love living here.
Minneapolis has been called “one of the ten best places to visit in the United States” by the Wall Street Journal. It is the third largest theatre market in the United States and has is second to only New York for live theatre per capita. Has the Walker Art Center which is one of the five largest museums in the United States. Features the finest park system and highest rate of volunteerism (40%) in the nation. Minneapolis is known for its world class cuisine, year-round activities in sun and snow and active lifestyle.
One of the “Twins” in the Twin Cities Minneapolis is part of the 16th largest metropolitan areas in the United States and largest city in the state with a population of about 415,000. City includes a beautiful system of lakes, the Mississippi River and water falls.
If interested in sports the city has been home to Final four, Super Bowl and WNBA championships and features the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Twins, and the Lynx.
Minneapolis is known to provide that “quality of life” that so many promise yet so few can deliver.
Schools The City of Minneapolis is served by the Minneapolis Public School District #1. The Minneapolis School District is an above average, public school district located in Minneapolis, MN. It has 36,793
students in grades PK-12th grade with a student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1. According to state test scores, 44% of students are at least proficient in math and 43% in reading.
A Few Things to do in Minneapolis Walker Art Center – A world-class multidisciplinary contemporary art center and home to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Guthrie Theater – Is a center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. Minneapolis Art Institute – Is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood on a campus that covers almost 8 acres. Mill City Farmer’s Market– Is a year-round farmers market dedicated to providing healthy, local food. Minnehaha Falls – Centerpiece to a Minnehaha Park. The park includes picnic areas, trails, sculptures and Sea Salt Eatery.
Midtown Global Market – Is an internationally-themed public market with great food, cultural experiences and unique gifts. US Bank Stadium – Is an enclosed stadium built on the former site of Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Home of the Vikings & hosted events. Children’s Theater – Is the #1 children’s theater in the nation. For 50 years, CTC has created extraordinary theatre experiences that educate, challenge, and inspire young people and their communities.
Target Field – Is home to ballpark of the Minnesota Twins. Lake Calhoun – Is the largest lake in Minneapolis and is popular for many outdoor activities. Lake Harriet – Offers a variety of lakeside activities and summer concerts at the band shell
Mill Ruins Park – Combines an exploration of the history of Minneapolis with present day activities for all ages.
To find more recreational opportunities visit City Tours, Historical Tours, Distillery Tours, Boat Tours, Food, and Music. **CREATE PAGES FOR EACH LINK & ADD LINK**
History of Minneapolis
The name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the city’s first schoolmaster, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.
Descendants of first peoples, Dakota Sioux were the region’s sole residents when French explorers arrived in 1680. For a time, amicable relations were based on fur trading. Gradually, more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Native Americans. After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain granted the land east of the Mississippi to the United States. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired land to the west from France in the Louisiana Purchase. Fort Snelling, just south of present-day Minneapolis, was built in 1819 by the United States Army. It attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the East to settle there. Preoccupied with the Civil War, the United States government reneged on its promises of cash payments to the Dakota, resulting in hunger, the Dakota War, internment and hardship. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized Minneapolis as a town in 1856, on the Mississippi’s west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the east-bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.
Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River and a source of power for its early industry. Forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planning wood. Due to the occupational hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city’s 34 flour mills. Millers have used hydropower elsewhere since the 1st century B.C., but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as “the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen.”
A father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Washburn converted his business from gristmills to truly revolutionary technology, including “gradual reduction” processing by steel and porcelain roller mills capable of producing premium-quality pure white flour very quickly. Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Grayand some acquired through industrial espionage from Hungary by William de la Barre. Charles A. Pillsbury and the C.A. Pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods. The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable and Minnesota “patent” flour was recognized at the time as the best in the world.
Not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran (which contains wheat’s vitamins, minerals and fiber) that “…Minneapolis flour millers routinely dumped” into the Mississippi. After 1883, a Minneapolis miller virtually started a new industry when he began to sell bran byproduct as animal feed. Millers cultivated relationships with academic scientists, especially at the University of Minnesota. Those scientists backed them politically on many issues, such as in the early 20th century when health advocates in the nascent field of nutrition criticized the flour “bleaching” process. At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for 12 million loaves of bread each day; by 1900, 14.1 percent of America’s grain was milled in Minneapolis. Further, by 1895, through the efforts of silent partner William Hood Dunwoody, Washburn-Crosby exported four million barrels of flour a year to the United Kingdom. When exports reached their peak in 1900, about one third of all flour milled in Minneapolis was shipped overseas.