The Mighty Mississippi in Minneapolis

 We decided to venture out of our campground and head north to explore the Mississippi National River as it flows between Minneapolis and St. Paul. During the summer the Park Service opens a “pop up” visitor center on the Minneapolis side of the river where docents explain the lock system in this section of the river. 

We drove up to find the location and parked in a city park and walked up to Upper Lock St. Anthony Falls. 

It’s really a misnomer to call this area a lock system since we learned that barge traffic in this part of the Mississippi stopped over a decade ago. The locks have been permanently closed. You can look at the rusting doors but they no longer fill with water to move ships up and down. 

Instead the river in this section is used to generate hydroelectric power. Waterfalls generate power that has been used for almost a hundred years to fuel such industries as lumber, wool and then flour mills. 

We learned that in the 1930s this city was the home to the two largest flour producers - Gold Metal and Pillsbury. 

The flour mills died out here in the 1940s when steam generated from coal allowed suppliers to process flour closer to the source where it was grown rather than having to ship the raw wheat to Minneapolis for processing.  

The docent told us that the water level is really down this year on this part of the river because like many parts of the country rain has been scarce. 

Great day walking along the Mississippi.