Editing Saint Anthony Falls (section)

===Industry===

The first private land claim at the falls was made by [[Franklin Steele]] in 1838 &mdash; 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|thumb|Mid 1850s [[Daguerreotype]] 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&nbsp;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 tree|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.<ref name="Timber">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="timeline">{{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}}</ref> 
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}}<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Steele had the town [[plat]]ted in 1849, and it [[Municipality|incorporated]] in 1855.<ref name=bridges>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=2007-06-28|access-date=2007-05-29}}</ref>
[[File:SaintAnthonyFalls1860.jpg|thumb|Sawmills over Saint Anthony Falls, ca. 1860.]]

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 City|New York]] financiers, [[Thomas E. Davis#Family|Davis, Gebhard, and Sanford]]. The company struggled for several years, due to poor relations with the financiers, [[Panic of 1857|a depression]], and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. In 1868, the firm reorganized with new officers including [[John S. Pillsbury|John Pillsbury]], Richard and Samuel Chute, Sumner Farnham, and Frederick Butterfield.<ref name=Timber/>
[[Image:Sawmills.jpg|thumb|Looking northeast across the river ca. 1868]]
As Minneapolis (and its former neighbor across the river, St. Anthony) developed, the [[hydropower|water power]] at the falls became a source of power for several industries including [[textile mill]]s, wool, machinery, paper, and wood products, of which the [[North Star Woolen Mill]] was successful. [[Sawmill]]s 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 [[grist mill|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.<ref name=corp/> 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|thumb|left|upright|A diagram showing the recession of the falls between 1680 and 1887]]
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.<ref>{{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</ref> 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.