Minneapolis and St. Paul

Minneapolis and St. Paul are the archetypal “Twin Cities,” though for much of their histories only reluctantly joined together. What they share is the Mississippi River that separates them, common ethnic heritages, and mutual economic interest, much of that originally based on food production. The cities were located at the junction of Minnesota’s exploitable geographical zones. To the north were huge virgin forests awaiting lumberjack axes, while to the south and west stretch the prairies, the future wheatlands. The Mississippi and Minnesota rivers met at the future cities’ location and, importantly, St. Anthony Falls was to be the center around which Minneapolis would be built. Here was water to power the greatest flour and lumber mills of nineteenth-century America.