How Much Water? Flour Tower. Enslaved People. Minneapolis, MN

Mississippi River Lock & Dam #1 in Minneapolis, MN. What a delight to see. Kevin and I have always been fascinated by Lock & Dam and just the thought… “Who thought of this?” And then to make it happen is pretty incredible to us. Every time I see one, I just can’t get over the engineering that went through someone’s head to think this plan. Wow.

This Lock & Dam is the 1st of 29 on the Mississippi River. From here to St Louis they raise and lower the river approximately 420 ft in 630 miles. Lock & Dam isn’t needed from St Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, 700 miles. This one drops/raises 9 feet. There is a display of Lock 1 control stand used from 1980 to 2005. There are 86 buttons (I counted). Now this panel is replaced with a single computer mouse and a joy stick. HAHA I had read up and knew there was a visitor center here. Turns out it is all outside and on signs along the places you walk. That was neat because you can read, look around, and see what it is talking about. As soon as we got there we saw two kayaks in the lock. Kevin and I just stood there watching the rise or fall of the water, just in awe.

One sign read: “When full, the lock holds 6 million (6,000,000) gallons of water. To use the same amount, you would have to take one bath every hour for the next 25 years!” I told Kevin “Challenge accepted!” Giggle! (Bubble bath is one of my most favorite thing.)

It is nice you can walk the length of the lock on both sides of it. That gave good views. On the inside path you are right next to the dam. It is a pretty little waterfall of 9 feet or so. Looks like an old power house on the other side. We often talk about the cost of moving freight. On another sign we read that a “ton mile” is to move one ton of cargo one mile. Minnesota Department of Transportation says barges are the most fuel efficient, moving 407 ton miles per gallon of fuel. Rail goes 208 ton miles, truck 90 ton miles, and air is 5 ton miles per gallon. We saw people fishing along the banks and an island just below the dam. I was watching for a barge to come through but was excited to see a few small boats. It took 12 minutes from locks closed, add the water, and then open the locks.

We just watched and watched. Soon a man came around and was passing out stickers to us and the few other people around. Turns out he is the only person here who is running the whole operation. I asked if there were going to be any barges today and he said barges don’t come through this Lock & Dam anymore because the river above is closed to barges.

After spending a lot of time there we decided it was time to go. Why? Our tummies were growling. HA I had put together a picnic lunch of cheese porchetta wraps and nuts.

We next drove to downtown Minneapolis to Mill City Museum. As we drove we saw people in all sorts for green and yellow shirts. Turns out there was a game for the college and downtown had a big block party. People and food everywhere. The big stadium is real close. I thought we would never find a parking spot but we drove around the museum to right along the river and found a nice open parallel spot. It was easy for Kevin to get our big truck in. So thankful. OH, parking elsewhere was $40.00 because of event! We paid $1.00 an hour and set it for 4. 🙂 This museum is part of Minnesota Historical Society and like the History Center, wow, did they do a great job! As we walked to the museum we had to walk through a very crowded farmers market. We got to the front and bought our tickets $12.00 each.

We then went to the film “Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat” and learned a lot. In fact, it was so good, we watched it again before we left. It was fast and the captions were fast so I wanted to watch a second time and just watch the pictures. Great! This was Washburn A Mill, one of 3 (including Pillsbury) that was located along the Mississippi River. This mill was later named General Mill (1928) and was the largest and most technologically advanced flour mill in the world when it was completed in 1880. Millers there had perfected a new process for milling, a revolution that made fine white flour available to the masses for the first time. Right after that Minneapolis became the flour milling capital of the world during 1880-1930. This mill could produce 2 million pounds of flour each day! In 1878 flour dust exploded and killed 18 workers and destroyed almost a third of the city’s flour mills. The displays were working machines and parts and you could touch, turn, and work them. Very hands on but not childish.

Our ticket said we got to see Flour Tower at 1:20. As we walked close to it, I saw a sign that said it was closed captions and the best seats to see the captions were in the back two rows. That was wonderful! I told the worker there (all wearing cute aprons) I am deaf. She said to go to the front and they would make sure I got the seat I needed. When the doors opened a guy said he knew I needed to go in first and allowed me to go in first. So nice! This “ride” wow. It is in the real elevator! Kevin and others said it reminded them of Disneyland’s Tower of Terror. It actually went up and down, stopping at different floors and when the door opened you would see a part of the plant and what would have been happening there. Usually there was also a video on the wall that showed it in action. I was completely impressed! At the end you are on the 7th floor and you walk out to an observatory. From there you can see St Anthony’s Falls. This is a hilarious story that we saw in the 19 minutes movie – A Catholic frier came to the area to convert the Native Americans. He wanted other people to come to this area so he let it be known that there was a water fall here that rivals Niagara Falls! Yeah? Niagara Falls is 270 ft…this one, he named St Anthony Falls, is 20 ft. HAHA There was a cute remark about the religious people even lying sometimes. We could see it out the observatory and later as we drove past. The mill had burned years after it was closed so that gave quite an interesting view of left over walls that have been burnt and fallen away.

Fort Snelling, part of Minnesota Historical Society. It was built in 1904. Today was hot hot hot and humid! Breaking records for the day. The heat index was 100°. This Fort even had signs saying some of the things were closed and/or shortened due to the heat. One of the tours is an hour long, usually but they cut it to 30 minutes. This place had captions for the movie, yay! Then we walked to the fort area.

The history is really sad about the Native Americans and how a group of them were put into a concentration camp below the fort.

Also, even though Minnesota was a free state, the supreme court ruled that enslaved people of the military officers still had to be their slaves. At the officer’s house, one of the original buildings, in the dining room is something that we thought was interesting. At the table was set dishes and on the plates it said the slave’s name, who enslaved them and the time they were there.

For example: Harriet Dread (sic) (Scott) Fredrick, Enslaved by Joseph & Eliza Plympton (Captain, 5th Infantry) August 1837-January 1841. There were 15 plates like that. A good way to remember the names, to think of the hardships and how some people treat others. I thought it was honoring to the enslaved people.

Labor Day. Kevin went to the campground office and said, “Do you know where to buy propane?” “Yes” said the lady. After a second, she said, “Oh, you want to know where?” HAHA Kevin said he laughed so hard and said, “Good one; I would say something like that.” 🙂 Hey, he didn’t ask “Where is propane sold?” 🤪