Minneapolis, Minn., is located on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. The Mill City Museum, run by the Minnesota Historical Society, was once home to the Washburn A. Mill that later became General Mills.

Nearly destroyed by fire in 1991, the mill – which had closed in 1965 – was empty with old machinery and over time became a shelter for homeless people.

New life was eventually breathed into this building that helped form Minneapolis and establish the history of flour and milling. During the late 1990s, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency cleaned up the rubble and fortified the walls, and the Historical Society announced plans to open a museum.

The museum offers insight into how milling helped build the city named after the water it thrived upon. The Mississippi at Minneapolis boasts the only natural falls along the mighty river, first reported by a Catholic Priest who named them for his patron saint.

Father Louis Hennepin came to the area in the late 1600s. The Mill City Museum website shares: “Long before his time, the falls were considered sacred by the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples, who once populated the riverfront. As Europeans moved into the area, it was alternately controlled by the French and the Spanish from the 1600s until 1803, when it became part of the United States.”

Over the years, the falls were harnessed to power the mighty mills that flourished in the Minneapolis area for decades. Beginning in 1880 and for 50 years, Minneapolis was known as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World” and more informally, as “Mill City.”

The natural falls have been replaced by a concrete overflow spillway called an apron. Jason Bachmeier of the Mill City Museum said this water power was first used to mill flour in this area when the Washburn A. Mill was built in 1874 by Cadwallader C. Washburn.
Besides having the falls, Jason added this was the perfect area to build the flour mill because of the rich red spring wheat that is high in gluten. This wheat made great wealth for farmers and brought the mills to the area long before Minneapolis was a city.

The Washburn A. Mill rolled along until the Great Mill Disaster that occurred on May 2, 1878. A spark ignited airborne flour dust within the mill, creating an explosion that demolished the seven-story mill.

The explosion was so huge that it managed to destroy two other nearby mills, and the resulting fire decimated the surrounding business district. Fourteen Washburn workers died, as well as four workers in neighboring buildings.

The disaster led to reforms in the milling industry. Changes required added ventilation for preventing the buildup of combustible flour dust, as well as other precautions that were instilled in mills across the nation.

Washburn didn’t let this disaster stop him. He teamed up with John Crosby and they built the Washburn-Crosby Mill in 1880. The mill would be later known as General Mills.

When the new mill was built, the old grinding stones were replaced with automatic steel rollers, the first used in the world. The new mill was also touted as the largest in the world; this lasted for about six months, Jason said, “until Pillsbury built a mill across the river the following year.”

According to the museum website, during its heyday, it was said that the mill ground enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread a day. Grain came in via rail lines that stretched across the Northern Plains into the Dakotas and Canada. Trains also carried the milled flour to Duluth and to eastern U.S. destinations for export and domestic distribution.

After World War I, the milling industry in Minneapolis began to decline. As the industry moved out, the old mills fell into disuse and the mill eventually closed in 1965, and was partially destroyed by fire in 1991.

 The Mill City Website states, “Today, the Minneapolis Riverfront has been revitalized. It’s a place where visitors enjoy sightseeing, walking and biking trails, dining, live music and theater. Many historic buildings have been developed for new uses, including the Washburn A. Mill, which is now the framework of the Mill City.”
Some of the highlights of the museum, besides the ruin area and of course the steam engine and roller mills, is the Baking Lab and an eight-story elevator ride.

The Mill City Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m and Sunday noon-5 p.m.

It is located at 704 South 2nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55401. Write or call 612-341-7555 for information, or log onto www.millcitymuseum.org

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.