Minneapolis,

 

(mĭn'ēăp'əlĭs) , city (1990 pop. 368,383), seat of Hennepin co., E Minn., at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River, at St. Anthony Falls; inc. 1856. The largest city in the state and a port of entry, it is a major industrial and rail hub. With adjacent St. Paul (the two are known as the Twin Cities), it is the processing, distribution, and trade center for a vast grain and cattle area. Minneapolis is also a banking and financial center with a significant high-technology industry. Chief among the many manufactures are food products, electronic equipment, instruments, graphic art products, machinery, fabricated metals, chemicals, and textiles. Although the central city's population has declined since the 1970s, the suburbs have grown. An influx of African Americans and immigrants began to change the city's racial composition in the 1990s.

The falls were visited by Louis Hennepin in 1683; Fort Snelling was established in 1819; and a sawmill was built at the falls in 1821. The village of St. Anthony was settled c.1839 on the east side of the river near the falls. Minneapolis originated on the river's west side c.1847 and included much of the reservation of Fort Snelling. It annexed St. Anthony in 1872. The city became the country's foremost lumber center, and after the plains were planted with wheat and the railroads were built, flour milling developed, with the 50-ft (15-m) falls supplying power.

The city was laid out with wide streets and has 22 lakes and 153 parks. Of interest are Fort Snelling State Park, several art galleries and museums (including the Walker Art Center, Weisman Art Museum, and the American Swedish Institute), the Guthrie Theater, and the grain exchange. Minneapolis also has several noteworthy skyscrapers, including ones by Cesar Pelli and by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. In Minnehaha Park is the Stevens House (1849), the city's first frame house. The city's main shopping avenue is a 10-block mall lined with trees and flowers, with a skyway system of walks for pedestrians. The Minnesota Symphony was founded there in 1903. The city is the seat of the Univ. of Minnesota, Augsburg College, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The Minnesota Twins (baseball), Timberwolves (basketball), and Vikings (football) are the city's professional sports teams.

Bibliography

See C. R. Walker, American City, (1937, repr. 1971); L. M. Kane, The Fall of St. Anthony: The Waterfall That Built Minneapolis (1987).

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Downtown seen from the North Loop
Flag Seal
Nickname: City of Lakes, Mill City
Motto: En Avant (French: 'Forward')
Location in Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota
Coordinates: 44°58′48.36″N 93°15′6.72″W / 44.9801, -93.2518667
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
County	Hennepin
Government
- Mayor	R.T. Rybak (DFL)
Area
- City	sq mi (km²)
- Land	sq mi ( km²)
- Water	sq mi ( km²)
Elevation	ft ( m)
Population (2006)[1] [2]
- City
- Density	/sq mi (/km²)
- Metro
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Area code(s)	612
FIPS code	27-430002
GNIS feature ID	06550303
Website: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/

Minneapolis (pronounced IPA: /ˌmɪniˈæpəlɪs/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.5 million residents. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of the city of Minneapolis at 372,811 people in 2005.^[3] The Metropolitan Council estimate for 2006 was 387,970.^[1]

Abundantly rich in water, the city has twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi riverfront, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, Minneapolis is the primary business center between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington.^[4] Regional theater was pioneered at the Guthrie Theater, one of many cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to Minneapolis for theater, visual art, writing and music. A diverse population, the community has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and through private and corporate philanthropy. Public park systems are modeled after Minneapolis where a park is within one-half mile (800 m) of every home.

The name Minneapolis is attributed to the city's first schoolmaster, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.^[5] Minneapolis is nicknamed the City of Lakes and the Mill City.^[4]

History

Main article: History of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until explorers arrived from France in about 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built between 1820 and 1825 by the United States Army spurred growth in the area. Circumstances pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago, and joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.^[7]

Minneapolis grew up around Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi. Millers have used hydropower since the 1st century B.C.,^[8] but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen."^[9] In early years, forests in northern Minnesota were the source of a lumber industry that operated seventeen saw mills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planing wood.^[10] The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills where Pillsbury and General Mills became processors. By 1905 Minneapolis delivered almost 10% of the country's flour and grist.^[11] At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day.^[12]

Minneapolis made dramatic changes to rectify discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers.^[13] When the country's fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging worker's rights.^[14] A lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert H. Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.^[15] Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in desegregation and the African-American civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.^[16]

During the 1950s and 1960s as part of urban renewal, the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-five city blocks—roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many buildings with notable architecture including the Metropolitan Building. Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jumpstarting interest in historic preservation in the state.^[17]

Geography and climate

Main articles: Geography of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Climate of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis history and the city's economic growth are tied to water, the city's defining physical characteristic, which was sent to the region during the last ice age. Fed by receding glaciers and Lake Agassiz ten thousand years ago, torrents of water from a glacial river undercut the Mississippi and Minnehaha riverbeds, creating waterfalls important to modern Minneapolis.^[19] Lying on an artesian aquifer^[4] and otherwise flat terrain, Minneapolis has a total area of 58.4 mi² (151.3 km²) and of this 6% is water.^[20] Water is managed by watershed districts that correspond to the Mississippi and the city's three creeks.^[21] Twelve lakes, three large ponds and five unnamed wetlands are within Minneapolis.^[22]

The city center is located just south of 45° N latitude.^[24] The city's lowest elevation of 686 ft (209 m) is near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River. The site of the Prospect Park Water Tower is often cited as the city's highest point^[25] and a placard in Deming Heights Park denotes the highest elevation, but a spot at 974 ft (296.8 m) in or near Waite Park in Northeast Minneapolis is corroborated by Google Earth as the highest ground.

The climate of Minneapolis is typical of the Upper Midwestern United States. Winters can be cold and dry, while summer is comfortably warm although at times it can be hot and humid. On the Köppen climate classification, Minneapolis falls in the warm summer humid continental climate zone (Dfa). The city experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including snow, sleet, ice, rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and fog. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Minneapolis was 108 °F (42.2 °C) in July 1936, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was -41 °F (-40.6 °C), in January 1888. The snowiest winter of record was 1983–84, when 98.4 in (2.5 m) of snow fell.^[26]

Because of its northerly location in the United States and lack of large bodies of water to moderate the air, Minneapolis is sometimes subjected to cold Arctic air masses, especially during late December, January & February. The average annual temperature of 45.4 °F (7 °C) gives the Minneapolis–St.Paul metropolitan area the coldest annual mean temperature of any major metropolitan area in the continental U.S.^[27]

Monthly Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures[28]
°Fahrenheit													°Celsius
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Rec High	58	61	83	95	96	102	105	102	98	90	77	68	Rec High	14	16	28	35	36	39	41	39	37	32	25	20
Norm High	22	28	41	57	70	79	83	80	71	58	40	26	Norm High	-6	-2	5	14	21	26	28	27	22	14	4	-3
Norm Low	4	12	24	36	49	58	63	61	51	39	25	11	Norm Low	-16	-11	-4	2	9	14	17	16	11	4	-4	-7
Rec Low	-34	-32	-32	2	18	34	43	39	26	13	-17	-29	Rec Low	-37	-36	-36	-17	-8	1	6	4	-3	-11	-27	-34
Precip (in)	1	1	2	2	3	4	4	4	3	2	2	1	Precip (mm)	26	20	47	59	82	110	103	103	68	54	49	25

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Minneapolis, Minnesota

During the 1850s and 1860s, new settlers arrived in Minneapolis from New England and New York, and during the mid-1860s, Scandinavians from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark began to call the city home. Later, immigrants came from Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland, and southern and eastern Europe. Jews from Russia and eastern Europe settled primarily on the north side of the city before moving in large numbers to the western suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.^[29] Asians came from China, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea. Two groups came for a short while during U.S. government relocations, Japanese during the 1940s, and Native Americans during the 1950s. From 1970 onward, Asians arrived from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Beginning in the 1990s, a large Latino population arrived, along with refugees from Africa, especially from Somalia.^[30]

Into the 21st century, Minneapolis continues its heritage of welcoming newcomers. The metropolitan area is an immigrant gateway with a 127% increase in foreign-born residents between 1990 and 2000.^[31]

U.S. Census Bureau estimates in 2005 show the population of Minneapolis to be 372,811, a 2.6% drop since the 2000 census.^[3] The Metropolitan Council estimates the population at 387,711 in 2005,^[32] and 387,970 in 2006.^[1] The population grew until 1950 when the census peaked at 521,718, and then declined as people moved to the suburbs until about 1990. The number of African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics is growing. Non-whites are now about one fifth of the city's residents.^[33]

Compared to the U.S. national average in 2005, the city has fewer white, Hispanic, senior, and unemployed people, while it has more people aged over 18 and more with a college degree.^[34]

Compared to a peer group in 2000, the metropolitan area is decentralizing, with a high churn rate and a large young and white population and low unemployment. Racial and ethnic minorities lag behind white counterparts in education, with 15% of black and 13% of Hispanic people holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42% of the white population. The standard of living is on the rise, with incomes among the highest in the Midwest, but median household income among black people is below that of white by over $17,000. Home ownership among black and Hispanic residents is half that of white, and one-third of the Asian population lives below the poverty line.^[31]

U.S. Census Population Estimates
Year	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2005
Population	3,000	13,000	46,887	164,738	202,718	301,408	380,582	464,356	492,370	521,718	482,872	434,400	370,951	368,383	382,618	372,811
U.S. Rank[35]	-	-	38	18	19	18	18	15	16	17	25	32	34	42	-	-

Economy

Main article: Economy of Minnesota

The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, and high technology. Industry produces metal and automotive products, chemical and agricultural products, electronics, computers, precision medical instruments and devices, plastics, and machinery.^[37]

Five Fortune 500 headquarters are in Minneapolis proper: Target Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Fortune 1000 companies in Minneapolis include PepsiAmericas, Valspar Corporation and Donaldson Company.^[38] Apart from government, the city's largest employers are Target, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, Marshall Field's, Star Tribune, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, IBM, Piper Jaffray, RBC Dain Rauscher, ING Group and Qwest.^[39]

Availability of Wi-Fi, transportation solutions, medical trials, university research and development expenditures, advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy conservation are so far above the national average that in 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the "Top Tech City" in the U.S.^[40] Minneapolis ranked the country's second best city in a 2006 Kiplinger's poll of Smart Places to Live and one of the Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.^[41]

The Twin Cities contribute 63.8% of the gross state product of Minnesota. The area's $145.8 billion gross metropolitan product and its per capita personal income rank fourteenth in the U.S. Recovering from the nation's recession in 2000, personal income grew 3.8% in 2005, though it was behind the national average of 5%. The city returned to peak employment during the fourth quarter of that year.^[42]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with one branch in Helena, Montana, serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the U.S. Treasury.^[43] The Minneapolis Grain Exchange founded in 1881 is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring wheat futures and options.^[44]

Arts

Main article: Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The region is second only to New York City in live theater per capita^[46] and is the third-largest theater market in the U.S., supporting the Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Illusion, Jungle, Mixed Blood, Penumbra, the Brave New Workshop, the Minnesota Dance Theatre, Theater Latté Da, In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, and the Children's Theatre Company.^[47] French architect Jean Nouvel designed a new three stage complex^[48] for the Guthrie Theatre, the prototype alternative to Broadway founded in Minneapolis in 1965.^[49] Minneapolis purchased and renovated the Orpheum, State, and Pantages Theatre vaudeville and film houses on Hennepin Avenue now used for concerts and plays.^[50] In 2007, a fourth renovated theater will join the Hennepin Center for the Arts to become the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center, a home to twenty performing arts groups and a provider of Web-based art education.^[51]

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, built in 1915 in south central Minneapolis is the largest art museum in the city with 100,000 pieces in its permanent collection. A new wing designed by Michael Graves was completed in 2006 for contemporary and modern works and more gallery space.^[48] The Walker Art Center near downtown doubled its size with an addition in 2005 by Herzog & de Meuron and is continuing its expansion to 15 acres (.06 km²) with a park designed by Michel Desvigne across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.^[52] The Weisman Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry for the University of Minnesota, opened in 1993. An addition, also designed by Gehry, is expected to open in 2009.^[53]

The son of a jazz musician and a singer, Prince is Minneapolis' most famous musical progeny.^[55] With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at Twin/Tone Records,^[56] he helped make First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry venues of choice for both artists and audiences.^[57] The Minnesota Orchestra plays classical and popular music at Orchestra Hall under music director Osmo Vänskä who has set about making it the best in the country.^[58] The Minnesota Opera produces both classic and new operas.^[59] Celebrating its 100th year, the MacPhail Center for Music is building a new facility near the riverfront.^[60]

Tom Waits released two songs about the city, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis (Blue Valentine 1978) and 9th & Hennepin (Rain Dogs 1985). Home to the MN Spoken Word Association, the city has garnered notice for rap and hip hop and its spoken word community.^[61] The underground hip-hop group Atmosphere frequently comments in song lyrics on the city and Minnesota.^[62]

Sports

Main article: Sports in Minnesota

Professional sports are well-established in Minneapolis. First playing in 1884, the Minneapolis Millers baseball team produced the best won-lost record in their league at the time and contributed fifteen players to the Baseball Hall of Fame. During the 1940s and 1950s the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team, the city's first in the major leagues in any sport, won six basketball championships in three leagues before moving to Los Angeles.^[63] The American Wrestling Association, formerly the NWA Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, operated in Minneapolis from 1960 until the 1990s.^[64]

The Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins arrived in the state in 1961. The Vikings were an NFL expansion team and the Twins were formed when the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota. Both teams played outdoors in open air Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Bloomington for twenty years before moving to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991. The Minnesota Timberwolves brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989, followed by the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team in 1999. They play in Target Center. The NHL ice hockey team Minnesota Wild and USL-1 soccer team Minnesota Thunder play in St. Paul.^[63]

The downtown Metrodome, opened in 1982, is the largest sports stadium in Minnesota. The three major tenants are the Vikings, the Twins and the university's Golden Gophers football team. The Metrodome is the only stadium in the country to have hosted a Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and NCAA Basketball Men's Final Four. Runners, walkers, inline skaters, coed volleyball teams, and touch football teams all have access to "The Dome". Events from sports to concerts, community activities, religious activities, and trade shows are held more than three hundred days per year, making the facility one of the most versatile stadiums in the world.^[65]

Gifted amateur athletes have played in Minneapolis schools, notably starting in the 1920s and 1930s at Central, De La Salle, and Marshall high schools. Since the 1930s, the Golden Gophers have won national championships in men's baseball, boxing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track, swimming and wrestling and women's gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor track and swimming.^[63][66]

Professional Sports in Minneapolis
Club	Sport	League	Venue	Championships
Minnesota Lynx	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association Western Conference	Target Center
Minnesota Timberwolves	Basketball	National Basketball Association Western Conference	Target Center
Minnesota Twins	Baseball	Major League Baseball American League	Metrodome	World Series 1987 and 1991
Minnesota Vikings	American football	National Football League National Football Conference	Metrodome

Parks and recreation

The Minneapolis park system has been called the best-designed, best-financed and best-maintained in America.^[67] Foresight, donations and effort by community leaders enabled Horace Cleveland to create his finest landscape architecture, preserving geographical landmarks and linking them with boulevards and parkways.^[68] The city's Chain of Lakes is connected by bike, running, and walking paths and used for swimming, fishing, picnics, boating, and ice skating. A parkway for cars, a bikeway for riders, and a walkway for pedestrians run parallel paths along the 5