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26-465: The natural Saint Croix Falls was a series of rapids with a drop of about 55 feet (17 m) over six miles (9.7 km). The water power served the lumber industry in the nineteenth century before the construction of the current hydroelectric dam from 1905 to 1907. In 1837 Franklin Steele organized a company to build a small dam and sawmill at the falls. Caleb Cushing purchased the sawmill in 1846, but

52-420: A part in forging many treaties with Native American tribes. According to his obituary he spoke French , English , Dakota , Ojibwe , Cree , Mandan , and Winnebago . Bottineau was born in a hunting camp on the buffalo trail near Grand Forks . His father Charles Bottineau was a French-Canadian , and his mother Marguerite Macheyquayzaince Ahdicksongab (Clear Sky Woman) was half Dakota and half Ojibwe of

78-551: A wooden fish ladder on the east end and a steel "bear trap" sluice gate on the west end that could be raised or lowered to permit the passage of timber rafts downriver. The H. M. Byllesby Company, precursor to the Northern States Power Company , purchased the dam in 1913. In addition to the Saint Croix Falls dam, the company continued to operate the older Nevers Dam upstream to regulate the flow of water into

104-687: Is 675 feet (206 m) long and the power station is 291 feet (89 m), located on the east side of the river in Wisconsin. The dam also includes a 785-foot (239 m) concrete dike on the west side of the river in Minnesota. Franklin Steele Franklin Steele (c. 1813 – September 10, 1880) was an early settler of Minneapolis , Minnesota . Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania , of Scottish descent, Steele worked in

130-459: The Lancaster, Pennsylvania , post office as a young man, where he once met President James Buchanan . With encouragement from his future brother-in-law Henry Hastings Sibley , Steele saw opportunities in the western frontier and traveled to Fort Snelling via the steamboat Burlington , arriving June 18, 1838; he soon became a storekeeper at the fort. At that time, the land on both sides of

156-555: The Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls was controlled by the U.S. government as part of the Fort Snelling Reservation. However, by 1837 over 150 squatters had staked unofficial claims on fort property. In 1838, the fort commander, Joseph Plympton convinced the government to release the east bank of the river for settlement, hoping to stake a personal claim on the valuable land closest to the falls. But Steele staked

182-841: The Lake of the Woods band, and sister of the Pembina Ojibwe chief Misko-Makwa or Red Bear. Though Bottineau was nominally born in United States territory, control of the Upper Mississippi Valley had fallen to the British during the War of 1812 . Even after the 1815 Treaty of Ghent returned the land to the United States, British and Canadian traders and the Native American tribes held all real control in

208-593: The Twin Cities, as well as Breckenridge, Minnesota , and Wahpeton, North Dakota , on either side of the Red River of the North . He also took part in the founding of Orono Village, Sherburne County, Minnesota , (later absorbed by Elk River, Minnesota ) and the booming city of St. Anthony (later absorbed by Minneapolis ). He was also a renowned diplomat and translator, earning him the nickname "The Walking Peace Pipe." He played

234-548: The area. The U.S. government used Bottineau and others like him to settle the land and help establish American sovereignty. Most mixed race, or Métis , lived as outcasts to both White and Native societies, but Bottineau's invaluable services and exploits would make him a legend in his own time. Upon his retirement, the United States Congress granted him a pension of $ 50 a month. He died in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota at

260-470: The booming town. 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. Godfrey built the first home in St. Anthony, Steele had

286-630: The communities was via a rope-drawn ferry, by foot when the river surface was frozen, or on floating log booms that often filled the channel. Although he ran one such ferry, as early as 1852, Steele anticipated a need for a permanent bridge to span the river near present-day Hennepin Avenue . He formed the Mississippi Bridge Company to build a 620-foot (189 m)-long, 17-foot (5 m) wide suspension bridge, linking Minneapolis to Nicollet Island and hired Thomas Griffith to design it. The bridge

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312-503: The falls and the Nevers Dam upstream in order to generate hydroelectricity for the growing city of Minneapolis . The company constructed the present concrete dam and power station from 1905 to 1907. The power station originally utilized four Westinghouse generators with a combined output of 10,000 kilowatts. Electricity was delivered to Minneapolis via a 40-mile (64 km), 50,000 volt copper transmission line. The dam originally included

338-536: The financiers, a depression , and the Civil War . In 1868 the firm reorganized with new officers including John Pillsbury , Richard and Samuel Chute, Sumner Farnham, and Frederick Butterfield. The two communities of Minneapolis and St.   Anthony shared the resources of the falls. Both towns grew quickly and developed several industries at the falls. The earliest waterpowered facilities were sawmills; flour mills soon followed. For many years, river crossing between

364-402: The first Mayor of St. Paul . Eventually, in 1847, Steele secured financing, in the form of $ 12,000 for a 90   percent stake in the property. On May 18, 1848, President 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. The dam extended diagonally into the river 700 feet (210 meters),

390-431: The first claim on the land before sunrise on the first day of the legal settlement. He claimed a half-mile of east-bank riverfront, controlling half of the water power of St. Anthony Falls; adjacent property was claimed by Pierre Bottineau (1817–1895), a Métis , of French-Canadian, Ojibwe , and Dakota descent. Steele's sister, Abbian, married a prominent physician, Thomas R. Potts , in 1847. Potts later became

416-644: The government for use as an induction station. After the war was over Steele leased the land to settlers and the city began to grow. The town of Minneapolis was incorporated as a city in 1867. He ultimately became prosperous from lumber sales, the development of a suspension bridge, and various land deals. In 1851, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature created a college-preparatory school in Minneapolis . Steele donated four acres, located in St. Anthony , to

442-500: The new Fort Ripley . In the summer of 1851, the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was "negotiated" wresting nearly all remaining Minnesotan land from the Indians . In 1852 Congress passed a bill to relinquish 26,000 acres (10,522 ha) of Ft. Snelling, opening the door for the ultimate development of Minneapolis. By 1854, three-hundred squatters occupied the area, and in 1855 Congress recognized

468-640: The newly-created institution. Steele died on September 10, 1880, in Minneapolis , Minnesota . Pierre Bottineau Pierre Bottineau (January 1, 1817 – July 26, 1895) was a Minnesota frontiersman . Known as the " Kit Carson of the Northwest ," he was an integral part of the history and development of Minnesota and North Dakota . He was an accomplished surveyor and his many settlement parties founded cities all over Minnesota and North Dakota. Those settlements would become cities such as Osseo, Minnesota , and Maple Grove, Minnesota , northwest of

494-455: The power station. The Nevers Dam was badly damaged by flooding in 1954 and demolished the following year. The dam became the property of Xcel Energy in 1998 when Northern States Power merged with other utilities. The power station has been upgraded several times and now has a capacity of 25.9 MW. The Saint Croix Falls Dam is a concrete hybrid arch-gravity dam with an S-shaped spillway and an integral hydroelectric power station. The main arch

520-445: The property became entangled in legal disputes and had little commercial success. The early mill fell into disrepair, and in 1869 the local Polk County Press wrote that while "industrious relic hunters might find there a dam by a mill site, they would not find a mill by a dam site." A variation of this quote now appears on a historical marker near the dam. Development for the lumber industry resumed in 1889, when William Sauntry built

546-438: 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 financiers. The company struggled for several years, due to poor relations with

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572-454: The town platted in 1849, and it incorporated in 1855. Although St. Anthony was beginning to prosper, the west side of the Mississippi remained under the control of Fort Snelling. Late in 1849, Steele convinced his friend, John H. Stevens , to negotiate a deal to secure 160 acres (64.7 ha) in present-day Minneapolis. In exchange, Stevens would ferry troops across the river to supply

598-508: The two cities, which legally merged in 1872, taking the name Minneapolis: a compound of the Dakota Indian word, "minne" or "mni" for "water", and the Greek "polis" for city. By 1858, Franklin Steele bought the fort and 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) surrounding it for $ 90,000, as the government no longer needed a frontier outpost at that location. But during the Civil War , he leased it back to

624-496: The wood-pile Nevers Dam eleven miles (18 km) upstream to help Friedrich Weyerhäuser control the flow of timber rafts after the 1886 St. Croix River log jam . Clear cutting and forest fires began to exhaust the area's lumber supply in the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1903, the Minneapolis General Electric Company, managed by Boston -based Stone & Webster , purchased control of both

650-541: Was 16 feet (5 m) high, and was secured to the limestone riverbed. Its thickness tapered from 40 feet (12 m) wide at its base to 12 feet (4 m) wide at the top. Steele dispatched logging crews to the Crow Wing River in December 1847 to supply pine for his 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

676-443: Was opened on January 23, 1855, with a large celebration. As a private enterprise, tolls were levied: five cents per pedestrian, twenty-five cents per horse-drawn wagon, and two cents for swine and sheep. Steele had previously (in 1853) built a shorter bridge to cross the channel from Nicollet Island to St.   Anthony; together these created the first permanent bridge to span the Mississippi at any point along its length. They linked

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