Water Works at Mill Ruins Park

Reserve Water Works

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People have gathered at Owámniiyomni (St. Anthony Falls) for thousands of years. It was a prime place for encampments by the Dakhóta, Ho-Chunk, and Ojibwe due to the proximity to a place of spiritual power, traditional routes, and locations for harvesting foods such as maple sugar and cranberries. Even after the European settlement of the cities of St. Anthony and Minneapolis, Native peoples continued to stay at the Falls through the 1860s, when they were forcibly relocated to reservations.

Minneapolis grew around industrial development on the Mississippi River. Loggers gathered for work at the city’s saw mills, then some of the world’s largest flour mills were built, harnessing the power of the river as the city continued to grow. Water Works showcases carefully excavated mill remnants from the Bassett Sawmill, which was built in 1870 and burned in 1897, and Columbia Flour Mill, which was built in 1882 and collapsed in 1941.

The decline of riverfront industry in the mid-20th century was followed by a central riverfront revitalization, led by the Fuji Ya restaurant. When it opened in 1968, Fuji Ya was the first new building in an abandoned industrial area of Minneapolis, spurring the beginning of a riverfront redevelopment period that continues to this day. Beams salvaged from the Fuji Ya building were used to build the staircase in the Water Works Pavilion.

Acquisition and Development: MPRB bought the site in 1990 after Fuji Ya moved. It was during an era of riverfront park development that saw the Stone Arch Bridge transition from railroad to pedestrian and bike use, an expansion of trails on West River Parkway and the development of Boom Island Park.

The site lay dormant for more than 20 years. Following an international riverfront park design competition in 2010, the MPRB launched RiverFirst, a generational vision for transforming areas of once-industrial Mississippi Riverfront into a welcoming place for all people through improved habitat and miles of new interconnected parks and trails. Water Works was one of the first projects identified through RiverFirst.

Other RiverFirst projects include Hall’s Island, a habitat-rich island and gravel beach restored in 2018 after it was destroyed by 1960s industrial expansion, and the 26th Avenue North Overlook, a new North Minneapolis river overlook and trail connection that also opened in 2021.

Construction on Water Works started with archeological investigation that began in 2017. Park and pavilion construction began in 2019, and the project was completed in the summer of 2021.