Deseret Morning News reviews Mill City Museum

Milling around — Minneapolis' Mill City Museum pays homage to the flour industry

Excerpt:


Some people might question the wisdom of building a museum inside a flour mill that exploded once and caught fire twice. But, as real-estate agents say, it's all about location.

It's fitting that Minneapolis' Mill City Museum is housed within the ruins of the old Washburn "A" mill — the forerunner to General Mills — because it helped to make Minneapolis the "flour milling capital of the world" from 1880-1930.

And it's fitting that the museum is located next to St. Anthony Falls — the only falls on the Mississippi River — because it supplied the mills with water power to grind wheat into flour.

And it's fitting that the museum offers a view of the old Pillsbury "A" Mill across the river — another major mill that helped give Minneapolis the "Mill City" nickname.

The numerous mills that sprang up along St. Anthony Falls industrialized flour production and had a major influence on how Americans got their daily bread. The surrounding Great Plains grain belt supplied up to 175 railroad cars of wheat a day, to be made into flour and shipped all over the world


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Comment: Where we take out of state visitors. We've been here 4 or 5 times.