Minneapolis: City of Water.

Water has been an important factor in how many cities have formed. The city of Minneapolis is one particular case to analyze. One must look at historical geography to understand how physical geography has had an impact on economic geography.

The city of Minneapolis was built in 1856 as a town. Fort Snelling nearby had attracted people before. The city was incorporated in 1867. What made Minneapolis grow was its water resources.  Industry grew around St. Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall along the Mississippi river.

Map showing St. Anthony Falls is located

Picture of St. Anthony  Falls, 1860.


This waterfall provided a very important source of hydropower. With plenty of timber in Minnesota, sawmills operated from water power. With railroad service, grain and other goods would be shipped into Minneapolis. Flour mills would flourish in Minneapolis. One flour mill made enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread per day. Companies like Pillsbury and General Mills would form. Minneapolis would get a nickname from this, "the mill city".

Water played a very important part in Minneapolis' history. It was with water that hydropower was used to power the mills, and helped Minneapolis grow.

Minneapolis is also home to 6 lakes. It has developed the nickname "city of lakes" for this very reason. The cities lakes are very important sources of recreation for many residents. Activities such as fishing, swimming, ice skating, and boating are among the forms of recreation that residents can do at these lakes.These lakes formed as a result of glaciers melting and retreating. The melting and retreating of glaciers left behind lakes in Minneapolis, as well as the rest of Minnesota. It also carved out how the Mississippi river would flow through the rocks and soil. Minneapolis' name comes from the Dakota work "mni" and the Greek word "polis", literally translating to Water City.

Minneapolis can be thought of as the Water City. Water has played an important role for the Twin Cities. This aspect of physical geography has historically been important to the economy, and helped the city grow.

Sources: http://www1.umn.edu/marp/dig/site3.html
http://www.fromsitetostory.org/tcm/tcmintro.asp
http://www.fromsitetostory.org/sources/papers/mnarch49/49a-concl.asp

Breakfast City

Judging by the title of this entry, one might be inclined to believe that Battle Creek, Michigan is the subject of interest. And in many ways, one would be justified in feeling that way. However, this is not the subject of interest. The Twin Cities metropolitan area is the subject of interest.
If one has taken a course in economic geography, then this should be an easy topic. However, if not, well, here is a crash course in economic geography, at least on this topic.
In the American Midwest, there are three major agricultural belts.
1) Corn Belt
2) Wheat Belts
3) Dairy Belt.

The Corn Belt covers mainly covers and area from southern Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri in the west, to Ohio in east. This region has the soil types needed for growing corn, and an adequate rainfall.
The Wheat Belt stretches from northern Texas to North Dakota, and even touching parts of western Minnesota and eastern Montana. The Dairy Belt covers the area of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These are areas where wheat or corn cannot be grown easily for commercial use, but grass is plentiful.

The common denominator for this is Minnesota. Minnesota is the state where the corn, wheat, and dairy belts all meet. It is no coincidence that Minneapolis gained a nickname of “Flour Milling Capital of the World”. This would become a major center for grain milling. There was corn from southern Minnesota, and wheat from nearby western areas. It would be no coincidence that General Mills is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It is no coincidence that Land-O-Lakes butter is headquartered in suburb Minneapolis, in Arden Hills. With three major agricultural belts meeting in Minnesota, Minneapolis should have the title of “Breakfast City”.  Think of all of the breakfast foods eaten. Anything made by Pillsbury, a General Mills subsidiary. Think of Toaster Strudels. Think of Wheaties, Chex, and Cheerios. All of these products are made in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

Maybe next time when you sit down to have a bowl of Cheerios or Wheaties in the morning, and you look at the address and see “Minneapolis, MN” on the box, you might want to consider that General Mills has a reason for making that cereal in Minneapolis. Or the next time you put some Land-O-Lakes butter on your pancakes (which could be made by General Mills depending on what you use to make them), you might want to consider that Arden Hills, MN is a fitting place to have a butter company. Minnesota is located within the dairy belt after all. It gives a different meaning to breakfast.

http://schillerinstitute.org/strategic/2011/us_food_crisis.html

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/pdf/CR-PL11-RGBChor.pdf

http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/atlas02/

http://www.millcitymuseum.org/flour-milling-history