Flour mills, Fitzgerald, and Prince
Minneapolis ground the world's flour. St. Anthony Falls — the only true waterfall on the Mississippi — powered mills that by the 1880s made this the milling capital of the planet, and the ruins of the Washburn A Mill now hold a museum built inside the site of its own 1878 explosion. Downstream, St. Paul stayed older and quieter. It is where F. Scott Fitzgerald grew up, wrote his way out with his first novel, and set several stories on the Summit Avenue blocks that still stand. The Twin Cities share a river, an airport, and a rivalry neither will fully explain. Prince came from here too — Paisley Park, First Avenue, and a music and theater scene that outpaces cities twice the size. Winter is met with saunas, pond hockey, and stubborn good cheer.
