Nicollet Island

by Christopher Hage, Rushika February Hage

Overview

Above St. Anthony Falls, in the middle of the Mississippi River, hidden in the heart of Minneapolis, lies Wita Waste, the beautiful island. Named Wita Waste by Dakota Indians, it is known now as Nicollet Island, the only inhabited island in the Mississippi. Over the centuries, it has been a sacred birthing place, at the center of the lumber and flour-milling industries that built Minneapolis, and involved in the collapse of the Eastman tunnel, which almost doomed those industries. One of Minneapolis's largest fires, the great conflagration of 1893, started there. It has been the home of pioneers, veterans, elite barons of the Gilded Age, Roman Catholic monks, hippies, artists, vagrants, and donkeys. Many of their houses still remain, preserving Minneapolis's architectural heritage. Nicollet Island has been at the center of numerous controversies ranging from its original land claim to proposals to locate the state capitol there, to, more recently, the threatened demolition of its historic houses. Nicollet Island is the history of Minnesota in miniature, and its tale is one of beauty, romance, disaster, and conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738577913
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/03/2010
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	651,751
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

The images in Nicollet Island are from the Hennepin County Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Hennepin County Public Library, De La Salle High School, and from photographs taken by and given to the authors by private individuals. Christopher and Rushika February Hage have undergraduate degrees in history and master's degrees in criminal justice and medieval history, respectively.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 The Beautiful Island 11

2 The Pioneers 19

3 The Gilded Age 47

4 Commerce to Decline 87

5 The Revitalization 113