Minneapolis · US

Hennepin Island

Hennepin Island is a small, low island in the Mississippi River at the foot of St. Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis, wedged between Nicollet Island upstream and the roaring falls just below. Named for Father Louis Hennepin, the Franciscan missionary and explorer who first recorded the falls, it is far more famous as the scene of a near-disaster than as a place to stroll. In October 1869 the collapsed Eastman Tunnel chewed away much of the island and nearly dragged St. Anthony Falls downriver with it. Today the island is dominated by active Xcel Energy hydropower works and engineered wasteways rather than open parkland, so the visitor experience happens at its edges. From the paths around St. Anthony Main, Water Power Park and the bridges that thread the falls, you can read a compact history of how Minneapolis harnessed, and nearly destroyed, the only major waterfall on the Mississippi River.