Twin Cities Tour Guide

Welcome back to another exciting edition of the weirdest and wackiest the Twin Cities has to offer. Today’s post features two more Minneapolis oddities: a misshapen mill and a misnamed park. As always, please comment, especially if you know more about any of these strange places, know of any other odd spots in the Twin Cities. Also, check out the ever growing master list for more weirdness. Enjoy:

Wierd Thing #5: Pillsbury’s “A” Mill - that almost got an “F”

It can be difficult to see at first glance just what is so weird about the Pillsbury ‘A’ Mill (see map). Can you spot it?

Did you notice that the middle of the building appears to curve in at the top and bow out near the bottom (where the “A” is)? Believe it or not, that distortion has nothing to do with my camera lens. That is how the building actually looks! 

The strange shape of the Pillsbury ‘A’ Mill is an unintended consequence of Pillsbury’s decision to defy a common convention when the building was built in 1881.  At that time, mills were typically designed by engineers familiar with the industry. However, Pillsbury decided that their new mill (the largest in the world for some time) needed to be more visually appealing, so they hired Leroy Buffington, an architect, who knew nothing of the milling industry, to design their building. Naturally, he underestimated the stresses that the weight and continous forces of the operating milling equipment would put on the building, and the eastern wall began to bow in at the top (22 inches) and out at the bottom.

Structural repairs, including the large metal vertical braces below the “A” which connect to cables running through the building to anchors on the eastern side, stopped the bowing and the mill was able to remain functional until 2003. Current plans call for it to be turned into condominiums.

Weird Thing #6: Boom Island - The “Misnamed” Park

A quick stroll through Boom Island Park, located on the Mississippi River just north of downtown Minneapolis (map), reveals a lot of things about Boom Island. First, it is large and relatively flat with lots of grass and flowers. Second, it offers beautiful river and Minneapolis skyline views. Oh, and third - it is clearly not an island. While most islands are, in fact, completely surrounded by water, Boom Island only has water on one side, as you can blurily see in this satellite image, courtesy of Google Maps (look for the green arrow).

So, then, why is it called Boom “Island”? The reason is that, Boom Island was a true island - until the early 1900s. It was called Boom Island because in the mid and late 1800s the river on both sides of the island was full of log booms - clusters of logs chained together - that been floated down from the North woods to be processed at the several sawmills and lumberyards in and around the island. However, the island and the booms went up in flames in 1893, nearly ending the logging industry in Minneapolis. Several decades later, the east channel was filled in with landfill and what was once an island became a riverside park.

Supposedly nothing has ever grown where the channel was filled in, so who knows what may be under there.  I suspect it’s the rubble of the building that used to be attached to the “Sarah Palin Skyway to Nowhere”.

 

That’s all for now. Have no fear, there will be more weirdness to come this week, so stay tuned. Subscribe using the box on the right to receive instant notification when the next installment of the Twin Cities Weird List is published. If haven’t already check out the Weird List part I and II. Also check out the weird list master list, which contains all of the oddities from every installment in the weird list.

Explore posts in the same categories: Architecture Point of Interest, Fun for All Ages, Great Photo Spot, Great Views, Inexpensive, Just for fun, educational

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Architecture Point of Interest, Fun for All Ages, Great Photo Spot, Great Views, Inexpensive, Just for fun, educational. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.