50 Fun Facts About Minneapolis

The name Minneapolis combines the Greek word for 'city' with a Dakota word meaning what?

The Dakota call the city Bde Óta Othúŋwe, Many Lakes Town, which is fair: it has thirteen of them.

Saint Anthony Falls, the reason the city exists, holds what distinction on the Mississippi River?

A French priest renamed it in 1680 for St Anthony of Padua; a concrete apron has covered the falls since the 1950s.

Minneapolis earned which nickname from its dominance of a single industry in the late 1800s?

In 1884 the value of its flour milling was the highest in the world; the Washburn A Mill was the world's largest until Pillsbury built a bigger one across the river.

Washburn-Crosby, the Minneapolis flour company founded in 1877, grew into which modern giant?

Its rival Pillsbury sat directly across the falls; the two were finally merged in 2001.

How many workers died when flour dust exploded inside the Washburn A Mill on 2 May 1878?

The rebuilt mill was the largest in the world by 1880; after a 1991 fire its ruins became the Mill City Museum.

Minneapolis was incorporated as a city in which year?

It had been founded in 1856 by Franklin Steele and John H. Stevens; Minnesota became a state in 1858.

What was the population of Minneapolis at the 2020 census?

That made it the 46th-largest US city, though the Twin Cities metro holds 3.69 million.

Minneapolis is nicknamed the City of Lakes. How many lakes lie inside the city limits?

The Chain of Lakes on the west side is the showpiece; Bde Maka Ska is the biggest.

The largest body of water in Minneapolis, Bde Maka Ska, was known until 2018 by what name?

Surveyors named it in 1817 for John C. Calhoun; the Dakota name means Lake White Earth, and the state Supreme Court upheld the change in 2020.

Minneapolis's Skyway System of enclosed footbridges links 80 blocks over roughly what distance?

The first one went up in 1962, and locals can cross downtown in January without touching the outdoors.

What is the lowest temperature ever recorded in Minneapolis, set in January 1888?

The record high is 108 °F from July 1936, and the winter of 1983-84 dumped 98.6 inches of snow.

Minneapolis and which neighbouring city are together known as the Twin Cities?

Saint Paul is the state capital; the metro area they anchor has about 3.69 million residents.

The Mall of America, often assumed to be in Minneapolis, is actually in which suburb?

It opened in 1992 on the site of the old ballpark where the Twins and Vikings once played, and houses the largest indoor theme park in the US.

The Mall of America was built on the former site of what?

The old home plate is marked on the floor of the indoor theme park.

Prince, who was born in Minneapolis in 1958, made history in 1984 by being the first singer to do what?

The film was Purple Rain, much of it shot at the First Avenue nightclub downtown.

Prince died on 21 April 2016 at his Paisley Park studio in which Minneapolis suburb?

He was 57; the complex opened to the public as a museum in October 2016.

The First Avenue nightclub, where Purple Rain was filmed, was built in 1937 as what?

It reopened as The Depot in 1970 with Joe Cocker on stage; more than 400 stars on its black walls name the acts that have played there.

Whose star on First Avenue's black exterior was surreptitiously repainted in gold leaf in 2016?

Someone did it surreptitiously in 2016; the club left it that way.

Bob Dylan began performing folk in 1959 in coffeehouses in which Minneapolis neighbourhood?

He played the Ten O'Clock Scholar, then left for New York after a year of classes he mostly skipped.

On which downtown street does Mary toss her hat in The Mary Tyler Moore Show's opening credits?

TV Land unveiled a bronze statue of the throw at the spot in 2002.

The Foshay Tower, finished in 1929, was deliberately modelled on which famous structure?

Wilbur Foshay's empire collapsed six weeks after the opening, and his cheque to John Philip Sousa for the dedication march bounced.

Which composer banned his Foshay Tower dedication march from being played after his 1929 cheque bounced?

The debt was finally paid in 1988, nearly 60 years later, and the march was played again.

What is the tallest building in Minneapolis and in Minnesota?

It rises 792 feet, was designed by Philip Johnson and opened in the early 1970s; Mary Richards eats lunch overlooking its Crystal Court in the sitcom credits.

Who was the lead architect of the IDS Center, Minnesota's tallest tower since the early 1970s?

His firm Johnson/Burgee also gave the tower its seven-storey glass Crystal Court, the hub of the skyway system.

Spoonbridge and Cherry, the unofficial symbol of Minneapolis, was made by which husband-and-wife artists?

The cherry alone weighs about 1,200 pounds and sprays water from its stem to keep it shiny.

Spoonbridge and Cherry stands in a sculpture garden run by which Minneapolis museum?

The garden opened in 1988; the Walker itself began as the first public art gallery west of the Mississippi, opened by lumber baron T. B. Walker in 1879.

The Guthrie Theater's 2006 riverfront home was designed by which architect?

Its 178-foot cantilevered Endless Bridge juts out towards the Mississippi; the company was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963.

The Stone Arch Bridge at Saint Anthony Falls was built in 1883 for which railroad tycoon?

It is the only stone arch bridge on the whole Mississippi and has carried pedestrians and cyclists since 1994.

How many people died when the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi collapsed on 1 August 2007?

Investigators blamed gusset plates only half an inch thick; the replacement bridge opened just over a year later.

What did investigators identify as the cause of the 2007 I-35W bridge collapse?

The steel plates were 0.5 inches thick, too thin for the load; 145 people were injured.

Which Minneapolis venue, opened in 2016 on the site of the Metrodome, hosted Super Bowl LII?

The Eagles beat the Patriots there in February 2018; its clear ETFE roof is the largest in North America.

The Minnesota Twins have played in which open-air ballpark since 2010?

They had spent 28 seasons indoors at the Metrodome; the new park hosted the 2014 All-Star Game.

The Vikings' stadium has a translucent roof made mostly of which material?

The 240,000-square-foot roof is the largest of its kind in North America and lets snow slide off.

How many professional sports teams play their home games in downtown Minneapolis?

Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves and Lynx; the Wild play across the river in Saint Paul.

Which Minneapolis retail giant traces its roots to Goodfellow Dry Goods, founded in 1902?

The first store under the current name opened in Roseville in 1962; the mascot is a bull terrier named Bullseye.

Mobile refrigeration inventor Frederick McKinley Jones co-founded which company in 1938?

His truck units let fresh food travel cross-country and fed the Allied armies in World War II.

A Jucy Lucy, invented in South Minneapolis, is a cheeseburger with the cheese where?

Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club, three miles apart on Cedar Avenue, both claim it; Matt's spells it without the i.

The 5-8 Club and which other Cedar Avenue bar both claim to have invented the Jucy Lucy?

Matt's says a customer in 1954 bit in and shouted 'that's one juicy lucy'; President Obama ate one there in 2014.

Minnehaha Falls, made famous by Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, drops how far?

Longfellow never saw it, and the name means curling water or waterfall, not laughing water.

Minnehaha is popularly mistranslated as "laughing" something. What does the Dakota word actually describe?

Mary Eastman's 1849 book started the mistranslation and Longfellow's poem cemented it.

Police fired on strikers on 20 July 1934 in Minneapolis. The day is remembered as what?

Two strikers died and 67 were wounded; the union's eventual victory helped bring about the federal Wagner Act.

Which Minnesota governor declared martial law in Minneapolis in July 1934 and sent in 4,000 Guardsmen?

He was a Farmer-Labor governor and broadly sympathetic to the strikers, which made the decision all the more awkward.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in Minneapolis in which year?

Relocated Native Americans set it up in the city; five years later it led the occupation of Wounded Knee.

Outside a store at which Minneapolis intersection was George Floyd murdered on 25 May 2020?

Seventeen-year-old Darnella Frazier filmed it; Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in April 2021 and sentenced to 22 and a half years.

Which enslaved couple, central to an infamous 1857 Supreme Court case, lived at Fort Snelling in the 1830s?

The fort was originally called Fort Saint Anthony; in the winter of 1862 more than 1,600 Dakota were held in a stockade below it.

Why was the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock, the northernmost on the Mississippi, permanently closed in 2015?

It ended commercial navigation above the falls after more than 50 years.

Minneapolis is the seat of which county?

Ramsey County belongs to Saint Paul; Hennepin is named for the priest who named the falls.

How many miles of the Mississippi River run through Minneapolis?

The stretch includes the falls, the Stone Arch Bridge and the site of the 2007 collapse.

How many official neighbourhoods does Minneapolis have?

They are served by about 70 neighbourhood organisations, one reason city politics feels so local.

Which computer company began in Minneapolis in 1957 and built the fastest supercomputers of the 1960s?

Seymour Cray designed its CDC 6600 before leaving to found his own firm.