Traveling Minnesota with Twins: Mill City Museum

Minnesota's a pretty neat place for kids to discover a little bit of history. From the battle-fields of the Dakota Conflict in the southwest to the mining and forestry sites of the Iron Range there's a lot to see. Besides, my folk's gave us a family membership to the Minnesota Historical Society for the next 2 years; so now we've got lots of good reasons to go and explore all kinds of history.

This past Saturday my older 2 daughters and I joined my folks at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. The museum's only a few years old and its definitely worth a look or two. The museum was built in the shell of the old Washburn A Mill overlooking Saint Anthony Falls. I explained in advance that the museum was build in a building that had once exploded and been very damaged by a fire. That made our girls very curious.

When they got there they found lots of surprising and wonderful things, fresh bread and chocolate cake samples in the kitchen, water wheels and turbines to play with, and a tour that takes place in a huge freight elevator in the Flour Tower. The girls favorites included a mock up of a table set for threshers, including a classic wood-fire cook stove; a chance to decorate cereal boxes, and a mock-up of the falls and several different kinds of water wheels.

Growing up in Minneapolis, but not living in the city for some time now, it's kind of neat to see that the river's been rediscovered in recent years. My girls will have become big fans of downtown. They like the children's room at the downtown library, the Nicollet Mall, and of course Kramarczuk's Sausages.

As a teenager I remember running along the river with the rest of the South High Cross Country team on both banks until the river roads ended. When I was home on breaks from college and especially in my last years at seminary I rode my bike quite a bit along the river road. It was good then to see some renewal starting in the abandoned mills. It's good to see the progress and great to introduce my family to the city that 2 of their grandparents have called home for their whole lives.