Mississippi RIver Bottoms Walk Re-Opened! (Minneapolis, St. Anthony: houses, dangerous, safety)

[Jim Stokes]

I'm very happy to report that the Mississippi River Bottoms Walks has re-opened. The only difference I noted is that some shrubbery has been cleared. But the old bottoms walk that you can access across the street from the old Pillsbury "A" Mill from Riverplace otherwise looks about the same. So far. So good. There is so much tinkering with the old sites nowadays that you'd better enjoy it while you can. It's like an abandoned estuary down there.

We shot some running/escape scenes there a couple of years ago for a movie. Makes for an awesome location. Thanks to smaller digital professional cameras, a DVCAM-based moviemaker can disguise the project like just some shots of friends and family.

[robind]

We're coming out for a scouting visit (hope to move the MN soon). Is this something to see and do on a visit?

[Jim Stokes]

Scouting trip? You betcha! That whole area has been built up so much that I fear in a year or two the cleaning-up creepos who have nothing better to do with gentrify the bottoms. So hurry up!

Let me detail it for you, which I love to do. On the plus side, the city has put in new wooden stairs. The old ones were a hazard. Some missing. Once you're down there--and the stairs can very easily be missed. There's no big sign pointing the way, which is good. And they haven't done anything to the old stone and wood path that leads down to the bottom. They've done hardly any clean-up. Again, a good thing. You'll see where the famous Pillsbury A Mill, the very first flour mill in Minneapolis, had a Mississippi River water intake/outake entrance. Waaay back in the early 60s, that was OPEN! Whew! Hazard. There are other inlets/outlets that I can't account for. Looks like one went to the power company that used to be called "NSP." So there's this narrow strip of land between those two man-made channels. And there's a nice wooden bridge that goes across to the active power company operations. You can see the spillway hurling water down and back into the river.

Back across that bridge, turn to your right. There's a wonderful overgrown narrow nature path that continues from the aforementioned between the channels route. At the end of it is another pathway. Dangerous. Do at your own risk. There's a fifty foot climb up to the river bank via some very rickety, missing steps.

We shot some some running scenes for our movie "Terror At Outlaw Creek" in that whole bottoms area. It cut together very well with scnenes we did at Split Rock Creek in South Dakota.

While you have your scouts with you, take them upstream and over to another low key park, which shows the island formed by two steams of the Mississippi. Neat! There are homes there that look like early 20th century frame houses. It is a natural movie set! Fantastic!

This park you'll walk in had a bunch of sawmills. You'll see the foundations. If you have a fishing license, you can drop your line off a pier in the park.

There is SO much more to see. Railroad tracks. Some still in operation. Some abandoned and fun to walk on. One nicely curved one goes across the Mississippi a short distance onto the island and stops there. Nice scout adventure. Safety first, though!

The oldest Catholic Church in Minneapolis is in Old St. Anthony. It's a French Church. Goes way back to when the French occupied this land!

So you should work up a history handout for the scouts. Have then do some map recon. Find abandonded and existing sites. Should be good for merit badges.