Big Idea: A National Park in Downtown Minneapolis

Peter Callaghan reports on a unique idea from the Twin Cities: a national park in Downtown Minneapolis.

"The dream centers on one of the most-visited pieces of land in the region, around the lock and dam at the Upper St. Anthony Falls that sits below the Stone Arch Bridge. And the idea is to create a park experience to tell the story of the Native Americans who preceded the region's white settlers as well as the industries that tapped the power of the river to build the city," according to Callaghan.

Callaghan begins the article by noting the challenges and long timeline facing the idea, but also that a coalition of local interests is working hard to bring it to fruition. John Anfinson, the superintendent of the Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, is quoted in the article saying, "[f]ew places on the entire Mississippi can match its national and international significance…"

Meanwhile, the lock sits mostly dormant, after a 2014 decision by Congress to close the lock to watercraft navigation "as a way to halt the progress of invasive carp." Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently seeking funding for a "disposition study" to explore the question of whether the federal government should still own and operate the lock. Finally, one of the largest adversaries to the park proposal is a license held by Minneapolis-based Crown Hydro to build a small hydroelectric project at the lock. Representatives of the company are quoted in the article, however, claiming that a hydroelectric problem shouldn't be an obstacle to the park proposal.