Minnehaha Dormant

The 5th and final part in a series of blogs for anyone who has ever been to Minnehaha Falls and/or followed Minnehaha Creek down to its junction with the Mississippi River.

Today is a close-up of the limestone shelf where the water would normally be flowing.  Two boys lounging in the lower right give some perspective to the size of that shelf.  I think the moss and sprinkles of fall color are pretty.

I've started reading a newly-published book about the falls and the surrounding area, complete with a number of historic pictures.  It used to be much wider and had many names during the 1800s, including "Little Falls."

Goodnight, sleepy, sleepy falls.  See you in the spring!  

Minnehaha Dry

Part 4 in a series of blogs for anyone who has ever been to Minnehaha Falls and/or followed Minnehaha Creek down to its junction with the Mississippi River.

Minnesota had the driest September on record, which is certainly reflected in the current image on the left.  The one on the right shows an average spring waterfall.

Techie corner

This isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison between the two images, from a photography standpoint.  The current image was taken with the wide-angle lens on my phone.  (I take a lot of images on my phone these days.  They still aren't as good as a DSLR, but they've come a long way!)  The wider angle leads to perspective distortion.   

The one on the right was taken with my DSLR, with a much narrower field of view.

Below is an image with a red box showing approximately where the image on the right fits into the image on the left.

Muddy Minnehaha

Part 3 in a series of blogs for anyone who has ever been to Minnehaha Falls and/or followed Minnehaha Creek down to its junction with the Mississippi River.

We were almost at the falls in this photo.  Just standing brown water here.  I'm surprised that there weren't a billion mosquitos around.

Minnehaha Rocks

Part 2 in a series of blogs for anyone who has ever been to Minnehaha Falls and/or followed Minnehaha Creek down to its junction with the Mississippi River.

We're heading upstream, if you can call it that, toward the falls.  Even though the creek isn't flowing, I think the boulders are pretty in their own right. 

One thing I didn't realize is that at some point, concrete step-downs were installed in the creek.  You can see one fairly clearly toward the top of the picture.

Minnehaha Puddles

This series of blogs is for anyone who has ever been to Minnehaha Falls and/or followed Minnehaha Creek down to its junction with the Mississippi River.

October 1st, a friend and I went down to see (or not see) the dried-up Minnehaha Falls.  The newscasts say it's been over a decade since this happened last.  

Today's image is below the falls and down the creek a bit, looking toward the route to the Mississippi.

These things run in cycles and the water will come back eventually.  Here are some links to news and history:

• 2022 drought YouTube video
• 2012 U of M project and analysis
• 2009 Minnehaha Trickle article
• 1955 local area history
• Early 1900s history of the falls in general
• Newly released book about the seedier history of the falls

Sentries

Took a little cruise on the motorcycle this evening with a friend of mine.  She directed me to a fascinating water tower in the heart of south Minneapolis.  I've lived in the city for most of my life and don't ever remember seeing this before.  

Using "the Googles" I have discovered that this is called Washburn Park Water Tower. It was built from 1931 to 1932 during the Great Depression.  The architect also designed the chapel at Lakewood Cemetery, among other places.  It is no longer used for water storage, but it's on the national register for historic places, so hopefully it will continue to fascinate people for years to come.  Click on the link above for more details about the site.

I'm really enjoying the new places I've been discovering lately, without ever having to leave the metro area.

More to come from here.

Sit-comically

Went on a motorcycle ride today and my passenger pointed out the Mary Tyler Moore house to me.

Memorably

From a random Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Twins game in 2004.  It was a work event and we got field access after the game.  That's how I got a close up of the base and Twins logo.  The look on that EMT's face is priceless.

Techie Corner – Digital cameras weren't the greatest in 2004, but mine did ok.  I was using my very first digital camera – a 5 megapixel point-and-shoot Pentax Optio 555.  

Gallimaufry

 The day after.  It was so pretty this morning with the sun and the autumn colors and the white snow.  Our one tree is still holding on to most of its leaves.

Unprecedentedly

According to the news, today will go down in the record books as Minnesota's earliest 3+ inches of snowfall and the 2nd largest October daily snowfall for MSP Airport in the past 140 years of recorded weather history.  

Minneapolis got 7.4 inches officially at the airport and the suburbs got up to 9 inches.  Happy 2020 – the year that anything can happen.

Looking at the weather forecast, however, it should all be gone by the weekend.   

Documentary-10

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city during the last week of May.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here. 

In the midst of the destruction of Hi-Lake Shopping Center, Beauty and Hope remain.

Documentary-9

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city during the last week of May.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here. 

Most of the Hi-Lake Shopping Center burned down and is a pile of rubble now, as seen in part in the image above and below.

A lot of damage was focused on Lake Street, but there were other areas too, including setting the Holiday gas station on fire at 46th Street and Hiawatha Ave and vandalizing/looting the Walgreens across the street.

I'm glad there wasn't a gas explosion when it was on fire!  We noticed that all of the gas pumps have been removed for now.

I don't think I believe the sign.  So surreal!  This station is only a block from our former house.  

Documentary-8

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city during the last week of May.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here. 

Aside from the burned-out shell and fencing, this is the view of our local post office that I've known since I went there with my mom as a kid.  The tiniest little parking lot for such a busy place.

The fire melted the windows into a puddle of molten glass and metal.

Documentary-7

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city during the last week of May.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here. 

Often on the weekend, we will grab a bite of fast food before heading off to wherever.  Since fast food places we normally go to have been either vandalized or burned down, I thought I'd go take pictures instead.

Arby's, like Wendy's, which I blogged the other day, burned to the ground.  The work crew has been really busy during the past week.  The building is already demolished and the rubble is sorted into piles by type of material. 

The top image today is the "Y" and apostrophe from one of their signs.

It's truly bizarre to see a flat slab where a restaurant used to be.  And also bizarre to see their ornate railing, still intact (albeit a little worse for wear) in the middle of the flat slab.

They covered up the sign to make sure you know that they are closed.  This is the other half of the flat slab.  Interestingly enough, a lot of the tiles in the kitchen area are still in place.  That's what I call some durable tiles!

More flotsam and the skeleton of a chair.  Many a Sunday afternoon we would gather here with family for lunch.

In this digital age, one can follow a number of different independent streaming news sources during riots.  I watched Arby's burn, along with at least 30 thousand other people, courtesy of Unicorn Riot.

Documentary-6

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city last week.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here.   

The image above was taken at Open Streets Minneapolis in 2015.  You can see Auto Zone off to the left.  The following images were taken last Saturday.

The Cash and Pawn down the street didn't fare any better.

Documentary-5

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city last week.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here.   

These first two images show our local Wendy's – torn asunder, just like their sign.

This was our local Walgreens.  

A shot of the interior of Walgreens.  Most of the buildings we saw were still smoldering, 2 days after they went up in flames.  The air was thick with the pungent smokey odor.  What I didn't notice until I was looking at the images, is that there were still some partially burned jugs on the bottom shelf in front and one still has the Walgreen's "Nice" brand sticker visible on it.  How bizarre!  

A grocery cart in the Walgreens with molten glass or something in the bottom of it.

The heat from the fire in Walgreens was so hot that it melted the tires, seats and fairing on a row of Nice Ride bikes parked outside.  It must have been hottest in the middle because those bikes had everything that wasn't metal burned completely off.

Documentary-4

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the massive destruction and complete anarchy in our city last week.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here.   

This house is behind the 7-Sigma building that burned.  The heat from the fire was so hot, the vinyl siding melted off the house.  If you can't read the sign, it says: "the common enemy is violence not each other."

A small area at the rear of the 7-Sigma building.  You can see the house with the melted siding in the upper right.

I didn't even realize that this used to be a semi until I got home and looked at the pictures.  I thought it was a pile of rubbish from the clean-up efforts.

Here's a wide-angle of the remains of 7-Sigma. According to their website, they design, manufacture, and supply components and assemblies to medical, printing, aerospace and industrial markets.  They just came out with a COVID-19 modular airway training dummy for the medical field.  

Back on Lake Street is another retail building that burned with, what appears to be, a residence in the rear.  This fire happened right next door to a large apartment complex.  

Documentary-3

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

Since I use photography to document my world, I want to give a little context to the destruction that has happened in our city.  

For several years, there has been an event called Open Streets Minneapolis, so I have a few before/after images for this series.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here.  

The top image was taken at Open Streets in 2015.  You can see the third precinct police station on the left and the sign for Target and Minnehaha Mall on the right.

The bottom images were taken on Saturday. 

The Hook and Ladder Theater (originally fire station 21, built in 1894) survived.

Target is already vowing to fix and re-open the store.  

Documentary-2

I want justice for George Floyd.  I don't agree with destroying the community he lived in.  Click here if you would like to help those in need.

Since I use photography to document my world, I want to give a little context to the destruction that has been happening in our city.  

For several years, there has been an event called Open Streets Minneapolis, so I have a few before/after images for this series.  You can see all the blogs in this series by going here.  

The top image was taken at Open Streets in 2015.  You can see Minnehaha Liquors in the top right of the image.  

The bottom images were taken on Saturday. 

I want to mention again that volunteers have been out every day helping to clean up the destruction and gathering food and supplies for families in the community.  This makes my heart happy.

You may think, what's the big deal?  It was just a liquor store.  Well, like many of the businesses on Lake St., it was family-owned and operated.  

According to the owner's page on Yelp:  

"Minnehaha Liquor was one of the original liquor licenses granted by the city of Minneapolis after prohibition, making it one of the oldest liquor stores in the area. We are locally owned and operated; serving the Longfellow neighborhood with quality products, great prices and friendly service for over 75 years."  (According to Hennepin County property taxes, the building was built in 1922, so it is historic in its own right.)