Mill City Museum

During its heyday between 1880 and 1930 it was said that more than 12 million loaves of bread were made daily from the wheat milled at the Washburn A Mill.

From 1880 to 1930 Minneapolis was the flour milling capital of the world, leading to the nickname "Mill City."

Every working day, approximately 175 railroad cars of wheat were processed at the Washburn A Mill during its heyday. 

The flour mills in Minneapolis stimulated a boom in larger farms, and by 1880 70 % of Minnesota's cultivated land was planted in wheat...Read more.

The Falls of St. Anthony were gradually moving upstream, so mill workers had to construct a wooden apron to stop the damages of erosion...Read more.

Lakes and rivers in northern Minnesota that fed the Mississippi River were turned into a vast reservoir system that to feed the mills of Minneapolis...Read more.

In the 1880s, flour milling comprised two-thirds of the Minneapolis' manufacturing output.

Flour milling was celebrated in Minneapolis as the city named its first professional baseball team the "Minneapolis Millers."

The Washburn A Mill suffered great loss in its history – it exploded once and burned twice.

The population of Minneapolis increased by 1,300 percent between 1870 and 1890 as immigrants moved to the city to work in the mills and supporting industries.

In 1971, the Washburn A Mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1983 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.