Coon Rapids Dam

The dam stretching across the Mississippi here was once a power plant. Construction began in January of nineteen thirteen, led by the Northern Mississippi River Power Company, which wanted to generate electricity for Anoka and Hennepin Counties. It took roughly forty-two thousand cubic yards of concrete and the labor of a large work crew, and the powerhouse went into service in August of nineteen fourteen.

For more than half a century, this dam helped light the northern Twin Cities suburbs. But by nineteen sixty-six it had grown too expensive to run, and the generators fell silent. Three years later the dam and its surrounding land were handed over to the regional park district, which is why what was built to make electricity is now the heart of a riverside park.