Swede Hollow
Near Minneapolis St Paul, Minnesota
At the bottom of a steep ravine on Saint Paul's east side lies Swede Hollow, a neighborhood that for nearly a century served as an arrival point for wave after wave of immigrants. Swedish immigrants settled in the valley in the eighteen fifties, and the ravine took on their name, Svenska Dalen. As the Swedes climbed into the city's working class and moved out, Italians moved in, followed by Mexican and Mexican American families.
None of the homes ever had running water, electricity, or paved roads. Residents drew from a creek and worked at the nearby Hamm's Brewery or the railroad yards above the bluff. In nineteen fifty-six, the Saint Paul city council declared the hollow a public health hazard.
The city burned every structure to the ground. The Mexican American families who had made their lives there were scattered across the city with almost no notice. Two decades later, Saint Paul turned the ravine into a nature park.
The hollow is still there, quiet and wooded, a layered erasure of three immigrant communities.
