Minneapolis is a city in Minnesota. It is next to St. Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul and Minneapolis are called the Twin Cities because they are right next to each other. Minneapolis is the biggest city in Minnesota with about 370,000 people. People who live here enjoy the lakes, parks, and river. The Mississippi River runs through the city.
We know Indians first lived in Minneapolis around Lake Calhoun and St. Anthony Falls waterfall. They are called the Dakota. They thought St. Anthony Falls was a spiritual place. Dakota hunted, fished, and planted food. The United States wanted the land in 1800 and bought it with the Louisiana Purchase. The army built Fort Snelling. Soon, people from the East Coast or "Yankees" came to Minneapolis. They used the waterfall for their flour mills. They named the new city Minneapolis. It comes from the Dakota Indian word for "laughing waters" or Min-ne ha-ha and the Greek word for "city" or po-lis. Minneapolis means "City of Waters." A nearby city called St. Anthony then joined with Minneapolis. The first mayor was Dorilus Morrison.
Land and weather [change]
Minneapolis is flat near the river and hilly away from it. The city is also in the middle of the country. The weather is like many places in America with hot summers and cold winters. The winter is very long, very cold, and there is almost no spring. Summers are humid, meaning a lot of water is in the air, so it feels very muggy. There are lots of mosquitos too.
"Minnesota Nice" is a saying that describes Minneapolis residents well. They are generally kind and polite people. Most residents of Minneapolis live in houses and apartments. Some now live in tall buildings called condos. They work and play in the city. Many different people make up Minneapolis today. After the Dakota Indian were people from Britain, French Canada, and Spanish Mexico. They were followed by Scandinavians who are from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Soon people from almost all parts of the world started coming including East Europe, Russia, and Asia. Today the newcomers are from East Africa (Somali) and Southeast Asia (Hmong). Once Minneapolis was even larger than it is today with 520,000 people. But many people moved away to suburbs using new highways.
Work and shopping [change]
Lots of big companies are in Downtown in tall skyscraper buildings. These include lawyers, doctors and people in banks. They work near Nicollet Mall where there are restaurants and shops. Minneapolis also has neighborhoods. People there work in small stores too, like barber, grocery, hardware, and coffee shop. Anyone in Minneapolis can get internet to their laptop too.
Theatre and art [change]
There are lots of art and shows in the city. The biggest theater is the Guthrie Theater and kids like shows by the Children's Theatre Company. You can see interesting art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center.
Minneapolis hosts lots of sport teams for the state. The Vikings play at the Metrodome. The Minnesota Twins use to play there but will soon play at their new ballpark called Target Field. Nearby is the Target Center where the Timberwolves play.