Did you know the Minneapolis Mill Museum actually doesn't suck? Really!

Holaaa, folks. Another not-that-cold week but not-warm-enough one for Spring? Shot me in the head, please. This early Spring rain sucks, but you know what doesn't suck? The Mill Museum. You heard (read) me well! The perfect adventure for a week like this (because I would never recommend it over drinking tap beer on a patio or just hanging out with your fellas during a sunny day). Let's get back on track because I'm not kidding, folks, museum and mill can actually be together in the same phrase as the words almost fun. 


Story lesson - no bad feeling if you skip this paragraph, asshole. The museum actually shows a lot of crazy stuff. It's almost like walking along with the juiciest parts of the industrial revolution. Minnesota grows to become the Mill City, I mean, the (drums, drums) MILL CITY, leading the national production of flour. Lights and development spread from the very west side of the Mississippi river in which the mill stands like a stone giant. The first hydroelectric plant in the nation is built to power up the engines of the mill, but also to enlighten the city. Unnatural lights, bright starts! But that's not all the story to be told. Explosions and tunnels fall down as workers' riots push back against the bloody owners of the company. El pueblo unido jamas sera defeated! Dams open and new immigrants come in. The Twin Cities are upside down, folks. Out of control! The wealth brings the best and worst of the United States, including numbers of gangsters and mobsters, one after another, seeking safe heaven in St. Paul as they run away from the Chicago police. It was beautiful and so chaotic; the best of times, the worst of times. Hopes and suffering. Two sides of the same coin.  1916 is the peak year of Minneapolis flour production. Then. Autumn falls, and slowly, the lights turn off, one by one. Until the show shuts down, ultimately.

Why do I recommend the mill museum? First, the designers behind the museum kinda understood that this is fucking museum of mill, so they really try hard to make it almost fun for visitors (like the last paragraph that you probably skipped). The place hosts several interactive and cool attractions, including an elevator with voice acting and sounds to recreate the devastating fire and explosions that destroyed most of the original buildings and killed several workers. It's like going to an attraction in Orlando studios but for only twelve bucks. In other words, you almost forget that you are in a museum because you are having almost fun. 

For what is important for me is that the Washburn A Mill (the original building hosting the museum) is a true landmark of Minneapolis, which makes it unique and sightseeing. The mill is the crown of the whole area staging the heritage trail that crosses the Mississippi river above the stone bridge (another beautiful landmark of this city). The museum is the perfect arquitectonique antique that shows the glorious past of a city that grew along with the wheat and flour industry. There are so many cool sights of half-demolished brick walls and pipes everywhere. I mean, just bring a fucking camera or some pencils to draw, and have fun inside. This is the kind of place where your eyes can dance and jump from one spot to the other. Furthermore, you will have crazy views from the whole area of the Mississippi river and St. Anthony's neighborhood. Gorgeous. 

The staff also deserves some kudos. I don't share this story often, but when my family came to visit for the first time, I didn't have enough vacation time to spend every hour of the day with them. So, I would be driving them to different points of interest across the city, work a bit, and pick them up. When I took them to the Mill Museum with detailed instructions on how to pay entrance -note and emphasize this part. They couldn't find a better thing than playing the disoriented dumb tourist who doesn't speak English. I mean to be fair, my family is not fluent, but they speak a fair amount of English words to move around. Of course, they were found out by the staff, who after failing to explain the complicated elements of a transaction and our current monetary system in rudimentary Spanglish, decided to just let them in. Whoever you were, thank you for not calling the police on my family, you are a hero without a cape or whatever.  

I have also heard of several events being carried out at the museum, but have never attended one. For example, the Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of 54 images of photojournalism portraying the murder and riots around the murder of George Floyd, which apparently also includes the demonstrations of last year relating to the Chauvin trial. An episode that marked the recent story of the city. 

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