Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-04
HOPED CASCADE 5 PERIL
ceologists Fear the Destruction
 of Minnehaha Fails.

of Minnehaha Falls.
 mHEAPoLIg HANEDB BEAUTY sPo! Sandstone Ledge IL Being Eater Away, Say Geolegists-Nay Ds Saved Win Cement Wall - Minneapolis l Likely to Act, as the Falls Ars
 Great Source Of Profit.
 Geologists have learned that Mime
 haha falls, the famous beauty spot of
 Minneapolis which is known to nearly every school boy and girl in the Unit d States through Longfellow's "Hia- watha," is in danger of being destroy
 cd, says a special dispatch from Min
 neapolis to the New York Times. Eat
 ing its way through the sandstone
 ledge over which the water pours, the
 stream has now worn the rock almost
 down to the loose drift of glacial de-
 posit. This means that unless this
 ledge is propped up and the erosion
 stopped the falls in their present pie
 turesque form will be gone, with noth.
 Ing in their place but an ugly rapid.
 The recession of Minnehaha has been
 hastened by the heavy rains of the last
 few seasons. The falls have been uni
 formly in good volume, and the wear
 ing action of the water has been very
 rapid. But the more damaging work
 has been wrought by the frost and the spray attacking the face of the ledge about midway between the foot and crest of the falls. By this insidious action the ledge has been undermined 90 that the recess back of the falls is fully thirty feet wide.
 When the preparation of the wall of sandstone is complete, which may be within few years. it is inevitable that the stratum which forms the crest of the falls will topple over and Minne> haha falls will be little more than a memory. This t0ppling over of the upper stratum has taken place once before in the memory of people now living.
 The alarming report of the geologists who have been Investigating Minne- haha means lot to Minneapolis. Once before in her history the city faced trouble over waterfall. Minneapolis was founded just in time to demon strate that the Falls of St. Anthony were well fitted for the development of water power. Had the settlement been delayed 100 years there would | have been little if anything at Min neapolis to prompt the building up of | . great industrial center and the big gest -four mills in the world.
 At one time, so the geologists say, the | Mississippi plunged over a ledge of | rock In the nelghborhood of Fort She'll ing, fifteen miles below the present To- cation of St. Anthony's falls. The ac- ton of the water cut the ledge back until the cataract came to the point where the pioneers built a town and named It St. Anthony. This town be- came Minneapolis.
 St Anthony's falls continued to re- csdsl 9ae tle xI|4ess1A were distressed. q 1fM Patton of the wa. ter power already partly developed and as the one thing that would create a great city. Work was under way to stop the up stream march of the cataract when in day the ledge and left the water swirling md foaming in useless fashion about he wreckagc. Every ablebodied man n and near the city was drafted as a helper in the work of preservation, and now the continuing power of the falls s assured by aeigantic but unlovely lpron.
 In the case of Minnehaha there is no water power at stake. but the cascade made famous by the poet Is one of the 'trongest assets of Minneapolis. Nine ut of ten tourists who stop in Minne- polls even for an hour or two go to the 'lace or apologize to themselves for missing t. Long before Minneapolis lad become big city 1t was known e Mlnnehaha Falls.
 It Is held by those who have inter. stcd themselves in the project that be recession can be partially If not stopped by wall of ce- nent which would Insure that the un- ermining process win go no farther. he wall could be roushened % that would appear less artificial or it light even be faced with rock from he ledge. so that to the unknowing here would be little or no evidence of T