page_title: Nicollet Island
section_title: Settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Nicollet Island / History / Settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: The first Hennepin Avenue Bridge across the Mississippi River from Downtown Minneapolis to Nicollet Island, built 1855. Photo taken around 1865.
context_page_description: Nicollet Island is an island in the Mississippi River just north of Saint Anthony Falls in central Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the United States Census Bureau the island has a land area of 194,407 square metres and a 2000 census population of 144 persons. The island makes up a large part of the city-designated Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhood. The island is named for cartographer Joseph Nicollet, who mapped the Upper Mississippi in the 1830s.
  The island lies in the middle of the Mississippi, crossed by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge connecting Downtown and Northeast Minneapolis. The island is so near to Saint Anthony Falls that if the northward movement of the falls had not been stopped in the late 19th century, the island would no longer exist. In the early 19th century Nicollet Island was one of six islands near the falls, but all the others have been destroyed or joined to the east bank.
  The island was the site of the first bridge across the Mississippi River, opened in 1855, on the site of the present Hennepin Avenue Bridge. It is part of Saint Anthony Falls Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_section_description: Nicollet Island and the rest of the area of the falls were opened to settlement in 1838. Several settlers tried to obtain the best land near the falls, of whom Fort Snelling's sutler, Franklin Steele, took the best part of the east bank including Nicollet Island. He purchased the land for $1.25 per acre, which comes to about $60 for the island. After Steele obtained proper title to his land in 1848, he turned his energies to building a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls to cut lumber from upriver, which began operations in September 1848. He built a dam on the east channel of the river between Nicollet Island and Hennepin Island. Steele platted the townsite of St. Anthony, which became a large city before merging with Minneapolis in 1872, on the east bank of the river. In 1848, Steele started a ferry across the river on the present site of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
  In 1849 the first house was built on the island, for John Wesley and Ann Loomis North. Over the 1850s and early 1860s, more houses were built on the island, including several built by Franklin C. Griswold (some of which are extant, Griswold's own at 163 Nicollet Street). The island remained thickly covered with trees, and was described as a picturesque location frequented by lovers. A bridge was built between Nicollet Island and the east bank, and in 1854, Minneapolis and St. Anthony decided to build a bridge across the river. The suspension bridge that was built was the first ever to cross the Mississippi, and it opened with festivities on 23 January 1855. It was a toll bridge, originally charging 5 cents per pedestrian and 25 cents per team. The bridge was unsound and had limited capacity: photographs show signs that warned of fines for crossing too fast. The bridge brought the two communities closer together, leading to St. Anthony's later merge with Minneapolis.
caption: The original bridge across the Mississippi
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