Saint Anthony Falls was the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Father Louis Hennepin named it in 1680 after St. Anthony of Padua. The Dakota name is Owámniyomni, meaning whirlpool.
The total drop is 49 feet. The natural falls were about 35 feet and the upper dam adds about 14. On October 5, 1869, the limestone cap was breached during a tunnel project, and a concrete dike finished in 1876 fixed the damage. An Army Corps of Engineers wooden apron went in around 1880 and was replaced with concrete after it was destroyed in 1952.
Water power ran flour and lumber mills, and Minneapolis was known as the Flour Milling Capital of the World from about 1880 to 1930. The locks were completed in 1963. The upper lock was permanently closed in 2015 to help stop the spread of Asian carp.