America’s Grand River

Most visitors from another country see the Mississippi River for the first time at New Orleans, which is a popular tourist centre where the grand river winds in a crescent shape to give New Orleans the title Crescent City. This writer has seen the river at various points, the first being in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1970. My main reason for staying in Minneapolis was to break the long journey by bus from Seattle to Chicago. Within a short walk from the Greyhound bus depot in Minneapolis stood the Anthony hotel, which was hardly a salubrious establishment but it was inexpensive and was sufficiently comfortable to make the visit worth the stop. Its address was 806 Hennepin Ave, near 8th St, which put it in the heart of the city business district.
During my time in Minneapolis I explored much of the city on foot and heading north-east along Hennepin Ave came to the Great Northern railroad station alongside a river. A suitable marker advised those new to the city that it was the Mississippi. There was nothing of the grandeur I had seen in picture books, being narrower and surrounded by mercantile interests such as the Great Northern railroad, flour mills and other commerce.