Minnesota Field Trip

Two regional railway stops, combined with the inaccessibility of the larger Minneapolis-St. Paul processing and trade centers for individual farmers, provided Anoka with a distinct advantage within the region. Downtown markets were difficult to access (even for farmers located within what would become the present day suburbs). Today, due to highways and interstates, traveling the distance between the Minneapolis and Northern Suburbs is an easy task. However, in the 1880s, the distance proved an expensive obstacle for most farmers. Roads connecting the region to Minneapolis-St.Paul were nothing more than unpaved wagon trails, prone to cause frequent axle breaks and impossible to traverse in inclement weather. Farmers could either make the slow trip into Minneapolis themselves or send their produce by rail. These pre-processing transportation costs cut into profits. Opening flour mills and other agricultural processing industries in place of obsolete timber mills on the Rum River brought farmers within the Anoka area a higher premium for their crops and thus enabled a greater number of farmers to access regional/national markets.

Map of railroad era development in the Twin Cities and surrounding area through 1920. Anoka appears as the small pink dot along the rail line at the at the base of Rum River (see blue square). This dot illistrates Anoka's commercial and industrial dominance in its immediate region during the railroad era.