Basic Industrial Development: Anoka - Industrial agglomeration and the mature rail network.
During the railroad era, throughout the country, professional services originally geared toward local farming markets (such as mills, machine shops, and dairies) adopted new technologies and entered regional/national trade markets. The maturation of these enterprises established the infrastructure for other manufacturing firms (farm and non farm related). An enterprise could open up shop in Anoka for less initial capital than in the city and still benefit from access to the both the swelling non-farm labor population and national rail connections of the Twin Cities.
This map of industrial development in the mid 1920s along the Minneapolis, Anoka, & Cuyuna Range (located on the eastern edge of downtown Anoka at the banks of the Rum River) illustrates industrial agglomeration. In 1850, this stretch of land housed only one timber mill. In 1920, this same stretch contained a range of industrial activities; including flour mills, potato warehouses, a cement factory, a dairy, and a petroleum company.
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