Aerial view of University of Minnesota East and West Bank campuses and the Mississippi River.

Introduction to Issue Six

The world of higher education is notoriously siloed. Colleges and universities are divided into departments by discipline, which often contain particular subdisciplines. Crossing these lines is difficult and sometimes perilous. But the study of rivers and water necessarily crosses disciplines. Scientific study can tell us a lot about water, but not what the meaning of our local river is…

Bridal Veil Falls on the East Bank of the Mississippi River, 1860. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.

Bridal Veil Falls

Many Minneapolis residents don’t know about Bridal Veil Falls, yet there was a time when it was one of the area’s most memorable and sought after tourist attractions. The history of Bridal Veil Falls is one of both human admiration and change.

Aerial photo of north Minneapolis and the UHT area, 1947 (north is the top of the image). USGS Open Access.

Minneapolis’ Upper Harbor Terminal: A Geostory of Collaborative Creation

The images here show three configurations of Minneapolis’ Upper Harbor Terminal landscape across a century. Together, these images demonstrate the temporal layering of a physical and social landscape, highlighting changes over time; my analysis aims to illuminate how these changes emerge at the intersection of humans and nonhumans, and point us toward an alternative perception and ethic of co-creating the world.