Nicollet and the Mystical Mississippi

Welcome to Nicollet Mall

In the 1870s, before it was full of railroads, the eastern bluffs of the Mississippi River were believed by European settlers to have natural healing powers. In those early years of Minneapolis, when today’s metropolis was but a gleam in a speculator’s squinting eye, the Upper Mississippi valley was the American frontier and the Falls of Saint Anthony took on a legendary status.

In the 1870s, there was a health resort along the bluffs near the waterfall. It was named the Chalybeate Resort — the name refers to natural mineral springs — and people with chronic diseases made pilgrimages to Minneapolis to recuperate. A noteworthy amenity of the resort: it offered boat rides into caves in the river bluffs. The proprietor of the resort, a speculative huckster named Mannasseh P. Pettingill, invited patrons to descend the river bluffs, surround themselves with nature, and enjoy ice cream, cigars, and a bottled tonic he called Petingill’s Wonderful Water.

The resort went bankrupt in 1880 when the healing water was revealed to come from a nearby swamp.

That was then, but even today, some believe that Minneapolis still holds mysterious energies. There are well known maps that show a large ley line running right through Minneapolis, from the Missouri River due through Minneapolis, Chippewa Falls Wisconsin, northern Michigan and ending in western Massachusetts. These lines are believed to connect important geographical sites and carry earth energy, and according to one local healer, Minneapolis sits on site of the Earth’s throat chakra, releasing creative force energy into the world.

Whether or not Minneapolis has spiritual energy or natural healing powers is debated to this day. If it does, Nicollet Avenue is at the heart of it all.

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