The only falls on the Upper Mississippi, the Falls of St. Anthony are pictured here at the end of the Civil War. Before the arrival of Europeans to the area, the falls area was a place of rest and trade between Dakota and Ojibwe people. Lumbermen rushed to harness the power of the falls in the 1840s-1850s, but the dams they built put pressure on the limestone. Erosion accelerated during the Civil War years, and the falls collapsed in 1869. Repair work was completed in 1884.