Corps opens its doors at Upper St. Anthony Falls lock for the Aquatennial

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is hosting an open house at Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in Minneapolis, July 22, in conjunction with the Aquatennial.

Corps and National Park Service officials are hosting the free event from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., to allow people to get a behind-the-scenes view of the site.

Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam is located at 1 Portland Avenue in Minneapolis.

Upper St. Anthony Falls closed to navigation June 10, 2015; however the Corps still owns and maintains the lock for the purpose of flood control. The Corps has a memorandum with its sister federal agency, the National Park Service, to run its visitor center at this location, and personnel from both agencies will be on hand during the open house to answer questions and guide visitors.

The St. Paul District navigation program provides a safe, reliable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation system on the Upper Mississippi River for the movement of commercial goods and for national security needs. To do this, the district maintains a 9-foot navigation channel and 13 locks and dams from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa. Keeping this system open is vital to the nation’s economy. Nearly 12 million tons of commodities passed through Lock and Dam 10 in 2022. This included nearly 8 million tons of farm products such as corn and soybeans. The industries making these shipments saved approximately $430 million by using the inland waterways instead of overland shipping methods.

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