The Mighty Mississippi River

The Port Authority, through its brownfield recycling and other job-creation efforts, helped create or retain more than 50,000 jobs in the East Metro area. Our business centers now generate about $25 million a year in property taxes.

Mississippi is an Ojibwe word meaning "Great River" or "gathering of all waters." Explorers who charted the river include Hernando de Soto in 1541, Marquette and Jolliet in 1673, Sieur de La Salle in 1682, and Lewis and Clark in 1803-1806.

The Mississippi River provides one of the most efficient methods of bulk transport. By comparison, it takes as many as 225 rail cars, or 870 semi trailer trucks to move the same amount of cargo as can be shipped on one 15-tow barge.

The number of miles that one ton can be carried per gallon of fuel

• Truck -- 59 mile
• Rail -- 202 miles
• Barge -- 514 miles

Outbound commodities include grain, oilseeds, fertilizers, and scrap steel and scrap aluminum. Inbound commodities include phosphates, fertilizers, salt, gravel, cement, asphalt, and coal .

In 2007, nearly 9 million tons of commodities passed through the Saint Paul Harbor.

Commercial traffic, originating or terminating in the Upper Mississippi River System, produces over 400,000 jobs that generate almost $4 billion in income and yield business revenues of $11 billion to $14 billion, according to a recent Price Waterhouse study.

Over the past 30 years or so, the Port has provided approximately 1,800 acres, mostly along the riverfront, for open space in perpetuity.

Top-Notch Education

Education is the norm, not the exception in Minnesota, where 93 percent of adults over the age of 25 have at least a high school diploma.

There are 202 public and 61 private institutions of higher learning or professional schools in Minnesota, including the University of Minnesota, which is ranked as one ofthe nation's top 20 research universities.

Theater and Arts Galore

Minneapolis is home to the oldest continuously running theater (Old Log Theatre, founded in 1940) and the nation's largest dinner theater (Chanhassen Dinner Theater, with three stages).

The Guthrie Theater, which recently moved into an awardl-winning three-stage complex overlooking the Mississippi river, was the nation's first regional theater when it was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963. 

Minnesota ranks fifth in the nation for per capita arts support.

Minnesota has nearly 400 professional and community theaters statewide, with approximately half of those in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

The Twin Cities has two world-ranked orchestras -- The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra -- which tour internationally and have recorded extensively.

Minnesota is known as "choral country," with some 125 professional and volunteer choral groups that receive financial support from the Minnesota Arts Board, plus many college singing ensembles that are renowned around the world.