Anoka Organizes and Grows

Anoka Organizes and Grows. . , Logging on the Rum River stretched from Mille Lacs to Anoka. This crew included J.W. Freeburg in 1894. Courtesy of the Anoka County Historical Society., The last log drive on the Rum River occurred in the 1890's when the timber was depleted and the lumber industry's huge influence waned. The Anoka Board of Trade worked to bring other businesses to Anoka. Flour mills, potato starch factory, bottling works, poultry farm, dry milk factory, shoe factory, and other businesses located in the city and provided new employment opportunities., The Pillsbury Lincoln Mill stood on the east bank of the Rum River just north of Main Street. Courtesy of the Anoka County Historical Society., Industry brought people to Anoka to work and to live. The logging, lumber, and flour milling industries employed hundreds of people in as many as five sawmills and two flour mills in the last years of the 19th century. A fire devastated much of downtown Anoka in 1884, but rebuilding began almost immediately. Local brick was used extensively and can still be seen in the buildings on Main Street., Community efforts secured funding for this Carnegie Library in 1904. It stood at the corner of Third Avenue and Jackson Street until it was torn down in the 1960's. Courtesy of the Anoka County Historical Society., The City Water Works and Electric Light and Power Company provided modern amenities in 1889. The sewer system, electric streetcars, and a telephone exchange quickly followed., Anoka built a Carnegie library in 1904, a great improvement over the first lending library established some 40 years earlier in rooms above a store on Main Street. An outdoor theatre opened in 1914 and the City Parks Department was formally established in 1919., Hoping a celebration would curtail nuisance property damage and potential dangers to public safety, city leaders started the nationally recognized tradition of a Halloween Celebration in 1920. Anoka quickly became known as the Halloween Capital of the World., The 1936 co-chairmen of the Anoka Halloween celebration, Ed Bune (left) and Larry Fariier (right) with some of Anoka's children on October 31st. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.