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{{Infobox Neighborhood
|site_location=Saint Anthony Falls Historic District
|neighborhood=Nicollet Island
|city-locality=Minneapolis
|county=Hennepin
|county_suffix=County
|state-province=Minnesota
|country=United States
}}
{{Location
|Coordinates=44.98774880068876° N, 93.26336860656738° W
}}
{{AddaMemory}}
{{Textarea Site
|site_intro=Nicollet Island was named a state historic place in 1965 by the Minnesota legislature.

The Native Americans called the densely forested island in the Mississippi above the dangerous rapids leading to  St. Anthony Falls, Wi-Ta Wa-Ste, or "beautiful island" and harvested maple sugar from the "sugar bush".<ref>[http://www.fromsitetostory.org/sources/papers/mnarch48/48hist.asp fromsitetostory.org] </ref> 
Charles M. Loring, an early Nicollet Island resident and father of the Minneapolis Park system, said that "The island was a park as it stood.  It was thickly grown up to a grove as beautiful native maples as one would care to see."


'''Charles M Loring - The Future of Nicollet Island as a Park was Lost because of a $100 Bet'''

"And now," he promised, "I'll tell you a bit of history 
that has not yet been written.  Nicollet Island would be 
a park today if George Brackett
had not bet John H. Thompson  $100 that a project then 
before the city to establish the Island as a park would 
carry handsomely.  Seeing an easy $100, Thompson, as a result of the bet, electioneered so forcefully that the referendum was lost by 83 votes and Nicollet Island never became city property.  It has been one of my lifelong regrets."

(Newspaper interview with Charles M Loring published on 16  Sep 1920 and contained in his scrapbook in the Minnesota Historical Society.)}}

== Photo Gallery ==

== Related Links ==

== Notes ==
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