Nicollet Island

Nicollet Island is an island in the Mississippi River just north of Saint Anthony Falls in central Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the United States Census Bureau the island has a land area of 194,407 square metres (0.075 sq mi) and a 2000 census population of 144 persons. The island makes up a large part of the city-designated Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhood. The island is named for cartographer Joseph Nicollet, who mapped the Upper Mississippi in the 1830s.

The island lies in the middle of the Mississippi, crossed by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge connecting Downtown and Northeast Minneapolis. The island is so near to Saint Anthony Falls that if the northward movement of the falls had not been stopped in the late 19th century, the island would no longer exist. In the early 19th century Nicollet Island was one of six islands near the falls, but all the others have been destroyed or joined to the east bank.

The island was the site of the first bridge across the Mississippi River, opened in 1855, on the site of the present Hennepin Avenue Bridge. It is part of Saint Anthony Falls Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Before the arrival of European settlers, the Minneapolis region was inhabited by the Sioux (Dakota) and Ojibwe people, to whom Saint Anthony Falls was a sacred site. The Sioux used the island as a birthing place, and according to their oral tradition for ceremonies such as the vision quest and as a neutral meeting site.

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