Late Summer Slow Roll Series – Ride 1: A River Runs Through It !

Overview

Conversationally paced bike ride weaving across the Mississippi, four stops, four Minneapolis stories, one river. Free and open to everyone.

The river has been here longer than the city, and it remembers more than we do. On this first ride of the Late Summer Slow Roll Series, we let the Mississippi be our guide — crossing back and forth between its banks to tell four stories that made this place what it is.

This is a Slow Roll, not a race. We ride together, we stop together, and we finish together. Come as you are, on whatever you’ve got, we won’t judge you. Need a bike – we got you!

Four stops, one river:

1 · Owámniyomni — the falls. All of this city is Dakota Homeland, and we begin on Dakota homeland at St. Anthony Falls, known in Dakota as Owámniyomni, “turbulent waters.” It sits within Bdote, the river confluence at the heart of the Dakota creation story — a place of ceremony and gathering, and today the focus of a Dakota-led effort to restore the land and water.

2 · Eliza Winston’s freedom, 1860. Rolling north by Boom Island and over toward St. Anthony, we tell the story of a woman brought to Minnesota enslaved — and freed by a Minneapolis court on August 21, 1860, the only such ruling in the state’s history. We’ll trace what her courage cost her, and the mob that met the verdict.

3 · Bohemian Flats. Beneath the Washington Avenue Bridge on the west bank once sat a scrappy immigrant riverfront — Czechs, Slovaks, Scandinavians, Poles, Germans, Irish, and more — who built their first American home there from the 1860s into the 1930s, flood-prone springs and all.

4 · Mill City. We close near Gold Medal Park, where the falls’ waterpower turned Minneapolis into the flour capital of the world. The names still ring — Washburn, Pillsbury, the company that became General Mills — and the grain economy they built still shapes the skyline you’ll be standing under.

The details:

• When: Thursday, July 23 · gather 5:30 PM, roll shortly after
• Where: We will begin at Venture Bikes Midtown at the Midtown Greenway and 10th Avenue South.
• Distance & pace: A relaxed social pace with frequent stops; comfortable for casual riders
• Cost: Free
• Bring: A working bike, a helmet, front and rear lights (we’ll be out past dusk), and water

Who it’s for: Anyone who lives in or near downtown and wants to know the ground under their feet a little better — new neighbors, longtime residents, families, solo riders. No history buff card required.

Reserve your spot so we know how many to expect — then just show up ready to ride.

Part of the Late Summer Slow Roll Series, a set of Thursday-evening community rides hosted by Venture with the 2035 Transportation Subcommittee. Next up: Parks, Place & the People (Aug 6), Culture Club (Aug 13), and Black Women to the Rescue (Aug 27).