Tri-cities: An Office profile, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Burnsville;

              The Tri-Cities
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'close professional relationships,
carefully coordinated practices'
m inneapolis, seat of Hennepin County, and
I I I St. Paul, capital of the State of Min-
| nesota, form an axis that is the
| undisputed center of finance, com-
| merce, manufacturing, education,
I transportation, culture and recreation for
the upper midwest region of the country. Almost three
million people, more than half the population of the
state, live in the seven-county metropolitan area called
the Twin Cities. (For Deloitte Haskins & Sells, it should
be noted, Tri-Cities would probably be more accurate
because of the close professional relationships and
carefully coordinated practices among the DH&S offices
in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Burnsville, to the south.)
Minneapolis sits astride the Mississippi River, marking
the start of the navigable portion of that waterway.
Father Louis Hennepin, a French Franciscan priest, was
the first white man to see the Falls of St. Anthony, one
of the city's scenic and historic attractions, when he
explored the Mississippi in 1680. In 1819, Fort Snelling
was built (not far from where the Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport sits today) to protect fur traders
from the Sioux and Chippewa. The town of St. Anthony
was established on the east side of the falls in 1848,
while the town that later became Minneapolis began
growing on the west bank. Minneapolis—the name
comes from the Sioux minne for water and the Greek
polis for city—was incorporated in 1856, and the two
towns united under the Minneapolis name in 1872.
Much of the area's character was shaped by the large
influx of Swedes and people of Swedish ancestry, who
settled there in the late 19th century and now account
for about a quarter of the population. Other large pop­ulation
groups are those with Canadian, German and
Norwegian backgrounds.
Historically a center of agriculture—Minneapolis remains
headquarters for the world's four largest wheat-flour
milling companies—the area's industrial base has
shifted in past decades to a heavier concentration of
high technology and service industries. Minneapolis and
environs is home, for example, to many of the country's
leading computer, word processing and electronics
companies.
i