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The Tri-Cities ]^^&^MSM '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