Beginning in 1828, steamboats began to travel the Mississippi River as far north as St. Paul, the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi, until two dams and a series of locks were built between 1948 and 1963.
The steamboat journey began to attract the attention of tourists, and in 1835 well known artist of American Indian life George Catlin made a trip by steamboat up the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling.
Impressed with the scenery, Catlin proposed a "Fashionable Tour" of the upper Mississippi, saying:
This Tour would comprehend but a small part of the great "Far West"; but it will furnish to the traveller a fair sample, and being apart of it which is now made so easily accessible to the world, and the only part of it to which ladies can have access, I would recommend to all who have time and inclination to devote to the enjoyment of so splendid a Tour, to wait not, but make it while the subject is new, and capable of producing the greatest degree of pleasure.

Following Catlin's visit, each ensuing year saw an increasing number of sightseers, artists, and photographers.
 Hundreds of Stereoscopic View cards of the falls exist.
 The visitors were mainly men but a few women took the journey, most notably 80-year-old Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton.
 The beauty of the area was also spread through moving panoramas, artistic panoramic creations that were shown much like today's travel documentaries.
Quoting from a 1939 paper written by the Minnesota Historical Society:
Crowds of people went to see these travel movies of the 1840s and 1850s and thus toured the great river vicariously.
 The throngs that wished to view Banvard's panorama were so great when it was displayed in Boston and New York that railroads ran special excursions to accommodate them.
In these two cities alone more than four hundred thousand people saw the exhibition. "
The river comes to me instead of my going to the river," wrote Longfellow.
Whittier, after seeing a panorama, sang of the "new Canaan of our Israel," and Thoreau, who not only viewed a panorama but also made the tour itself, envisaged a coming heroic age in which simple and obscure men, the real heroes of history, would build the foundations of new castles [i]n the West and throw bridges across a "Rhine stream of a different kind."

According to an account written in 1852, passengers disembarked St. Paul and "[from there traveled by] stagecoach for what was called the 'grand tour.'
 It consisted of a drive from St. Paul to St. Anthony, then out to Lakes Harriet and Calhoun, thence to the Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling, and by the Spring Cave [probably "Fountain Cave"] to St. Paul, arriving in time for the visitors, if in haste, to return with the boat down the river."

By the late 1860s the railroads had extended their rails to Minneapolis/St.
Paul and they began to actively advertise Minnesota as a tourist destination.
 The 1878 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railway promotional booklet, A Guide to the Summer Resorts of Minnesota, told of the delights and health benefits of travel to Minnesota: "The scenery is unequaled and the invigorating air is so rich in oxygen and ozone that it is unsurpassed anywhere in the world and is sure to offer to the tourist and the invalid a hearty welcome, confident that the one will surely find rest and enjoyment, and the other that much coveted of earthly blessings — health."
 The booklet describes the coach ride from Minneapolis to Minnehaha Falls: "One of the famous trips that few tourists miss taking is that from Minneapolis to St. Paul by carriage.
 Starting from the former place on the west side of the river, a pleasant drive of four miles over a level prairie, brings the traveler to Where the Falls of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak trees.
Laugh and leap into the valley.

The round trip fare from St. Louis to Minneapolis was $30 and it featured Pullman sleeping cars.
The booklet lists the population of Minneapolis as 40,000 at that time.
Beginning in 1828, steamboats began to travel the Mississippi River as far north as St. Paul, the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi, until two dams and a series of locks were built between 1948 and 1963. The steamboat journey began to attract the attention of tourists, and in 1835 well known artist of American Indian life George Catlin made a trip by steamboat up the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling. Impressed with the scenery, Catlin proposed a "Fashionable Tour" of the upper Mississippi, saying:
This Tour would comprehend but a small part of the great "Far West"; but it will furnish to the traveller a fair sample, and being apart of it which is now made so easily accessible to the world, and the only part of it to which ladies can have access, I would recommend to all who have time and inclination to devote to the enjoyment of so splendid a Tour, to wait not, but make it while the subject is new, and capable of producing the greatest degree of pleasure.
Following Catlin's visit, each ensuing year saw an increasing number of sightseers, artists, and photographers.  Hundreds of Stereoscopic View cards of the falls exist.  The visitors were mainly men but a few women took the journey, most notably 80-year-old Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the widow of Alexander Hamilton.  The beauty of the area was also spread through moving panoramas, artistic panoramic creations that were shown much like today's travel documentaries. Quoting from a 1939 paper written by the Minnesota Historical Society:
Crowds of people went to see these travel movies of the 1840s and 1850s and thus toured the great river vicariously.  The throngs that wished to view Banvard's panorama were so great when it was displayed in Boston and New York that railroads ran special excursions to accommodate them. In these two cities alone more than four hundred thousand people saw the exhibition. "The river comes to me instead of my going to the river," wrote Longfellow. Whittier, after seeing a panorama, sang of the "new Canaan of our Israel," and Thoreau, who not only viewed a panorama but also made the tour itself, envisaged a coming heroic age in which simple and obscure men, the real heroes of history, would build the foundations of new castles [i]n the West and throw bridges across a "Rhine stream of a different kind."
According to an account written in 1852, passengers disembarked St. Paul and "[from there traveled by] stagecoach for what was called the 'grand tour.'  It consisted of a drive from St. Paul to St. Anthony, then out to Lakes Harriet and Calhoun, thence to the Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling, and by the Spring Cave [probably "Fountain Cave"] to St. Paul, arriving in time for the visitors, if in haste, to return with the boat down the river."
By the late 1860s the railroads had extended their rails to Minneapolis/St. Paul and they began to actively advertise Minnesota as a tourist destination.  The 1878 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railway promotional booklet, A Guide to the Summer Resorts of Minnesota, told of the delights and health benefits of travel to Minnesota: "The scenery is unequaled and the invigorating air is so rich in oxygen and ozone that it is unsurpassed anywhere in the world and is sure to offer to the tourist and the invalid a hearty welcome, confident that the one will surely find rest and enjoyment, and the other that much coveted of earthly blessings — health."  The booklet describes the coach ride from Minneapolis to Minnehaha Falls: "One of the famous trips that few tourists miss taking is that from Minneapolis to St. Paul by carriage.  Starting from the former place on the west side of the river, a pleasant drive of four miles over a level prairie, brings the traveler to Where the Falls of Minnehaha Flash and gleam among the oak trees. Laugh and leap into the valley.
The round trip fare from St. Louis to Minneapolis was $30 and it featured Pullman sleeping cars. The booklet lists the population of Minneapolis as 40,000 at that time.
Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis)