Wooden Legs For All!

I recently read something about the Minneapolis St. Anthony Falls area that really surprised me. It was from an article I found in the "Twin Cities Metropolitan" magazine that talked about a booming industry that has existed in our capital city for over 120 years. I knew that for many years Minneapolis was known for its flour mills, logging industry and even the heavily used railroad transportation system along the river banks, but I never would have guessed that they would also be known world-wide for their artificial limb production. It turns out that in 1988, the Winkley Artificial Limb Company opened its first shop in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis, near the mills at St. Anthony Falls. Back in those times, there was a very high incidence of work-related accidents caused by logging, milling and working on the railroad. Lumberjacks would frequently lose a leg while hopping across slippery timbers during logjams. The grinding gears and saw blades of the mills were even more dangerous, as many workers lost their arms or legs while they were grinding lumber. The flour mills and the railroads weren't any safer in those days. The demand for artificial limbs began to grow just as fast as these dangerous industries did. Soon the mills began to provide wood to the Winkley Artificial Limb Company and several others in the Warehouse District to create experimental limbs. The industry boomed and the competition was fierce among the various limb-makers, especially during the Civil War and after World War I. By 1918 Minneapolis had become the "artificial-limb capital of the world"! It was only much later, when safety measures in the workplace increased dramatically and World War II was over, that the need for artificial limbs declined. By the 1980's the only artificial limb company that survived in Minneapolis was Winkley (which still has six offices in the metro area today). That's surprising.

Dregni, Eric. "Wooden Legs For All! - How Minneapolis's mills created an unexpected splinter industry." Metro, Twin Cities Metropolitan." June 2008: 96.