The Cooper neighborhood (part of the larger Longfellow community) resides along the west shore of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

in south

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. It is bound by 34th St. E. on the south, 38th Ave. S. on the west, 27th St. E. on the north, and the river gorge to the east. Bordering

neighborhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

are Seward to the north,

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to complet ...

to the west, and Howe to the south. St. Paul's Merriam Park neighborhood is just across the Mississippi River to the east. Cooper was named after the 19th-century author

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

, best known for writing ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is an 1826 historical romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder'', ...

'' (1832).

Geography

The Mississippi River Gorge is unique to this stretch of the entire Mississippi. The river cut an eighty-plus foot gorge as what is now

St. Anthony Falls Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony (), located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, various dams were built ...

moved upstream over thousands of years, finally stopping at downtown

due to engineering work during the city's flour milling boom times. Today, the Mississippi River Gorge is a protected

natural landscape A natural landscape is the original landscape that exists before it is acted upon by human culture. The natural landscape and the cultural landscape are separate parts of the landscape. However, in the 21st century, landscapes that are totally ...

Schools

2005 marked the closing of Cooper Elementary School, forcing Cooper's children to move to the neighboring Longfellow Elementary, which itself closed in 2010. Today, elementary students in Cooper are split between Dowling Elementary School and Hiawatha Elementary School.

Sanford Middle School Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) is a public school district that covers Seminole County, Florida. , the total district-wide enrollment was 66,351 students. History During the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida, as of August 2021 Seminole Count ...

and Andersen Middle School serve the Cooper neighborhood with students from Hiawatha/Howe tracking to Sanford and Dowling students tracking to Andersen. South High School and Roosevelt High School serve the neighborhood with Sanford students tracking to Roosevelt and Andersen students tracking to South. Spanish Immersion magnet students at Andersen track to Roosevelt for high school. Minnehaha Academy's (private) high school is located in Cooper along West River Road. Their middle school is further south on West River Road in the Howe neighborhood.

Political representation

Cooper is part of

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

Ward 12 and Minnesota Legislative District 63A. * City Council (Ward 12): Aurin Chowdhury * Minneapolis Park Board (District 3): Becky Alper * Minneapolis Mayor:

Jacob Frey Jacob Lawrence Frey ( ; born July 23, 1981) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he served on the Minneapolis City ...

* Hennepin County Commissioner (District 4): Angela Conley * Minnesota House of Representatives (District 63A): Samantha Sencer-Mura *

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

(District 63):

Zaynab Mohamed Zaynab M. Mohamed ( Somali: ''Zaynab Maxamed''; Arabic: زينب محمد) (born May 4, 1997) is an American politician serving as a member of the Minnesota State Senate since 2023. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DF ...

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

(District 5):

Ilhan Omar Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election to Congress, Omar served in the Minnesota House of Represen ...

Notable residents

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...

, former

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, grew up in the house on the southwest corner of 32nd St. E. and 46th Ave. S.

References

External links