The Minnesota Experimental City (MXC) was a proposed
planned community to be located in northern
Minnesota (near
Swatara in
Aitkin County
Aitkin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,697. Its county seat is Aitkin. Part of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation is in the county. The county was created in 1857 and organiz ...
). Proposed and studied beginning in the 1960s, it would have been constructed as a
public–private partnership. In contrast with many of the
model cities of the time, the MXC was to be experimental, trying new things rather than proposing to select from the best of the existing practice. The project was initiated and directed by renowned scientist and
University of Minnesota dean
Athelstan Spilhaus.
The city was designed for 250,000 people over . In the plan, only 1/6 of the area would be paved, the remainder would be
open space: parks, wilderness, and farms. Under the influence of
Buckminster Fuller who sat on the MXC's advisory board, the plan called for the MXC to be partially enclosed by a
geodesic dome. It would contain a branch of the
University of Minnesota and
3M Corporation.
Among other proposed features were:
* a
pedestrian zone, cars were to be parked on the edge with a
people-mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...
connecting them to the center. An
automated highway system would connect the town with the outside world.
* no
schools. The city itself would foster
lifelong learning
Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated"Department of Education and Science (2000).Learning for Life: Paper on Adult Education Dublin: Stationery Office. pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons ...
, with everyone both a student and teacher.
* waterless
toilets.
Demise
The end of MXC was "abrupt".
[ The Minnesota legislature created a Minnesota Experimental City Authority in 1971. It was given the job of finding a site for MXC by 1973. After some months it chose undeveloped land in Aiken County, a little over 100 miles north of Minneapolis.][ Unfortunately for the proposed city, local residents became "outspoken critics", claiming the city would bring urban pollution their area.
In August 1973 the Minnesota state legislature eliminated the MXC authority's funding.][
]
See also
* Epcot
* Arcosanti
References
*Spilhaus, Athelstan (1967) ''The Experimental City'', in: Daedalus Vol. 96, No. 4, America's Changing Environment (Fall, 1967), pp. 1129–1141 (on JSTOR)
*Vivrett, Walter K. (1971) ''Planning For People: Minnesota Experimental City,'' New Community Development Vol. 1: Planning, Process, Implementation, and Emerging Social Concerns, Shirley Weiss (Ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1971.
External links
Swatara Minnesota History
Minnesota Experimental City papers, N71
Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, MN.
Minnesota Experimental City Authority Records
Minnesota Historical Society, State Archives, Saint Paul, MN.
Documentary by Chad Freidrichs about MXC
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History of Minnesota
Proposed populated places in the United States
Utopian communities in the United States