Mınneapolıs, Mınnesota

Minneapolis is named for water. The Dakota called the falls at its heart Owámniyomni and the river Haha Wakpa, meaning river of the falls. The city that grew up around them became the flour-milling capital of the world, powered by the same water the Dakota had known as sacred for millennia. Then, in 1984, it became something else entirely.

Prince Rogers Nelson grew up here, made his name here and, when he died, the city lit its skyline purple. That was a different kind of power, but it came from the same place: something in Minneapolis that generates outsized things from unlikely ones.

Most visitors come for one of those two stories. VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours follow both. An award-winning writer takes you along Nicollet Avenue through the Prince pantheon, from the guitar shop where a teenager first jammed to the Dakota jazz club where he danced at his last. Along the Mississippi, you'll hear how Owámniyomni's waterpower fuelled a flour empire, and how the Washburn A Mill blew itself to pieces in 1878. Put your earbuds in and let the river do the talking.