“Water Gives Life” Signs at the Line 3 Protest in St. Paul

The Minnesota Governor's Residence at 1006 Summit Avenue was the site of a demonstration against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline replacement on November 14, 2020. Built in 1912 for lumber baron Horace Hills Irvine, the mansion became the official gubernatorial residence in 1965 and is now used for public receptions as well as the governor's private quarters. The Line 3 project reroutes an aging pipeline to carry Canadian tar sands crude across northern Minnesota to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, crossing the Mississippi River headwaters and treaty-protected Anishinaabe hunting and fishing territory. Opponents, including members of the White Earth and Red Lake Bands, argued the project risked water contamination and violated 1855 treaty rights, a legal argument later tested in tribal and state courts.