Editing History of Minnesota (section)

==Territorial foundation and settlement==
{{further|Northwest Ordinance|Louisiana Purchase|Territorial era of Minnesota}}

===Land acquisition===
[[File:Minnesota Territory 1849.svg|thumb|right|Map of [[Minnesota Territory]]<br />(1849–1858)]]
All of the land east of the Mississippi River was granted to the United States by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Second Treaty of Paris]], which in 1783 ended the [[American Revolution]]. This included what would become modern-day Saint Paul but only part of Minneapolis, along with the northeast, north-central, and east-central portions of the future state. The western portion of the state was part of [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish Louisiana]] since the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=The northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase|author=Lass, William E.|volume=35|issue=1|date=Winter 2015|page=40|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24465560|journal=Great Plains Quarterly|doi=10.1353/gpq.2015.0006 |jstor=24465560 |s2cid=161440918 |access-date=February 17, 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The wording of the treaty in the Minnesota area depended on landmarks reported by fur traders, who erroneously reported an "Isle Phelipeaux" in Lake Superior, a "Long Lake" west of the island, and the belief that the Mississippi River ran well into modern Canada.{{sfn|Lass|1998|pp=78–79}} Most of the state—the area west of the Mississippi—was purchased in 1803 from France as part of the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. Parts of northern Minnesota were considered to be in [[Rupert's Land]].<ref name=Narratives>{{cite book|title=The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux|via=Google Books|access-date=February 19, 2022|first1=Samuel I.|last1=Mniyo|first2=Robert|last2=Goodvoice|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1496219367|page=Appendix 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YODEDwAAQBAJ}}</ref> The exact definition of the boundary between Minnesota and [[British North America]] was not addressed until the [[Anglo-American Convention of 1818]],{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=80}} which set the U.S.–Canada border at the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] west of the [[Lake of the Woods]] (except for a small chunk of land now dubbed the [[Northwest Angle]]). Border disputes east of Lake of the Woods continued until the [[Webster-Ashburton Treaty]] of 1842.{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=81}}

During the first half of the 19th century, the northeastern portion of the state was a part of the [[Northwest Territory]], then the [[Illinois Territory]], then the [[Michigan Territory]], and finally the [[Wisconsin Territory]]. The western and southern areas of the state, although theoretically part of the Wisconsin Territory from its creation in 1836, were not formally organized until 1838, when they became part of the [[Iowa Territory]].{{page needed|date=March 2022}}{{Sfn|Wingerd|2010|p=}}

===Establishment of Fort Snelling, Minneapolis and Saint Paul===
{{See also|History of Saint Paul, Minnesota|History of Minneapolis, Minnesota}}

[[File:Fortsnellinggrounds.jpg|thumb|Fort Snelling]]

[[Fort Snelling]] was the first [[Military history of the United States|U.S. military]] post in the state. The land for the fort encompassed the [[Confluence (geography)|confluence]] of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers and was acquired in 1805 by Lt. [[Zebulon Pike]]. When concerns mounted about the fur trade in the area, construction of the fort began in 1819,{{sfn|Gilman|1991|pp=81–82}} and was completed in 1825, named after Colonel [[Josiah Snelling]].{{sfn|Gilman|1991|pp=82–84}}<ref name="hfs">{{cite web | url=http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/hfs/history.html | title=Historic Fort Snelling | publisher=Minnesota Historical Society | access-date=July 6, 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102015331/http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/hfs/history.html | archive-date=November 2, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Slaves Dred Scott and his wife were taken to the fort by their master, John Emerson. They lived at the fort and elsewhere in territories where slavery was prohibited. After Emerson's death, the Scotts argued that since they had lived in free territory, they were no longer slaves. The U.S. Supreme Court sided against the Scotts in ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]''. Dred Scott Field, located just a short distance away in [[Bloomington, Minnesota|Bloomington]], is named in memory of Fort Snelling's significance in one of the most important legal decisions in U.S. history.{{sfn|Gilman|1991|p=110}}{{sfn|Risjord|2005|pp=78–79}}

[[File:Oil on Canvas Portrait of Dred Scott (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Dred Scott]]]]

By 1851, treaties between Native American tribes and the U.S. government had opened much of Minnesota to settlement, so Fort Snelling no longer was a frontier outpost. It served as a training center for soldiers during the [[American Civil War]] and later as the headquarters for the Department of Dakota. A portion has been designated as [[Fort Snelling National Cemetery]] where over 160,000 are interred. During World War II, the fort served as a training center for nearly 300,000 inductees. Fort Snelling is now a historic site operated by the [[Minnesota Historical Society]].<ref name="hfs"/>

Fort Snelling was largely responsible for the establishment of the city of [[Minneapolis, Minnesota|Minneapolis]]. The fort garrison built roads, planted crops, and built a [[grist mill]] and a sawmill at [[Saint Anthony Falls]].<ref name="hfs"/> Later, [[Franklin Steele]] came to Fort Snelling as the post [[sutler]]. He established interests in lumbering and operated the ferries serving the fort from St. Paul and Mendota. When the Ojibwe signed a treaty ceding lands in 1837, Steele staked a claim to land on the east side of the Mississippi River adjacent to Saint Anthony Falls. In 1848, he built a sawmill at the falls, and the community of Saint Anthony developed along the east side of the falls. Steele told one of his employees, [[John H. Stevens]], that land on the west side of the falls would make a good site for future mills. Since the land on the west side was still part of the military reservation, Stevens made a deal with Fort Snelling's commander. Stevens would provide free ferry service across the river in exchange for a tract of {{convert|160|acre|km2}} at the head of the falls. Stevens received the claim and built a house, the first house in Minneapolis, in 1850. In 1854, Stevens platted the city of Minneapolis on the west bank.{{sfn|Risjord|2005|pp=70–71}} Later, in 1872, Minneapolis absorbed the city of Saint Anthony.{{sfn|Risjord|2005|p=73}}

The city of [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] is also a Fort Snelling development. [[Squatter]]s, mostly from the ill-fated [[Red River Colony]] in what is now [[Manitoba]], established a camp near the fort. The commandant of Fort Snelling, Major [[Joseph Plympton]], found their presence problematic because they were using resources that the fort required; timber, firewood and grazing lands around the fort. Plympton banned lumbering and evicted the squatters from the military reservation. As a result, they moved four miles downstream on the Mississippi River to Fountain cave.{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=99}} This location was not quite far enough for Plympton, so the squatters were forced out again. [[Pierre Parrant|Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant]], established a [[moonshine]] trade there with both the soldiers and Sioux. The settlement got the name "Pig's Eye" when a customer at Parrant's tavern wrote a letter with "Pig's Eye" as the return address.  The reply to that letter was delivered directly to the settlement.{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=99}}  In 1840, the Roman Catholic [[Diocese of Dubuque]] sent Father [[Lucien Galtier]] as a missionary to the settlement.  Galtier built a small log church and dedicated it to [[Paul the Apostle|Saint Paul]].  The nearby steamboat landing took on the name "St. Paul's Landing", and by 1846, when a post office was opened, the area was known as St. Paul.{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=100}}  Before white settlement, the Mdewakanton Sioux knew the area as ''Im-in-i-ja Ska'', meaning "White Rock", which describes the sandstone bluffs adjacent to Carver's Cave.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W58UAAAAYAAJ|title=A History of the City of Saint Paul, and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota|last=Williams|first=John Fletcher|date=1876|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|accessdate=2022-03-18}}</ref>

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are collectively known as the [[Minneapolis-St. Paul|Twin Cities]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wcco.com/goodquestion/local_story_034144252.html|last=Tracy|first=Ben|title=Good question: Why are we twins?|publisher=[[WCCO-TV]]|date=January 1, 2007|access-date=March 17, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927004716/http://wcco.com/goodquestion/local_story_034144252.html |archive-date = September 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota, with a population of 429,954 in the 2020 census.<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=February 8, 2022|title=U.S. Census website}}</ref> Saint Paul is smaller with a population of 311,527 in 2020. Minneapolis-Saint Paul are the core of the MPLS metropolitan area with a population of 3,690,261 as of 2020,<ref name=PopEstCBSA>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/2020-population-and-housing-state-data.html |title=2020 population and housing state data  |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]], Population Division |date=August 12, 2021 |access-date=February 8, 2022}}</ref> with a total state population of 5,706,494.<ref name="GR2" />

===Early European settlement and development===
[[File:SibleyHouse.jpg|thumb|right|Home of Henry Hastings Sibley]]
[[File:Pineries-Minnesota-1800s.jpg|thumb|Logging pine c. 1860s–1870s]]
[[Henry Hastings Sibley]] built the first stone house{{failed verification|date=March 2022}} in the Minnesota Territory in [[Mendota, Minnesota|Mendota]] in 1838, along with other limestone buildings used by the [[American Fur Company]], which bought animal pelts at that location from 1825 to 1853.<ref name="mnhs-places">{{cite web|url=http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/shs/|title=Sibley House Historic Site|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|access-date=September 19, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925195702/http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/shs/|archive-date=September 25, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Another area of early economic development in Minnesota was the logging industry. Loggers found the [[Eastern White Pine|white pine]] especially valuable, and it was plentiful in the northeastern section of the state and in the [[St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota)|St. Croix River]] valley. Before railroads, lumbermen relied mostly on river transportation to bring logs to market, which made Minnesota's timber resources attractive. Towns like [[Pine City, Minnesota|Pine City]], [[Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota|Marine on St. Croix]] and [[Stillwater, Minnesota|Stillwater]] became important lumber centers fed by the St. Croix River, while [[Winona, Minnesota|Winona]] became an important lumber market because of its proximity to farms that were developing in the south of the state.{{sfn|Lass|1998|pp=170–71}} The unregulated logging practices of the time and a severe drought took their toll in 1894, when the [[Great Hinckley Fire]] ravaged {{convert|480|sqmi|km2}} in the [[Hinckley, Minnesota|Hinckley]] and [[Sandstone, Minnesota|Sandstone]] areas of [[Pine County]], killing over 400 residents.{{failed verification|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/21hinckley.html|title=Hinckley Fire of 1894|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|year=2006|access-date=July 15, 2006| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701025255/http://libguides.mnhs.org/hinckleyfire|archive-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref> The combination of logging and drought struck again in the [[Baudette Fire of 1910]] and the [[1918 Cloquet Fire|Cloquet Fire]] of 1918.

Saint Anthony, on the east bank of the Mississippi River later became part of Minneapolis, and was an important lumber milling center supplied by the [[Rum River]].{{sfn|Lass|1998|pp=173–74}} In 1848, businessman Franklin Steele built the first private sawmill on the Saint Anthony Falls, and more sawmills quickly followed.{{failed verification|date=March 2022}} <ref>{{cite web| work=TimePieces |title= 1848: Falls power industry| url=http://events.mnhs.org/TimePieces/EventDetail.cfm?EventID=440| publisher=Minnesota Historical Society| access-date=February 17, 2007| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222023621/http://events.mnhs.org/TimePieces/EventDetail.cfm?EventID=440| archive-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> The oldest wood-frame home still standing in Saint Anthony is the Ard Godfrey house, built in 1848, and lived in by Ard and Harriet Godfrey.<ref name="agh">{{cite web|url=http://www.ardgodfreyhouse.com/|title=Ard Godfrey House|publisher=The Women's Club of Minneapolis|access-date=September 19, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061005062854/http://www.ardgodfreyhouse.com/ |archive-date = October 5, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[John Harrington Stevens House|house of John H. Stevens]], the first house on the west bank in Minneapolis, was moved several times, finally to [[Minnehaha Park]] in south Minneapolis in 1896.{{page needed|date=March 2022}} <ref>{{cite book|title=Mill City: A Visual History of the Minneapolis Mill District|last=Pennefeather|first=Shannon M.|year=2003|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|location=Saint Paul, Minnesota|isbn=0873514475}}</ref>

===Minnesota Territory===
{{main|Minnesota Territory}}
On August 26, 1848, shortly after Wisconsin was admitted to the Union, a convention of sixty-one met in Stillwater to petition Congress to create a Minnesota Territory from the remainder of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories.{{sfn|Holcombe|1908|pp=335, 361–67}} The delegate chosen to bring the convention's petition before Congress was [[Henry Hastings Sibley]].{{sfn|Holcombe|1908|pp=335, 361–67}} [[Stephen A. Douglas]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|(D)]], the chair of the Senate Committee on Territories, [[Organic Act of Minnesota|drafted the bill authorizing Minnesota Territory]]. He had envisioned a future for the upper Mississippi valley, so he was motivated to keep the area from being carved up by neighboring territories. In 1846, he prevented Iowa from including [[Fort Snelling]] and Saint Anthony Falls within its northern border. In 1847, he kept the organizers of [[Wisconsin]] from including Saint Paul and Saint Anthony Falls.{{sfn|Risjord|2005|p=62}} The [[Minnesota Territory]] was established from the lands remaining from [[Iowa Territory]] and [[Wisconsin Territory]] on March 3, 1849. The Minnesota Territory extended far into what is now North Dakota and South Dakota, to the [[Missouri River]]. There was a dispute over the shape of the state to be carved out of Minnesota Territory. An alternate proposal that was only narrowly defeated would have made the 46th parallel the state's northern border and the Missouri River its western border, thus giving up the whole northern half of the state in exchange for the eastern half of what later became South Dakota.{{sfn|Meinig|1993|p=439}}

With [[Alexander Ramsey]] [[Whig Party (United States)|(W)]] as the first governor of Minnesota Territory and [[Henry Hastings Sibley]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|(D)]] as the territorial delegate to the United States Congress. Ramsey lobbied Congress for funds to build five military roads in the Territory: Mendota/Fort Snelling to Wabasha, Point Douglas to Fort Ripley/Crow River Indian Agency, Mendota/Fort Snelling to the Missouri River, Point Douglas to Superior, and Fort Ripley Road to Long Prairie Indian Agency. The populations of Saint Paul and Saint Anthony swelled. [[Henry Mower Rice|Henry M. Rice]] (D), who replaced Sibley as the territorial delegate in 1853, worked in Congress to promote Minnesota interests. He lobbied for the construction of a railroad connecting Saint Paul and Lake Superior, with a link from Saint Paul to the [[Illinois Central Railroad|Illinois Central]].{{sfn|Risjord|2005|p=75}} Another military road would run from [[Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road|Fort Ridgely to South Pass, Nebraska Territory]].

===Statehood===

In December 1856, Henry Mower Rice brought forward two bills in Congress: an [[enabling act]] that would allow Minnesota to form a state constitution, and a railroad land grant bill. Rice's enabling act defined a state containing both prairie and forest lands. The state was bounded on the south by Iowa, on the east by Wisconsin, on the north by Canada, and on the west by the [[Red River of the North]] and the [[Bois de Sioux River]], [[Lake Traverse]], [[Big Stone Lake]], and then a line extending due south to the Iowa border. Rice made this motion based on Minnesota's population growth.{{sfn|Lass|1998|p=124}}

At the time, tensions between the northern and the southern United States were growing, in [[Origins of the American Civil War|a series of conflicts]] that eventually resulted in the American Civil War. There was little debate in the [[United States House of Representatives]], but when [[Stephen A. Douglas]] introduced the bill in the [[United States Senate]], it caused a firestorm of debate. Northerners saw their chance to add two senators to the side of the [[free state (United States)|free states]], while Southerners were sure that they would lose power. Many senators offered polite arguments that the population was too sparse and that statehood was premature. Senator [[John Burton Thompson]] of Kentucky, in particular, argued that new states would cost the government too much for roads, canals, forts, and lighthouses. Although Thompson and 21 other senators voted against statehood, the enabling act was passed on February 26, 1857.{{sfn|Lass|1998|pp=122–24}}

After the enabling act was passed, territorial legislators had a difficult time writing a state constitution. A [[constitutional convention (political meeting)|constitutional convention]] was assembled in July 1857, but Republicans and Democrats were deeply divided. In fact, they formed two separate constitutional conventions and drafted two separate constitutions. Eventually, the two groups formed a conference committee and worked out a common constitution. The divisions continued, though, because Republicans refused to sign a document that had Democratic signatures on it, and vice versa. One copy of the constitution was written on white paper and signed only by Republicans, while the other copy was written on blue-tinged paper and signed by Democrats. These copies were signed on August 29, 1857. An election was called on October 13, 1857, where Minnesota residents would vote to approve or disapprove the constitution. The constitution was approved by 30,055 voters, while 571 rejected it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.state.mn.us/about-minnesota/minnesota-government/minnesota-constitution-1858/|title=Minnesota Secretary of State – Minnesota Constitution 1858|publisher=Minnesota Secretary of State|access-date=February 13, 2022}}</ref>

The state constitution was sent to the [[United States Congress]] for ratification in December 1857. The approval process was drawn out for several months while Congress debated over issues that had stemmed from the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]. Southerners had been arguing that the next state should be pro-slavery, so when Kansas submitted the pro-slavery [[Lecompton Constitution]], the Minnesota statehood bill was delayed. After that, Northerners feared that Minnesota's Democratic delegation would support slavery in Kansas. Finally, after the Kansas question was settled and after Congress decided how many representatives Minnesota would get in the House of Representatives, the bill passed.{{sfn|Lass|1998|pp=125–26}} The eastern half of the Minnesota Territory, under the boundaries defined by Rice, became the country's 32nd state on May 11, 1858.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(sj049101))|title=Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 35th Congress |date= May 11, 1858 |page=436|publisher= Library of Congress |access-date=March 6, 2022}}</ref> The western part remained unorganized until its incorporation into the [[Dakota Territory]] on March 2, 1861.