Introduction to History of Minnesota
Ancestors of the American Indian were in what is now Minnesota by the late glacial period, some 10,000 or more years ago. These people and their descendants hunted the abundant game and fish in the area. The first Europeans to arrive were probably the French in the 17th century. There has been speculation, based on what most scholars regard as fraudulent evidence, that a band of Vikings reached eastern Minnesota in 1362.
Important dates in Minnesotac. 1660 Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers, visited the Minnesota region.1679 Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Duluth, explored the western shore of Lake Superior.1680 Louis Hennepin sighted the Falls of St. Anthony.1783 Britain granted the land east of the Mississippi River to the United States.1803 The United States obtained the Minnesota area west of the Mississippi through the Louisiana Purchase.1819-1825 The U.S. Army established a fort in temporary buildings in 1819 in southeastern Minnesota. It began building Fort Anthony there in 1820. Fort Anthony was completed in 1825 and renamed Fort Snelling.1832 Henry R. Schoolcraft discovered Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River.1849 The U.S. Congress created the Minnesota Territory.1851 The Sioux Indians gave up their rights to large areas of land west of the Mississippi River.1858 Minnesota became the 32nd state on May 11.1862 Indians and settlers fought in what became known as the Great Sioux Uprising, or the Dakota Conflict.1884 The first shipment of iron ore from the Vermilion Range left Minnesota.1889 William W. Mayo and his two sons founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.1892 The first ore was shipped from the Mesabi Range.1944 The Farmer-Labor Party and Minnesota Democratic parties joined to form the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.1964 Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment assuring taconite producers that taxes on taconite will not be raised at a higher rate than taxes on other businesses for 25 years.1998 Jesse Ventura, elected governor, became the first Reform Party candidate in the United States to win a statewide office. He left the Reform Party in 2000 and became an independent. His term ended in 2003.French Exploration
The first known exploration was conducted by Sieur des Groseilliers and Pierre Radisson, fur traders who came by way of Lake Superior in 1659–60. In the northern area they found Chippewa Indians; in the south, Sioux (Dakotas). In 1679 Sieur Duluth traveled with the Sioux to Mille Lacs Lake and claimed the upper Mississippi valley for France. The next summer Father Louis Hennepin journeyed from the mouth of the Illinois River up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony at the future site of Minneapolis.
The French continued their explorations of the region, and in 1732 the La Vérendryes established a trading post at Lake of the Woods. Grand Portage, at the mouth of the Pigeon River, was the area's main post in the early fur trade. In 1763 eastern Minnesota, with the rest of New France, passed to Great Britain. The area west of the Mississippi had, as part of Louisiana, been ceded to Spain in 1762.
Early Settlement
Eastern Minnesota became part of the United States in 1783 and was included in the Northwest Territory four years later. The British, however, continued their fur trade in Minnesota until after the War of 1812.
In 1803, by the Louisiana Purchase, western Minnesota became part of the United States. It successively was a part of Louisiana, Missouri, and Michigan territories. The entire area was then included in Wisconsin and Iowa territories before Minnesota Territory was created in 1849.
In the meantime Zebulon Pike had led an exploration party up the Mississippi and had chosen a site for an outpost. Fort St. Anthony (later Fort Snelling) was established at the mouth of the Minnesota River in 1819, and became the center of early settlement.
Henry H. Sibley, agent of the American Fur Company, established headquarters in 1834 at Mendota, across the river from Fort Snelling. For two decades great caravans of ox carts carried furs from the Red River Valley to his trading post. Just north of Mendota a community that came to be known as St. Paul grew so rapidly that it was made the territorial capital in 1849.
Statehood
The population of Minnesota in 1850 was only 6,000, but a treaty with the Sioux the next year opened up the fertile western region to settlement. By 1857 there were 157,000 residents, and Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858 as the 32nd state.
When the Civil War began, the federal government withdrew most Regular Army units from the West to be replaced by militia. The Sioux in Minnesota, angered by the cession of their lands to white settlers and delays in payments from the government, chose this time to rise against the whites. In August, 1862, Indians led by Little Crow raided up and down the Minnesota River Valley. More than 800 settlers and soldiers were killed before forces under Sibley, who had been named a colonel in the state militia, put down the uprising.
Post-Civil War Development
After the Civil War the railways expanded into Minnesota, and the state grew rapidly. Settlers, attracted by free land provided by the Homestead Act of 1862, came from as far away as Germany and Scandinavia. Wheat became the major crop, and flour milling developed into a large-scale industry. Lumbering boomed after 1870. Iron mining began in the Vermilion Range in the 1880's and soon spread to the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges. By 1920 Minnesota was the nation's leading iron ore producer.
Discontent among Minnesota's farmers over the high rates charged by the railways and grain elevators led to strong Minnesota support of the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange) and to the establishment of marketing cooperatives. Third-party political movements, reflecting the views of the Grange, were popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Farmer-Labor Party, founded after World War I, gained strength in the 1920's and dominated Minnesota politics during the Depression. In 1938, however, Republican Harold E. Stassen won the governorship, and his party held power for 16 years. At the urging of Hubert H. Humphrey, the Farmer-Labor party merged with the state Democratic party in 1944, and the new party—the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL)—went on to dominate Minnesota politics for many years.
World War II and After
World War II, by creating heavy demands for iron ore and food products, did much to rebuild Minnesota's economy after the Depression. In the 1950's the mining industry declined sharply as the richest ore deposits were depleted. However, the construction of plants after 1955 to process taconite ore brought partial recovery. Great industrial growth also marked the 1950's, and manufacturing began to surpass agriculture as the chief source of income. Agriculture also diversified. In the 1960's, Minnesota faced the problem of providing jobs for its rapidly increasing urban population.
In the 1970s, Minnesota was considered one of the most successful states in the nation, having steady economic growth, a low crime rate, and a government responsive to public opinion. In the 1980's, the state encountered severe economic problems, particularly in agriculture and mining. By the end of the decade, however, conditions had begun to improve. In 1998, James Janos, a former professional wrestler and actor who uses the stage name Jesse Ventura, was elected governor as the Reform party candidate.
Air and water pollution became a concern from the 1970's through the 1990's, primarily because of taconite plants. In 1978, the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered the Reserve Mining Company of Silver Bay to meet pollution control standards.
The state's first light rail system began operation in Minneapolis in mid-2004.