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History
1849:Minnesota Becomes a Territory
Minnesota had a long history before it became a part of the United States.
Its first inhabitants probably came to the region at least 10,000 years
ago. These Native Americans lived on the land and enjoyed its bounties
for thousands of years. From the 1600s onward, they were joined by European
fur traders, missionaries, and adventurers. At different times after
that, the land of Minnesota was claimed separately by England, France,
and Spain. After the American Revolution, in the late 1700s, Minnesota
became a part of the United States. Still, it took a long time for Americans
to settle in the region. In 1819, Fort Snelling---a U.S. army post---was
built where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet. It took almost
20 years after that for other communities to emerge at Taylors Falls
and Stillwater on the St. Croix River; and at St. Paul and St. Anthony
Falls, near Fort Snelling. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849,
fewer than 5,000 white people inhabited the land. |
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In 1850, census takers
made a record of people who lived in the new Minnesota Territory, which
covered 166,000 square miles. Census takers went to households and listed
everyone who lived there. They counted more than 6,000 people in the Territory's
nine counties. But they did not record the approximately 31,700 Indians
who were Minnesota's first inhabitants--and made up 84 percent of the
population in 1850. |
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1854/55:
First suspension bridge over the Mississippi
Two separate communities shared the resources of the Falls. St. Anthony,
the slightly older town on the east side of the Mississippi, was first
settled by the early entrepreneur Franklin Steele in 1838, platted in
1849 (when its population was already well over 600), and incorporated
in 1855. The younger community on the west side of the river took the
name Minneapolis, which combined a part of a Dakota Indian for "Laughing
Waters", with a Greek word--polis--which meant city. Lands on the
west bank of the river were under control of the Fort Snelling reservation
until 1856, when they were opened to private ownership and development
and the town of Minneapolis was incorporated. Both towns grew quickly
and developed a number of industries at the falls. The earliest waterpowered
facilities were sawmills; shortly thereafter, enterprising business people
constructed grist and flour mills along the river. Flour mills ground
wheat into flour with giant stones powered by water. Grist mills used
the same means to turn a variety of grains, like corn and barley, into
a fine "grist,", or powder. St. Anthony and Minneapolis were
rivals through most of these years, each trying to outdo the other in
developing the resources of the Falls.
In 1852, Franklin Steele
anticipated that the area’s population would soon grow beyond
the capacity of the private ferry service which had linked the two banks
just above the Falls. In 1854, a 620-foot-long suspension bridge was
constructed near the site of the old ferry, linking the west bank to
Nicollet Island. The bridge, with its characteristic shingled wood towers,
was opened with much civic pride in January 1855. This was the first
permanent bridge to span the Mississippi at any point along its length.
Both as a symbol and an actual means of travel, it helped link the two
cities, which merged in 1872 and took the name Minneapolis.
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