Saint Paul

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Minnesota is the only state to result from three separate United States land expansions: The Louisiana Purchase, the War for Independence and a small cession by Britain in about 1813. A person named Zebulon Pike had examined the area of present day Minneapolis and had purchased land from the Native Americans in the area (the Sioux). A fort was established, named Fort Snelling after the commander, Colonel Josiah Snelling. After several years, Joseph Plympton took over command and decided to chase out the 137 people that were camp on the fort's property. He forceably removed them out of the boundaries and the people began heading in two general directions, some moving east along the Mississippi and others heading up north. Later on, Fort Snelling's Boundaries were expanded (to as far as the X-Cel Energy Center in Saint Paul to give you an idea). People refusing to move once again found themselves at the mercy of soldier, sending them even further away, about 5 miles eastward, were Saint Paul's first credited resident was already in residence, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant. Parrant was a French-Canadian whiskey dealer who ran his business out of the local caves to elude the military leaders (the soldiers often were among the best customers). In 1844, Parrant moved on to Sault Ste. Marie, and the establishment he left behind kept the name Pig's Eye. Father Lucien Galtier arrived a short time later, building a log cabin church dedicated to Saint Paul. In 1850, at the New Years address, Father Galtier asked the town leaders that their community be renamed. With the approval of the people, he announced:

"Pig's Eye, converted thou shalt be, like Saul; Arise, and be, henceforth, Saint Paul!"

Saint Paul experienced quicker growth after the name change. Cabins were being added daily, and the most dense portion of the town was spread around what would be considered Lowertown today. The town's prime spot on the Mississippi allowed it to be a shipping port since its earliest days. Saint Paul's fortunes would change in 1848, when Wisconsin became a state. The borders draw up for the newly created state ended at the St. Croix River, which left the small settlements (Stillwater being the largest) clamoring for government protection from the Native Americans. For a short time, delegates met in Stillwater and decided that since they were formerly part of Wisconsin, they should still be considered the Wisconsin Territory! Henry Sibley served as the representative for this short-lived ruse. The following year, Henry Sibley had successfully lobbied the government to declare a new territory called Minnesota. On March 3, 1849, Minnesota became a territory and a few weeks later on the stormy night of April 9th, a steamboat had delivered the news that Saint Paul was chosen as the capital of the territory. The citizens were delighted and the town of 910 doubled in just three weeks. In 6 years, the population had hit 4,716, due to the Irish and Swedish immigrants that were flowing in. A primitive capitol was constructed along with a courthouse, attached to a small prison. In 1858, after a decade of rapid growth, Minnesota finally became a state. Alexander Ramsey, a politican from Philadelphia was brought in to serve as the first governor (he never even heard of Minnesota before!). Soon afterward, the state was thrown into the Civil War. Minnesota became the first northern state to donate troops to the cause (Ramsey was visiting the president at the time). A quota of 780 men was quickly filled. 1,498 people, 14% of Saint Paul's population in 1860, served in the war. 124 of them died in service. When the war ended, Saint Paul stood at the beginning of a new golden age with the rapid mechanization of the north. Railroads had finally reached the city and the new technology had made it easier than ever to bring in more immigrants. It was during this 30-year period (1870-1900) that many of the city's current houses and now-historic downtown buildings were built. A new capitol was constructed after a disasterous fire, with its tall dome rising over the skyline. The tallest skyscraper of Chicago was built in Saint Paul, the Pioneer Press Building. The city swelled to roughly 110,000 by 1885, about a 275% increase in 5 years!

The late 19th century began a strong rivalry between Saint Paul and neighboring Minneapolis. Formerly, Minneapolis was a small isolated settlement, but after the milling companies and railroads had reached the city, it exploded in population. Throughout the 1880's, Saint Paulites were fearful that Minneapolis would overtake them, becoming the state's largest city. In 1890, both cities had decided to inflate their population counts, beginning the Census War of 1890. Both city tipped off the federal government to the other's dishonestly, touching off an investigation on both cities. Things got ugly when several Minneapolis census workers were arrested by federal Investigators after they had been caught lying about the city's population in official records. Through an analysis of records, the federal government found that Minneapolis had illegally added 18,229 people to their census results. The media in Saint Paul had a field day with the news, slandering Minneapolis in every article they could. The tides turned soon after when investigators found Saint Paul was guilty as well, adding 9,425 to their census results. Even today, figures for the Twin Cities in 1890 are uncertain. With the census fiasco aside, Saint Paul experienced many milestones during this people, including the beginning of the mass transit (streetcars), and the creation of the first sewer and water systems. Saint Paul became the most northern terminus on the Mississippi and thanks to the work of railroad tycoon, James J. Hill, Saint Paul became a major railroad center for the northwest.

The new century rolled around and Saint Paul continued to grow. However, the 20th century introduced a series of difficulties that the young city would have to cope with. World War I was the first major dilemma for the city, but at the same time that soldiers were being shipped away, a disasterous winter had been taking its toll on Minnesota. Complications from the blizzards trapped downtown workers for two days. The city also faced difficulty with the adoption of daylight savings time in tune with the war. It was very confusing for many of the local residents, causing scheduling problems everywhere. During the end of the war, Saint Paul experienced a influenza outbreak equaling over 3,000 cases. Masks were actually passed out to the public to prevent further infections, though it didn't help much, infecting soldiers at Fort Snelling waiting for their departure to Europe. Women experienced a major milestone at the time: they were brought out of the home to take over jobs left by men off at war. Women had made up a majority of the city's workforce through the war, and in 1920, their hard work was awarded with the right of suffrage. The end of the war triggered massive celebration all across the state, the largest located in Saint Paul. Through the roaring twenties into the 1930's, Saint Paul had experienced a massive growth in their skyline. First National Bank had shot up to a massive 417 feet while the new City Hall and the U.S. Post Office complimented, rising above the commerical blocks of yesteryear. The Great Depression of the 1930's had quickly changed the city's attitude. Saint Paul suffered like many other cities; the jobless, homeless and welfare recipents increased while gangs took up virtual ownership of the city. The city became the home to famous gangsters like Ma Barker, "Creepy" Karpis and "Baby Face" Nelson. The police chief, Dick O'Connor, made an unbelievable deal granting gangsters safety as long as they didn't endanger the city, but they were free to inflict their terror upon neighboring areas. The deal never took off because violence still haunted the streets of St. Paul; bank robberies, millionaire kidnappings, and bloody murders were commonplace. A crackdown by the FBI took place, bringing many of these gangsters to trial at the Federal Courts Building (now the landmark center).

WWII raged by in the 1940's, but the city continued to grew. It peaked at about 310,000 people in 1950, but then the age of suburbanization had begun and the city faced a sharp decline. Downtown began to experience widespread vacancies while the population of Saint Paul and Minneapolis were plummeting. Saint Paul began a vigorous campaign of urban renewal. Unfortunately, city planners were misguided in the beginning, resulting in the destruction of some of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city. Little Italy, the Italian neighborhood southwest of downtown was judged a slum and leveled off, replaced by a junk pile. The West Side Flats, a Latino neighborhood, was damaged by floods and all demolished. The neighborhood around the capitol was all destroyed, along with a line of neighborhoods through the center of the city, all to make room for the building of I-94, the new interstate that was considered to be an exciting new development. Old buildings downtown were destroyed (including the New York Life Insurance Building and the Ryan Hotel) and saw modern replacements like The Radisson, The Federal Courts Building, Daytons, Kellogg Mall (park land, not shopping), Capital City Plaza (now Ecolab), Kellogg Square Apartments, and American National Bank (now U.S. Bank). Critics declared Saint Paul the "blank wall capital of the United States". Even further damaging the street life of downtown was the hailed skyways. While they slowed down the decline of businesses downtown, Saint Paul still faced a terrible decay. The city's main commercial street, University Ave., lay in ruins and neighborhoods were turning into slums. Even historical areas like Summit Hill where falling apart as the middle and upper class retreated out to the suburbs. Saint Paul was considered "a joke", a city without heart and left to the vultures. However, city leaders did not give up. The Capital City Partnership started up, bringing together corporate leaders who pumped $1 billion into downtown renewal. The city introduced to the nation the idea of district councils, jurisdictions within the city that worked on a smaller scale to help repair and revitalize neighborhoods. Gentrification began in some of the city's historic districts as people began to move back into the city. The 1980's reversed the population decline, posting a small boost for the 1990 census. Downtown was building a variety of superblock projects to expand the commerical and business bases of the city. However, the 1990's brought to Saint Paul a depression in business, as downtown hit a slump, loosing more of their tenants. The major retail center of the 80's was a shadow of its former self, but not all was lost.

One major emigration wave had mixed effects on the Saintly City. Hmong people, refugees from the Vietnam War, had become Saint Paul's fastest growing minority group and as they poured in, two major effects took place. The good thing was that the specialty businesses they had started had revitalized the Midway and several declining retail areas. The bad was that it had increased the amount of welfare the city had to pass out and also having to deal with the difficulty of a language barrier. Still, the Hmong had brought talented professionals, intelligent students, and the city more tax revenue after a short time. To reflect the diversification of its neighbors, Saint Paul soon adopted a more cultural approach for the 90's, building a new History Museum, Science Museum, and a Children's Museum. It's century-old Assumption Church undergone repairs and downtown began to recover slowly through the late 90's. Now, Saint Paul is currently considered to be coming of age, experiencing a refreshing renaissance that has changed people's opinions. For the first time in almost two decades, new housing will reach downtown as the city hopes to attract middle class residents. For the first time, Saint Paul actually houses a major league sports team, the Minnesota Wild (hockey). The 2000 census posted a growth of 15,000 people for the city, the highest in 50 years. Crime is going down and property values are climbing up. Saint Paul is heading into the next century as a capital city with challenges to face but a stronger sense of hope than it has had in a long time...

Minneapolis

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The City of Lakes started out slower than Saint Paul did, but in the end, has become Minnesota's largest city and the head of a 2.7 million metro area that expands everyday. Minneapolis' history began in 1848, with the citizens that were expelled from Fort Snelling's property. Some of these people moved eastward and Saint Paul began, but others went to the northwest and began the tiny town of Saint Anthony, after the falls near by of the same title. Its first major institution was the tiny building that started what would become the University of Minnesota, chartered in 1851. On March 3, 1855, Saint Anthony had became a city officially, of which during this time, across the Mississippi, another small town was beginning to take shape. This land on the west banks of the Mississippi belonged to the government, who sold it and the fort (didn't need it) to a man named Franklin Steele. He paid $100,000 up front and agreed to pay the rest in installments. Unfortunately, he hit dire straits in the Panic of 1857, but the government let him keep it, and to pay it when he could. The Civil War three years later made the fort a necessity once again. Afterwards, the government had to pay rent to him, which equaled $600,000 after the deduction of his payments. He made over half a million and got the land (the government kept the fort though)! The visionary Stelle began to lease land out to settlers and the city (that was envisioned as a metropolis) began to grow. Soon, the area had formed a strong milling background and this small town, called Minneapolis, had followed Saint Anthony's lead in the industry. 363 days after Saint Anthony's incorporation, on March 1, 1866, Minneapolis had become a formal town of the young state. The two towns did donate a few troops to the Civil War, but it couldn't compete with larger city Saint Paul, seeing as the area had only about 2,400 people.

In 1867, Minneapolis was incorporated as a city. The new status was held high, as the current metro area was slowly, but steadily growing. Milling operations had also expanding greatly, with the addition of several new factories, as companies had moved in. Six years later have come a monumental occasion that had meant celebration to the two tiny cities and their much larger sister, Saint Paul, down the river. The cities' leaders had decided that the two would fare better if they had merged into one city, one that was exactly what had been done. Of the two names, Minneapolis was the more preferred one and had been adopted as the title of the collective community. This helped to being the population up and with the arrival of new immigrants, especially those of the Swedish ancestry, the population had begun to overtake Saint Paul's in about 1890. To further show off in a sense, they had lied about their population by about 18,000 and in the Census War, these department workers were found guilty and charged. Saint Paul had also lied too, but Minneapolis took the blunt of the repercussions. The 1880s through 1900 had sparked a lot of growth and new additions. Land area increased, the library system was founded, sewers and paved streets became more commonplace and Minneapolis was also given the status of number one producer of flour in the world. Over 30 mills, the largest being Pillsbury, were all huddled along the banks of the Mississippi, churning out massive amounts and which would be shipped mostly by railroads. Railroads accounted for the addition of 120,000 people into the city and giving it an easy and reliable way of shipping the flour to other parts of the country. In fact, to make sure that railroad companies couldn't overcharge the farmers and the flourmills, they had built their own railroad, connecting the Dakotas to the Twin Cities!

1900 had rolled around and the city of roughly 200,000 had a target in its sights, capitalhood. Saint Paul's second capitol proved too crowded and a third one was proposed, but this time, before the deal could be finalized, Minneapolis bid for the prestigious title. The newspapers proved to be the battlefield as the two slandered each other's city. Saint Paul had displayed Minneapolis as a crazed madman, grabbing up everything the state had for its own greedy purposes. Minneapolis had made Saint Paul to be an abusive entity, keeping the capitol from arriving in what would be a much more graceful and recognized city. Some legislators, seeing that the city would probably not survive too long, quickly began finalizing a deal with Cass Gilbert and the government and the cornerstones had been laid. Minneapolis, with time, could have very well be the capital today.

From 1880 to the Great Depression, Minneapolis had experienced tremendous growth in its industrial corner. Besides the milling industry, the city had become the state's undenied center of commerce. Retail business began to grow and many people threw their hats in the ring, some succeeding and others find ruin. George Dayton began what was to be an empire of sorts in a small downtown dry goods store. He had made great profit in this and by the end of the century, his children lead the massive Dayton-Hudson Companies, which owns several large retail chains like Dayton's, Target and Mervyn's California. It is centered in the city of its birthplace, Minneapolis, in which its flagship stores and corporate offices are centered. These stories of the businesses had ceased with the First World War, which had sent the city into a frenzy it had never experienced. Rationing was established, as many businesses had to decrease its operations or replace their workforce with women (rarely) to compensate for the men who were sent off. Over 10,000 soldiers had left and the city took to producing equipment and food for the soldiers abroad.

In November 1918, church bells rang and businesses closed as Saint Paul held a massive celebration to welcome back the 151st Field Artillery, Minnesota's most recognizable military regiment. Women had soon been given the power to vote and the establishment of prohibition had hit the city in 1920. Drinking offenses almost tripled as people would drink privately and some alcohol dealers had bribed cops for protection. This was not a widespread case and didn't symbolize the city by and stretch of the imagination. In the "Roaring Twenties", Minneapolis had found its place in the age of the automobile and that of entertainment. 48 movie theaters showed Charlie Chaplin movies among many others, as downtown had become a family establishment. One noticeable status that the city had held on to for a third of a century had been dropped at this time too. Buffalo, New York had overtaken the city in milling operations. It was completely expected since Minneapolis had started the milling industry there and at a time controlled 85% of the operations there. The 1920's left a very important sign of the city's growing power, the Foshay tower. Tallest building in the Midwest, the 32 story tower broke the skyline and controlled it until the arrival of the IDS tower in 1973. Wilbur Foshay had realized his dream; securing a company and building a headquarters to be shaped like his favorite monument, the Washington Memorial. Unfortunately, he lost his company in the Great Depression and him and top advisors had found themselves in jail for fraud. The tower sill stands; 10 foot letters remind everyone of the Minneapolis resident who made it big.

The Great Depression struck, but the city had not suffered as bad as other areas of the country. Still, unemployment rose as companies died and neighbors had banded together to form a more cooperative society. The city had survived; cleaning up the mess of joblessness and decay as the Second World War had sent the city into patriotic fever. Civil defense networks had been built as the men had left and women found themselves in demand to fill the void. Even the University of Minnesota had helped, supplying a piece of the puzzle that became the nuclear bomb with Dr. Alfred O.C. Nier's discovery of the uranium isotope. When the war had ended and the city stood proud, it realized it was about to take on an internal threat that was like no other.

Minneapolis had emerged a city peaked at 521,718 people in 1950 and plus with the only station west of Chicago, the 1948 KSTP television station. At this peak, the city leaders were speechless to the sudden slump in growth, shrinking slowly at first and then accelerating. The suburbs were the "American Dream" and the city's nightmare. Even with the arrival of an airport and the continued growth of Fortune 500 Companies of Pillsbury, Honeywell and Cargill International, the city still found its tax base shrinking and soon had to take control. Urban renewal ruled the city's following years. Cultural attractions had expanded with the nationally acclaimed Guthrie arriving in 1960 and the Walker Art Center established a decade later. Minneapolis had also began its most famous modern-day achievement, a skyway system. Les Park was part of a downtown revitalization committee that had came up with the idea. When set into motion, plus the beginnings of Nicollet Mall, the downtown started to experience a growth in business. In 1973, "The Icicle" had arrived. IDS, at a whopping 775 feet, dominated a city, shadowing Foshay and becoming the city's symbol of business.

With the loss of population spawned a new downtown that had made the skyline part of the national collection. Pillsbury had decided to show their commitment to their 130+ year home and had built a 40 million-dollar headquarters. First Bank had built a tower that would last them until 1992 brought a sparkling new 775-foot headquarters. Thanksgiving in 1982 had been the time of a destructive fire that left a gap in downtown where Norwest used to stand. At the end of the 80's the internationally recognized Norwest Center had pierced the skyline and had given a new glow to the area. The skyline has continued to grow into the 90's. Also in major news is the twice World Series champions, the Twins in 1987 and 1991. Plus, the city had elected African-American woman, Sharon Sayles-Belton, to the Mayor's seat, one the first black woman mayors in the country. By the 1990's, Minneapolis gasped at their population, which had diminished by about 160,000 people to an average 360,000. The population had since slowed down to a slow trickle of loss, but it is hopeful any negative numbers will soon end. The city commands a 2.7 million metro area, expected to hit 3.3 million by 2020. The new century is bringing downtown the new towers of American Express and Target Plaza, among the most noticeable. The small establishment along the Mississippi had grown up into a Midwestern leader, and among the giants of industry of culture and business. As the city faces the new millenium, it faces the future with pride, strength and ties that will keep it a vibrant center for years to come.