History of Minnesota

Map of Minnesota Territory
(1849–1858)

All of the land east of the Mississippi River was granted to the United States by the Second Treaty of Paris at the end of the American Revolution in 1783. This included what would become modern-day Saint Paul but only part of Minneapolis, including the northeast, north-central and east-central portions of the state. The western portion of the state was part of the Spanish Louisiana since the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in 1762. 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. Most of the state was purchased in 1803 from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Parts of northern Minnesota were considered to be in Rupert's Land. The exact definition of the boundary between Minnesota and British North America was not addressed until the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which set the U.S.–Canada border at the 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 the Lake of the Woods continued until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.[37]

Throughout 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.[38]

Fort Snelling

Fort Snelling was the first U.S. military post in the state. The land for the fort encompassed the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers and was acquired in 1805 by Lt. Zebulon Pike. That area was identified as a military reservation and exists today a Federal Unorganized Territory. When concerns mounted about the fur trade in the area, construction of the fort began in 1819.[39] Construction was completed in 1825, and Colonel Josiah Snelling and his officers and soldiers left their imprint on the area. One of the missions of the fort was to mediate disputes between the Ojibwe and the Dakota tribes. Lawrence Taliaferro was an agent of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. He spent 20 years at the site, finally resigning in 1839.[40][41]

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. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court sided against the Scotts. Dred Scott Field, located just a short distance away in Bloomington, is named in the memory of Fort Snelling's significance in one of the most important legal precedents in U.S. History.[42][43]

Dred Scott

In the 1850s, Fort Snelling played a key role in the infamous Dred Scott court case.

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. After World War II, the fort was threatened with demolition due to the building of freeways Highway 5 and Highway 55, but citizens rallied to save it. Fort Snelling is now a historic site operated by the Minnesota Historical Society.[41]

Fort Snelling was largely responsible for the establishment of the city of Minneapolis. The fort garrison built roads, planted crops, and built a grist mill and a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls.[41] Later, Franklin Steele came to Fort Snelling as the post sutler. He established interests in lumbering as well as 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 160 acres (0.65 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.[44] Later, in 1872, Minneapolis absorbed the city of Saint Anthony.[45]

The city of Saint Paul, Minnesota is also a Fort Snelling development. Squatters, 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.[46] This location was not quite far enough for Plympton, so the squatters were forced out again. Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, established a moonshine trade there with both the soldiers and Sioux. He is identified as the first European resident in the area that later became Saint Paul. The squatters with him named their settlement "Pig's Eye" after Parrant. A missionary changed the name to Saint Paul. The earliest recorded name for the area comes from Mdewakaton Sioux: Im-in-i-ja Ska, meaning "White Rock" which describes the sandstone bluffs and burial grounds just to the south.[47]

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are collectively known as the Twin Cities". The cities developed a rivalry during their early years that still exists. Saint Paul became the state capital and Minneapolis became industry powerhouse. The term "Twin Cities" was coined around 1872, after a newspaper editorial suggested that Minneapolis could absorb Saint Paul. Residents decided that the cities needed a separate identity, so people coined the phrase "Dual Cities", which later evolved into "Twin Cities".[48] Today, Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota, with a population of 382,618 in the 2000 census.[49] Saint Paul is smaller with a population of 287,151. Minneapolis-Saint Paul are the core of the MPLS metropolitan area with a population of 2,968,806 as of 2000,[50] with a total state population of 4,919,479.[49]

Home of Henry Hastings Sibley

Logging pine c. 1860s–1870s

Henry Hastings Sibley built the first stone house in the Minnesota Territory in 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.[51] Another area of early economic development in Minnesota was the logging industry. Loggers found the white pine especially valuable, and it was plentiful in the northeastern section of the state and in the 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, Marine on St. Croix and Stillwater became important lumber centers fed by the St. Croix River, while Winona was supplied lumber by areas in southern Minnesota and along the Minnesota River. The unregulated logging practices of the time and a severe drought took their toll in 1894, when the Great Hinckley Fire ravaged 480 square miles (1,200 km²) in the Hinckley and Sandstone areas of Pine County, killing over 400 residents.[52] The combination of logging and drought struck again in the Baudette Fire of 1910 and the 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.[53] In 1848, businessman Franklin Steele built the first private sawmill on the Saint Anthony Falls, and more sawmills quickly followed.[54] The oldest home still standing in Saint Anthony is the Ard Godfrey house, built in 1848, and lived in by Ard and Harriet Godfrey.[55] The 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.[56]

Stephen A. Douglas (D), the chair of the Senate Committee on Territories, 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.[57] 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.[58]

With Alexander Ramsey (W) as the first governor of Minnesota Territory and Henry Hastings Sibley (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 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. [59] 1853 saw the Chicago and Aurora Railroad extended a line from LaSalle, Illinois to Mendota/Fort Snelling. Another military road would run from Fort Ridgely to South Pass, Nebraska Territory.

In December 1856, Henry M 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.[60]

At the time, tensions between the northern and the southern United States were growing, in 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 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.[61]

After the enabling act was passed, territorial legislators had a difficult time writing a state constitution. A 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.[62]

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.[63] The eastern half of the Minnesota Territory, under the boundaries defined by Henry Mower Rice, became the country's 32nd state on May 11, 1858.[64] The western part remained unorganized until its incorporation into the Dakota Territory on March 2, 1861.

After the Civil War, Minnesota became an attractive region for European immigration and settlement as farmland. Minnesota's population in 1870 was 439,000; this number tripled during the two subsequent decades.[74] The Homestead Act in 1862 facilitated land claims by settlers, who regarded the land as being cheap and fertile. The railroad industry, led by the Northern Pacific Railway and Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, advertised the many opportunities in the state and worked to get immigrants to settle in Minnesota.[75] James J. Hill, in particular, was instrumental in reorganizing the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad and extending lines from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area into the Red River Valley and to Winnipeg. Hill was also responsible for building a new passenger depot in Minneapolis, served by the landmark Stone Arch Bridge which was completed in 1883.[76] During the 1880s, Hill continued building tracks through North Dakota and Montana. In 1890, the railroad, now known as the Great Northern Railway, started building tracks through the mountains west to Seattle.[77] Other railroads, such as the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad and the Milwaukee Road, also played an important role in the early days of Minnesota's statehood. Later railways, such as the Soo Line and Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway facilitated the sale of Minneapolis flour and other products, although they were not as involved in attracting settlers.[76]

The Washburn "A" Mill Complex, which now contains a milling museum on the Mississippi River

Oliver Hudson Kelley played an important role in farming as one of the founders of the National Grange, along with several other clerks in the United States Department of Agriculture. The movement grew out of his interest in cooperative farm associations following the end of the Civil War, and he established local Grange chapters in Elk River and Saint Paul. The organization worked to provide education on new farming methods, as well as to influence government and public opinion on matters important to farmers. One of these areas of concern was the freight rates charged by the railroads and by the grain elevators. Since there was little or no competition between railroads serving Minnesota farm communities, railroads could charge as much as the traffic would bear. By 1871, the situation was so heated that both the Republican and Democratic candidates in state elections promised to regulate railroad rates. The state established an office of railroad commissioner and imposed maximum charges for shipping. Populist Ignatius L. Donnelly also served the Grange as an organizer.[78]

Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall of its height on the Mississippi, played an important part in the development of Minneapolis. The power of the waterfall first fueled sawmills, but later it was tapped to serve flour mills. In 1870, only a small number of flour mills were in the Minneapolis area, but by 1900 Minnesota mills were grinding 14.1% of the nation's grain. Advances in transportation, milling technology, and water power combined to give Minneapolis a dominance in the milling industry. Spring wheat could be sown in the spring and harvested in late summer, but it posed special problems for milling. To get around these problems, Minneapolis millers made use of new technology. They invented the middlings purifier, a device that used jets of air to remove the husks from the flour early in the milling process. They also started using roller mills, as opposed to grindstones. A series of rollers gradually broke down the kernels and integrated the gluten with the starch. These improvements led to the production of "patent" flour, which commanded almost double the price of "bakers" or "clear" flour, which it replaced.[79] Pillsbury and the Washburn-Crosby Company (a forerunner of General Mills) became the leaders in the Minneapolis milling industry. This leadership in milling later declined as milling was no longer dependent on water power, but the dominance of the mills contributed greatly to the economy of Minneapolis and Minnesota, attracting people and money to the region.[80]

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway ore docks loading ships, circa 1900–1915.

At the end of the 19th century, several forms of industrial development shaped Minnesota. In 1882, a hydroelectric power plant was built at Saint Anthony Falls, marking one of the first developments of hydroelectric power in the United States.[81] Iron mining began in northern Minnesota with the opening of the Soudan Mine in 1884. The Vermilion Range was surveyed and mapped by a party financed by Charlemagne Tower. Another mining town, Ely began with the foundation of the Chandler Mine in 1888. Soon after, the Mesabi Range was established when ore was found just under the surface of the ground in Mountain Iron. The Mesabi Range ultimately had much more ore than the Vermilion Range, and it was easy to extract because the ore was closer to the surface. As a result, open-pit mines became well-established on the Mesabi Range, with 111 mines operating by 1904. To ship the iron ore to refineries, railroads such as the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway were built from the iron ranges to Two Harbors and Duluth on Lake Superior. Large ore docks were used at these cities to load the iron ore onto ships for transport east on the Great Lakes. The mining industry helped to propel Duluth from a small town to a large, thriving city.[82] In 1904, iron was discovered in the Cuyuna Range in Crow Wing County. Between 1904 and 1984, when mining ceased, more than 106 million tons of ore were mined. Iron from the Cuyuna Range also contained significant proportions of manganese, increasing its value.[83]

Statue of Dr. William Worrall Mayo near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Dr. William Worrall Mayo, the founder of the Mayo Clinic, emigrated from Salford, United Kingdom to the United States in 1846 and became a medical doctor in 1850. In 1863, Mayo moved to Rochester, followed by his family the next year.[84] In the summer of 1883, an F5 tornado struck, dubbed the 1883 Rochester tornado, causing a substantial number of deaths and injuries. Dr. W. W. Mayo worked with nuns from the Sisters of St. Francis to treat the survivors. After the disaster, Mother Alfred Moes and Dr. Mayo recognized the need for a hospital and joined together to build the 27-bed Saint Marys Hospital which opened in 1889. The hospital, with over 1100 beds, is now part of the Mayo Clinic, which grew out of the practice of William Worrall Mayo and his sons, William James Mayo (1861–1939) and Charles Horace Mayo.[85] Dr. Henry Stanley Plummer joined the Mayo Brothers' practice in 1901. Plummer developed many of the systems of group practice which are universal around the world today in medicine and other fields, such as a single medical record and an interconnecting telephone system.[86]

As a result of industrialization, the population became more concentrated into urban areas. By 1900, the Twin Cities were becoming a center of commerce, led by the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the foundation of the Federal Reserve Bank with its ninth district in Minneapolis. Many of the businessmen who had made money in the railroad, flour milling, and logging industries lived in the Twin Cities and personified the gilded age. They started to donate money for cultural institutions such as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra). The parks of Minneapolis, under the direction of Theodore Wirth became famous, and the new Minnesota State Capitol building and the Cathedral of Saint Paul attracted attention to Saint Paul.[87]

The role of government also grew during the early 20th century. In the rural areas, most people obtained food and manufactured goods from neighbors and other people they knew personally. As industry and commerce grew, goods such as food, materials, and medicines were no longer made by neighbors, but by large companies. In response, citizens called on their government for consumer protection, inspection of goods, and regulation of public utilities.[88] The growth of the automobile spurred calls to develop roads and to enforce traffic laws. The state officially started its trunk highway system in 1920, with the passage of the Babcock Amendment that established 70 Constitutional Routes around the state.[89] New regulation was necessary for banking and insurance. The safety of industrial workers and miners became an increasing concern, and brought about the workers' compensation system. Since government was getting more complex, citizens demanded more of a role in their government, and became more politically active.[90]

Wilbur Foshay, an owner of several utility companies, built the Foshay Tower in 1929, just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The building was the tallest building in Minnesota at the time. It remained the tallest building in Minneapolis until 1973, when the IDS Tower surpassed it. The tower was a symbol of the wealth of the times, but when the stock market crashed, Foshay lost his fortune in the crash.[91]

The Great Depression had several effects on Minnesota, with layoffs on the Iron Range and a drought in the Great Plains from 1931 through 1936.[92] While the Depression had several causes, one most relevant to Minnesota was that United States businesses in the 1920s had improved their efficiency through standardizing production methods and eliminating waste. Business owners were reaping the benefits of this increase in productivity, but they were not sharing it with their employees because of the weakness of organized labor, nor were they sharing it with the public in the form of lowered prices. Instead, the windfall went to stockholders. The eventual result was that consumers could no longer afford the goods that factories were producing.[93]

Floyd B. Olson of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party was elected as the governor in the 1930 election. In his first term, he signed a bonding bill that authorized $15 million ($230 million as of 2021) for highway construction, in an effort to provide work for the unemployed. He also signed an executive order that provided for a minimum wage of 45 cents per hour for up to 48 hours weekly. This effort predated the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that established a nationwide minimum wage. By 1932, with the Depression worsening, the Farmer-Labor Party platform was proposing a state income tax, a graduated tax on nationwide chain stores (such as J.C. Penney and Sears, Roebuck and Company), low-interest farm loans, and a state unemployment insurance program. The progressive 1933 legislative session saw a comprehensive response to the depression including a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, a reduction in property taxes for farmers and homeowners, the state income tax, and chain store taxes, tavern reform, ratification of a child labor amendment, a state old-age pension system, and steps toward preserving the area that later became the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.[94]

Meanwhile, formerly quiet labor unions began asserting themselves rather forcefully. The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 turned ugly, with the union demanding the right to speak for all trucking employees. As a result of this strike and many others across the nation, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Government programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration brought much-needed work projects to the state. Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, giving Minnesota's Ojibwa and Dakota tribes more autonomy over their own affairs.[95]

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was established in 1883. The present building, a neoclassical structure, was opened in 1915, with additions in 1974 by Kenzo Tange and in 2006 by Michael Graves.[96]

The Minnesota Orchestra dates back to 1903 when it was founded as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. It was renamed the Minnesota Orchestra in 1968 and moved into its own building, Orchestra Hall, in downtown Minneapolis in 1974.[97] The building has a modern look with a brick, glass, and steel exterior, in contrast to the old-world look of traditional concert halls. The interior of the building features more than 100 large cubes that deflect sound and provide excellent acoustics.[98] Later the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra became the second full-time professional orchestral ensemble in the cities.

The Walker Art Center was established in 1927 as the first public art gallery in the Upper Midwest. In the 1940s, the museum shifted its focus toward modern art, after a gift from Mrs. Gilbert Walker made it possible to acquire works by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and others. The museum continued its focus on modern art with traveling shows in the 1960s.[99]

The Guthrie Theater, opened in 1963, was the brainchild of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, who wanted to found a regional theater without the commercial constraints of Broadway. The high cost of staging Broadway productions meant that shows had to be immediately successful and return a high amount of revenue. This discouraged innovation and experimentation, and made it difficult to stage important works of literature. These ideas were first disseminated in a 1959 article in the drama section of the New York Times, and citizens in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area were eager to support the idea. The theater served as a prototype for other resident non-profit theaters.[100]

Most of the 400 structures at Fort Snelling began falling into disrepair after the fort closed in 1946.

Like other U.S. States, Minnesota contributed to the war effort of WWII in defence manufacturing and numerous other areas. The United States Navy gave Cargill contracts to build ships after seeing their ability to build ships and barges for transporting grain. Cargill located its facilities in Savage, Minnesota on the south bank of the Minnesota River. There it launched 18 refueling ships and four towboats for the war. Post war, Cargill transitioned those facilities into a major grain shipping terminal.[101] Honeywell developed and fabricated aviation control systems as well as nautical periscopes. They also developed a proximity fuse for anti-aircraft shells. The War Department created the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant to produce munitions in Arden Hills. The plant employed 8,500 workers in 1941. With the shortage of men caused by the war effort, more than half of the workers were female. The plant also employed nearly 1000 African Americans as well as Native Americans, as President Roosevelt had issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in defense industries.[102] Another munitions plant, Gopher Ordinance Works was located in Rosemount south of the cities.

Savage was also the site of a former CCC camp called Camp Savage. It was selected to become the Army's Japanese Language School for the Pacific theater. The Army recruited Japanese-Americans for their native language skills but wanted to insure that they were proficient for the gathering of military intelligence. The school was first established in San Francisco, but moved to Minnesota after the bombing of Pearl Harbor made Japanese Americans unwelcome on the coast. Eventually, the school outgrew Savage and moved to Fort Snelling.[101] Fort Snelling itself was a major recruit reception center after the Selective Service Act passed in 1940. New recruits were given a physical exam and the Army General Classification Test to determine their fitness and abilities for service. Those scoring highest, about 37%, were assigned to the Army Air Corps. Afterwards they were issued uniforms and sent to the training centers that the tests indicated would best develop the recruit's skillset. Over 300,000 were processed through the Upper post during the World War II years.[103]

In February of 1941 Brainerd's tank company was made A Co. of the 194th Tank Battalion. It was at the Battle of Bataan. The men would make the Bataan Death March, 29 died as prisoners of war.

Unlike other states, on December 7, 1941, naval reservists of the Minnesota Naval Militia were manning the USS Ward at the entrance of Pearl Harbor. Seaman 1st class Alan Sanford, of St. Paul, fired at a Japanese minisub attempting to enter the harbor that morning. He is credited with firing the United States' first shot of World War II.[104] The gun he fired is on Minnesota's capitol grounds and he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[104]

In 1942 the Army brought the Military Railroad Service(MRS) Hq to Fort Snelling. The MRS had a close association with commercial railroading. That year the Army created two Railroad Divisions with the Great Northern Railroad sponsoring one.[105] The 1st MRS Division was activated at Fort Snelling from where it deployed to the mediterranean(Italy, Southern France, and North Africa). It was commanded by Brig. Gen. Carl R. Gray Jr. of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad.[105] Gen. Gray was responsible for creating a Commendation for Meritorious Service(MRS Certificate of Merit) specific to railroading troops.[106]

Minnesota Railroads sponsored multiple Railroad Operating Battalions(ROB)s with the Great Northern sponsoring the 732nd ROB.[105][107] Even though sponsored by the Great Northern, the 732nd trained at Fort Sam Houston. It landed in France and was one of two spearhead ROBs. The 732nd operated in support of Gen. Patton's 3rd Armored Division and went into Germany with them.[107] During the Battle of the Bulge Patton's armor would come to the 732nds trains to refuel.[107] The Army positioned field Artillery directly adjacent the rail lines so the that the 732nd delivered ammo directly to the guns.[107] The 757th Railroad Shop Battalion, sponsored by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, set up operations at Cherbourg.

Another war effort on the Fort Snelling Military Reservation was the production of over 1,500 CG-4A military gliders. Northwest Aeronautical Corporation had one of its operations at Wold Chamberlain Airfield.

Some Minnesota contributions were huge. Between 70–75% of the iron needed to fight the war came from Minnesota's iron ore.[108] Hormel produced 1.5 million pounds of Spam for the War Department.[109] While Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota is credited with creating K-rations for them. In all, 326,000 Minnesotans saw military service of which 7,800 died.

During the war Minnesota had multiple Prisoner of War camps, all being satellites of the 10,000 man POW Camp at Algona, Iowa.[110] The camps in Minnesota were all work camps for enlisted personnel. Those in the north worked for the lumber industry while in the south they were employed mainly agriculture. The sub-camps at New Ulm, Faribault and Owatonna provided workers to numerous worksites.

Korea, Vietnam

Korea saw 95,000 servicemen from Minnesota, of which 725 died. Vietnam had 68,000 Minnesotans do service there, of which 1,120 died. Iraq-Afghanistan has cost Minnesota 40 service members.

Agriculture evolved from an individual occupation into a major industry after World War II. Technological developments increased farm productivity with automation of feedlots for hogs and cattle, machine milking for dairy production, and large poultry building operations. Crops became more specialized with hybridization of corn and wheat, fertilization, and mechanical equipment such as tractors and combines became the norm. University of Minnesota professor Norman Borlaug contributed to this knowledge as part of the Green Revolution.[111] Large canneries such as the Minnesota Valley Canning Company fed the country from Minnesota's productive farmland.

The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) was founded in 1902 in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and was later moved to Duluth, Saint Paul, and then Maplewood. The founders of 3M got their start by manufacturing sandpaper. Under the leadership of William L. McKnight, the company established product lines such as abrasives for wet sanding, masking tape and other adhesives, roofing granules, resins, and films.[112]

Suburban development intensified after the war, fueled by the demand for new housing. In 1957, the Legislature created a planning commission for the Twin Cities metropolitan area. This became the Metropolitan Council in 1967.[113]

Northwest Airlines, the dominant airline at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, was founded in 1926 carrying mail from the Twin Cities to Chicago. The airline, long headquartered in Eagan,[114] merged with Delta Air Lines in October 2008. The Northwest headquarters was closed as Delta is headquartered in Atlanta.[115]

The UNIVAC 1218, a computer built for military applications, was designed in the early 1960s.

More than any other Midwestern state, Minnesota attracted engineers, especially in the computer industry, and became a center of technology after the war. Engineering Research Associates was formed in 1946 to develop computers for the intelligence community. It soon merged with Remington Rand, and later became Sperry Rand. William Norris left Sperry in 1957 to form Control Data Corporation (CDC).[116] Cray Research was formed when Seymour Cray left CDC to form his own company. Medical device maker Medtronic also was founded in the Twin Cities in 1949. Honeywell was a national player as well, until 1999 when it was bought out and its headquarters moved to New Jersey. National firms, such as International Business Machines, operated large branch offices. IBM also operated a substantial manufacturing and development site in Rochester starting in 1956.[117] State government and powerful politicians such as Hubert Humphrey maintained a favorable climate. The University of Minnesota trained many computer specialists who decided to stay in the Minnesota rather than move to sunny California. By the 1960s Minnesota thus became a successful precursor to Route 128 around Boston and Silicon Valley.[118]

Historian Annette Atkins has explored the changing long-term pattern of Minnesota politics. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the heavily rural state was hostile to business and railroads, with the Republicans dominant in the small towns, and the Democrats on the farms. Numerous left-wing groups and third-parties emerged, such as the Anti-Monopolist party in the 1870s, the Populists in the 1890s, the Non-Partisan League in the 1910s, and the Farmer-Labor party in the 1930s. Isolationism was strong, Atkins argues, because of the fear that Eastern bankers and industrialists forced the United States into World War I to enlarge their profits. Business fought unions, and the unions fought back, and with the governor on their side unions won some violent battles in the 1930s. In recent decades, however, the liberal coalition has weakened. Labor unions are a shadow of their old strength. Most farmers have left for the towns and especially the Twin Cities, where more than half of the people live. The New Right has mobilized social conservatives, especially those from traditional religious backgrounds, with abortion a furiously contested issue. State government has become much more friendly toward growth and the needs of business entrepreneurship. Environmentalism has split left and right, with industrial workers in and Iron Range districts demanding that their jobs be protected from environmentalists. Atkins found that:

What makes the North country valuable to conservationists is the seclusion, beauty, isolation, quiet, clear water, and absence of development. The preservationists have tried to limit or prohibit roads, hydroelectric generators, sawmills and lumbering, resorts, power boats, airplanes, and snowmobiles…. The tensions between development and preservation, restraint and growth, beauty and jobs runs deep and strong.[119]

Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Humphrey was a Minnesotan who became a nationally prominent politician. He first ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 1943, but lost the election to the Republican candidate by just a few thousand votes. As a Democrat, Humphrey recognized that his best chance for political success was to obtain the support of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Other members of the Farmer-Labor Party had been considering the idea, as encouraged by Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the merger only became reality after Humphrey traveled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue. Rather than simply absorbing the Farmer-Labor party, with its constituency of 200,000 voters, Humphrey suggested calling the party the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 1945, and one of his first actions was to propose an ordinance making racial discrimination by employers subject to a fine. This ordinance was adopted in 1947, and although few fines were issued, the city's banks and department stores realized that public relations would improve by hiring blacks in increasing numbers.[120] Humphrey delivered an impassioned speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention encouraging the party to adopt a civil rights plank in their platform. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1948 and was re-elected in 1954 and 1960.[121]

In the early 1960s, the topic of civil rights was coming to national prominence with sit-ins and marches organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent a comprehensive civil rights bill to Congress, based largely on the ideas that Humphrey had been placing before the Senate for the previous fifteen years. The bill passed the House in early 1964, but passage through the Senate was more difficult, due to southern segregationists who filibustered for 75 days. Finally, in June 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law. Humphrey called this his greatest achievement.[122] Lyndon B. Johnson recruited Humphrey for his running mate in the 1964 presidential election, and Humphrey became Vice President of the United States. Governor Karl Rolvaag (DFL) appointed Walter Mondale to fill Humphrey's Senate seat. Humphrey voiced doubts about the 1965 bombings of North Vietnam, which alienated him from Johnson. He later defended Johnson's conduct of the Vietnam War, alienating himself from liberals, who were beginning to oppose the war around 1967. In the 1968 presidential election, Humphrey ran against Richard Nixon and Independent candidate George Wallace and lost the popular vote by only 0.7%. Humphrey later returned to the Senate in 1971 after Eugene McCarthy left office.[123]

Eugene McCarthy (DFL) served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 through 1959 and in the United States Senate from 1959 through 1971. He gained a reputation as an intellectual with strong convictions and integrity. In 1967, he challenged Lyndon B. Johnson for the presidential nomination, running on an anti-war platform in contrast to Johnson's policies. His strong support in the New Hampshire primary convinced Johnson to leave the race.[124]

Democrat Walter Mondale also achieved national prominence as Vice President under Jimmy Carter. He served in the Senate from his appointment in 1964 until becoming Vice President in 1977. In 1984, he ran for President of the United States, choosing Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. The election proved to be a landslide victory for popular incumbent Ronald Reagan.[125] In 2002, just 11 days before election day, when incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, Mondale stepped into the race as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. He lost the bid by two percentage points to the Republican, Norm Coleman.[126]

In 1970, Wendell Anderson (DFL) was elected as governor of Minnesota. He spent two years working with a split Minnesota Legislature to enact a tax and school finance reform package that shifted the source of public education funding from local property taxes to state sales taxes, as well as adding excise taxes to liquor and cigarettes. This achievement, dubbed the "Minnesota Miracle", was immensely popular. In the next few years, the Legislature enacted other facets of their "new liberalism", including ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, strong environmental laws, increases in workers' compensation and unemployment benefits, and elimination of income taxes for the working poor.[127] Time Magazine featured Wendell Anderson and the state in an article entitled, "Minnesota: A State That Works".[128] In 1976 when Mondale resigned his Senate seat to become Jimmy Carter's running mate, Anderson resigned the governor's seat and turned it over to Lieutenant Governor Rudy Perpich (DFL), who promptly appointed Anderson to fill Mondale's vacant Senate seat. Voters turned Perpich and Anderson out of office in 1978, in an election dubbed the "Minnesota Massacre". Perpich was again elected as governor in 1983 and served until 1991.[129]

Paul Wellstone (DFL) was elected to the United States Senate in 1990, defeating incumbent Rudy Boschwitz (R) in one of the biggest election upsets of the decade. In 1996, he defeated Boschwitz again in a rematch of the 1990 election. Wellstone was known for being a liberal activist, as evidenced by his books How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grassroots Organizer, describing his work with the group Organization for a Better Rice County, and The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda. He explored a possible presidential bid in 1998, telling people he represented the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party".[130] On October 25, 2002, he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, along with his wife, his daughter, three campaign staffers, and the two pilots.[131]

Jesse Ventura, elected governor in 1998, had a colorful past as a Navy SEAL, a professional wrestler, an actor, mayor of Brooklyn Park, and a radio and TV broadcaster. He left office after one term.[132] His election brought international attention to the Independence Party.[133]

• Gilman, Rhoda R. (1991). The Story of Minnesota's Past. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-267-7.
• Lass, William E. (1998) [1977]. Minnesota: A History (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04628-1.
• Risjord, Norman K. (2005). A Popular History of Minnesota. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87351-532-3.