The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-05-27
EARLY HISTORY
OF MINNESOTA
Story of States First Settlement
And Its Admission To
Union.
BY SOLON J. BUCK
Superintendent Minnesota Historical
Society

Superintendent Minnesota Historical
Society
The process of delimiting that Sec
tior of the earth's surface that was
to become the state of Minnesota be-
gan with the Treaty of 1888 at the
end of the American Revolution. This
treaty undertook to draw the boun.
dairy line between the United States
and Canada, but so little accurate In
formation was available about the
interior that the boundary west OF
Lake Superior was very indefinite,
and il remained so for many years.
About the only point in 1t that could
be located with any certainty was
1.-The most northwestern point" OF the
Lake of the Woods, and from that
point the line was to run due west
to the Mississippi River, an obvious
tmpossibility.
Finally In 1918, after the Louisiana
Purchase, England and the United
States agreed to run the line north
or south as the case might be from
the northwestern point of the Lake
of the Woods to the forty-ninth paral-
lei and then west to the Rocky Noun
tains. The parallel proved to be
some twenty-five miles south OF the
point, and the result was that the
United States, and ultimately Mime
sofa, possessed about four townships
of land on the northwest shore OF
the Lake of the Woods. This area
is separated from the rest OF the
United States by nearly fifteen miles
of water or of Canadian territory
and it is the northernmost part of the
United States, exclusive OF Alaska.
The line from Lake Superior to the
Lake of the Woods was lot definitely
agreed upon until the famous Web
ster-Ashburton Treaty of 1912, and
the exact locations of some parts OF
it were determined only few years
ago.
A second step in the marking out
of the area that was to become Min.
nesota was the admission Of Iowa to
the Union in 1916 with the parallel
of AZ 50' as its northern boundary.
Several attempts were made to in.
clude considerable portions of what
is now southeastern Minnesota in the
proposed state of Iowa, but, forum.
ately for Minnesota, they did not sue
coed. Similarly, when the question
OF admitting Wisconsin came up, the
boundary between it and the future
Minnesota was subject Of much dis
cussion.
Authorization Act
The act of Congress authorizing
Wisconsin to frame a constitution
fixed the line at the st. Croix River,
but the people living on that river
wanted a more eastern boundary and
the delegate in the convention per.
suaded it to propose a line fifteen
miles east Of Lake st. Croix. This
was acceptable to Congress but the
people of Wisconsin rejected the con-
stitution framed by this convention.
The second convention felt that the
whole of the st. Croix Valley should
be a part of Wisconsin and proposed
a line from near the head of Lake
Superior to the mouth of the Rum
River and then down the Mississippi.
This would have included st. Paul
and st. Anthony in Wisconsin, and
the people living N those incipient
towns didn't like it at all. They sent
a vigorous protest to Congress with
the result that the proposition was
rejected and Wisconsin was admitted
in 1S4S with the boundary at the St.
Croix. Minnesota Territory, created
in 1S49, comprised the present area
of the state and an extension west
ward to the Missouri.
The settlement of the southeastern
part of Minnesota went forward rap
idly during the territorial period,
he
and by 1856 the population was large
enough to warrant statehood. There
was much disagreement, however, as
to how the territory should be divid-
ed, where the capital should be To-
Gated, and-closely connected with
these problems-how the railroad sys-
tenn, for which a congressional land
grant was expected, should be laid
out. A large number of people, prob
ably majority of those living south
of the Minnesota and Mississippi
rivers, wanted the new state to con-
sist of the southern half of the terri
tory, with the capital located in the
Minnesota Valley and the railroads
running east and west across it as
extensions of lines from Chicago and
Milwaukee. The people of st. Paul
and vicinity naturally preferred to
keep the capital at st. Paul and to
have 1t the center of a system of radi.
ating railroads; they saw that for
these purposes, 1t would be necessary
to make the state out of the eastern
rather than the southern half of the
territory.
ST. Paul Had Advantage
In the struggle that followed the
St. Paulites had the advantage that
the delegate in Congress, Henry M.
Rice, was one of their number. In
December, 1856, Rice introduced a
bill for an act to enable the people
living east of the Red River and the
Big Sioux River to frame a constitu-
tion and apply for admission to the
Union. A companion bill, also intro
duced by Rice, provided a land grant
for railroad system which, with
the exception of one road, would radi-
ate out from st. Paul to the boun-
diaries of the proposed state. The ex.
ception, a line running east and west
through the southern section, appar-
emily served to placate the lobbyists
from southern Minnesota who were in
Washington looking after the inter-
ests of their section. With some
amendments, including a drawing in
of part of the proposed western boun-
dairy from the Big Sioux to a line
due south from Bigstone Lake, these
bills became laws on February 26 and
March 8, 1857.
In the meantime he last legisla-
ture Of Minnesota Territory had as,
sembled in January, 1857, and it soon
developed that the artist Paul ele-