Saint Paul
Saint Paul is the capital and the second most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 287,151, although that number had decreased to 275,150 in the 2005 Census estimates.
About 2000 years ago, the Hopewell culture Native Americans lived in the vicinity, burying their dead in mounds, now located in Indian Mounds Park. The Dakota Indians later used the same site to bury their dead.[1][2] From about 1600 to 1837 the Dakota Indians lived near the site of the Mounds.[1] In the early 1800s, a disparate group of fur traders, explorers, and missionaries came to the area for the protection that Fort Snelling offered. Many of these people had come south from Canada and were of French descent; others had come from the east after treaties with Native Americans officially opened the area.
In the early years, the settlers lived close to the fort along the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, but as a whiskey trade started to flourish, the military officers in Fort Snelling banned them from the lands the fort controlled, with one retired fur trader turned bootlegger, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant particularly irritating the officials. By the early 1820s the area had become important as a trading center, a destination for settlers heading west, and was known as Pig's Eye Landing. In 1837, a treaty between Henry Schoolcraft and about 200 Dakota Indians displaced the natives from the site.[1] In 1841 Father Galtier established the Saint Paul Catholic Church and the name of the settlement was formally changed to Saint Paul in honor of the newly constructed church and Father Galtier's favorite saint.
The next 10 years saw continued growth in the area and in response to that, the Minnesota Territory was formalized in 1849 with Saint Paul named as its capital. In 1850, the city narrowly survived a proposed law to move the capital to Saint Peter when territorial legislator, Joe Rolette disappeared with the approved bill.[3] In 1854, Saint Paul incorporated as a city and, in 1858, Minnesota was admitted to the union with Saint Paul becoming the 32nd state capital.
Natural geography played a role in the settlement and development of Saint Paul as a trade and transportation center. The Mississippi River valley in this area is defined by a series of stone bluffs that line both sides of the river. Saint Paul grew up around Lambert's Landing, the last place to unload boats coming upriver at an easily accessible point, some fourteen river miles downstream from Saint Anthony Falls, the geographic feature that defined the location of Minneapolis and its prominence as the Mill City. This made Saint Paul a gateway to the Upper Midwest for westbound settlers heading for the Minnesota frontier or the Dakota Territory. A cart and wagon road to the Red River valley was the first manifestation, followed by the establishment of numerous railroads that were headquartered in Saint Paul, such as the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway, which are today part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. For well over a hundred years, Saint Paul was a frontier town and a railroad town. Today it is more influenced by commerce and its function as the state capital. It has been called "The Last City of the East."
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