Geography and Industry

Obviously, Minnesota, like its neighbor Wisconsin, has a lot of lakes. Most of these lakes were formed by a retreating ice sheet during the last ice age. Minnesota is also the state where the Mississippi River, the largest and most important river in America, gets its start. From its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, the mighty Mississippi runs over 2,300 miles to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, in Louisiana!

Rivers are as large a part of Minnesota's geography as are the state's many lakes. There are three major river systems in Minnesota. There is the Mississippi, which flows south; there is the Red River system, which flows north into Canada; and the eastern part of the state is drained by streams that flow eastward into Lake Superior.

Geographically speaking, Minnesota is a very diverse state. It has huge forests in the northern part of the state, several iron-rich mountain ranges in the eastern part of the state (the Mesabi, Cuyuna, and Vermillion ranges), and prairies in the central and southern parts of the state that make for very rich farmland.

Places like Voyageurs National Park and the Grand Portage and Pipestone National Monuments draw thousands of visitors per year. Minnesota is also a fishing paradise, with all of its lakes and streams and its access to Lake Superior.

History

Minnesota was dominated by the Ojibwa in the east and the Sioux on the western prairies when the French arrived to trade for furs in the mid-seventeenth century. The northeastern part of the state was ceded first to the British and then to the United States in the 1760s and the 1780s, respectively. The majority of the state was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The northern part came to the United States in an 1818 treaty establishing part of the border between the United States and Canada.

Minnesota became a territory in 1849. The Panic (economic depression) of 1857 hit the territory very hard, because so many people had invested in various land schemes that wound up losing them money. Statehood came in 1858, and the Civil War in 1861.

While most of the army was away fighting in the southern states, the Minnesota Sioux went to war in 1862 against the U.S. government. It was a bloody uprising. Nearly 300 people on both sides were killed before the Sioux were suppressed.

Another momentous event that occurred in 1862 had a large impact on Minnesota. That year, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which gave “160 acres and a mule” to every settler who could stake out and farm a given tract of land for five years. Settlers flocked to Minnesota as a result.

During the post–Civil War period, large iron deposits were found in Minnesota's eastern mountains. For decades afterward, miners worked these deposits, until they were all but depleted. To this day, the largest open pit iron mine in the world is in Minnesota.

Several of America's most established food brands began in Minnesota. These include Pillsbury and Hormel.