Minnesota History

Some Minnesota History
for Visitors to the State

Some of my teen years, and the early years of our married life, were spent in Becker County, MN. My father pastored a church in Detroit Lakes. After we were married we lived in Detroit Lakes for a number of years, then moved to a hobby farm south of Audubon, MN.

During those years we purchased a rare, hard-bound copy of A Pioneer History of Becker County by Alvin H. Wilcox. My husband also worked as a manager at the Wilcox Lumber Company which was the family business of the descendents of the book's author.

I recently discovered that the text of this wonderful, historical book is being posted online. If you would like some detailed insight into Minnesota life in the "olden days," you will find much to enjoy by reading A Pioneer History of Becker County.

Minnesota’s First Inhabitants

Some of Minnesota’s earliest people carved pictures of humans, animals and weapons into rocks. Many of the state's rock art sites are located on the prairies of southwestern Minnesota.

Some of these carvings, called “petroglyphs,” may be 5,000 years old – and many are still visible today in Minnesota’s state parks, such as Jeffers Petroglyphs near Comfrey and Windom. Ancient burial mounds and unearthed objects like spear points are evidence that people lived here ages ago.

Minnesota's Indigenous People

The Dakota and Ojibwe (also called Chippewa or Anishinabe) Indians lived in Minnesota when the first Europeans arrived. Many Dakota, Ojibwe and other American Indians live in Minnesota today.

The Dakota Nation includes the native peoples who once lived in the northern forests and along the upper Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. In time, the Dakota Nation divided into three groups (Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota), each moving in different directions, but still maintaining close ties to one another.

The Ojibwe were not agricultural, their country being too cold for profitable farming by traditional Indian methods. They depended for subsistence upon fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild rice. Their territory abounded in lakes and clear streams well stocked with fish, with vast fields of wild rice in the quieter waters. They also gathered cranberries and manufactured maple sugar, the latter being itself an Indian discovery.

European Settlers

In the late 1600s, French explorers led an expedition into Minnesota, and were soon followed by fur traders for French, and then British companies, who come for beaver pelts to make hats in Europe.

Fort Snelling Minnesota In 1825, Fort Snelling Fort Snelling became the first permanent European-American settlement. This site is now a state historic site. The early settlers in the territory were primarily Americans from the East Coast. By the 1860s large numbers of immigrants, especially Germans and Scandinavians, came to Minnesota.

Near the fort, at the St. Peter's Agency, Major Lawrence Taliaferro mediated disputes between Minnesota's Dakota and Ojibwe (sometimes spelled Ojibwe or Ojibwa or referred to as Chippewa or Anishinabe) Indians. He attempted to ease tensions between both tribes and their new white neighbors.

For almost 30 years, Fort Snelling was the hub of the Upper Mississippi and the meeting place of diverse cultures. Dakota and Ojibwe gathered at the agency and fort to trade, debate government policy and perform their dances and sports. Traders stopped at the fort while their goods were inspected. The American and Columbia fur companies built headquarters nearby and employees' families settled at nearby Mendota.