Minnesota Territory

The nine original counties of the Minnesota Territory extended into what became North Dakota and South Dakota (left)

Minnesota Territory Centennial stamp, issued in 1949 in recognition of Minnesota's unique Métis oxcart traders.

The Minnesota Territory was formed on March 3, 1849, encompassing the entirety of the present-day state of Minnesota and the majority portions of modern-day North and South Dakota east of the Missouri and White Earth Rivers.[2] At the time of formation there were an estimated 5,000 settlers living in the Territory. There were no roads from adjoining Wisconsin or Iowa. The easiest access to the region was via waterway, of which the Mississippi River was primary. The primary mode of transport was the riverboat.

Minnesota Territory had three significant pioneer settlements: St. Paul, St. Anthony/Minneapolis, and Stillwater, plus two military reservations: Fort Snelling and Fort Ripley. All of these were located on waterways. A reservation for the Winnebago people had been created at Long Prairie in 1848. The Chippewa Agency, at Crow Wing, was founded in 1852. The Upper and Lower Sioux Agencies were created in 1853. All of these were also located adjacent to waterways. The primary territorial institutions were in the three main settlements. St. Paul was made the territorial capital, Minneapolis was selected as the site of the University of Minnesota, and Stillwater was chosen for the Territorial Prison.[3] The military reservations were federal land, of which the Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory still exists. Fort Ripley is now the Minnesota National Guard's Camp Ripley. The first school in the Territory was located at Fort Snelling, as was the first Post Office.[4][5] The first justice of the peace in Minnesota was at Mendota, as was the first church, St. Peter's Catholic Church, which was built in 1840.

The first territorial governor, Alexander Ramsey, requested that Congress approve funds for five military roads in the Territory: Mendota/Fort Snelling to the confluence of the Big Sioux River with the Missouri River; Point Douglas to Fort Ripley; Fort Ripley Road/Swan River to Long Prairie Indian Agency; and Point Douglas to Superior.[6] A budget was approved in 1850 for four of these roads, with the Point Douglas–Fort Ripley Military Road being the first. Additional funds were later appropriated for a survey of the route to the Big Sioux/Missouri, the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road and the Wagon Road from Fort Ripley to Fort Abercrombie. Private trails were cut as well, the most well known of which was Dodd Road from 1853. It was named after its builder, Captain William B. Dodd, and significant portions of it still exist.[6]

When the region was still part of the Wisconsin Territory, the Red River Trails were further developed by Joe Rolette.[6] There were three main trails, now identified as the West Plains Trail, East Plains Trail, and Woods Trails.[6] They connected Fort Garry and the Selkirk Settlement in British North America with Fort Snelling and the American Fur Trading Company at Mendota.[6] Later, the Oxcarts became synonymous with St. Paul's Kellogg Street and the riverboat landing on the Mississippi River. Fort Ripley lay along the East Plains Trail.

By 1850, of the three churches with regular services in the Minnesota Territory, one was Catholic, one was Methodist, and one was Presbyterian.[7] The Roman Catholic diocese of Saint Paul of Minnesota was established by Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850, and consisted of the entirety of the Minnesota Territory. Because of this original territorial designation, to this day the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis continues to oversee the Catholic dioceses in the Dakotas within its ecclesiastical province.

In 1850, 10 years after the end of the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840), of the 3 churches with regular services in the Minnesota Territory, 1 was Methodist, 1 was Presbyterian, and 1 was Catholic.[8] In the 1850 United States census, the nine counties in the Minnesota Territory reported the following population counts:[9]

• Charles K. Smith, 1849–1851
• Alexander Wilkin, 1851–1853
• Joseph Rosser, 1853–1857
• Charles L. Chase, 1857–1858

• Lorenzo A. Babcock, 1849–1853
• Lafayette Emmett, 1853–1858

• Henry Hastings Sibley, 31st Congress, 32nd Congress, 1849–1853
• Henry Mower Rice, 33rd Congress, 34th Congress, 1853–1857
• William W. Kingsbury, 35th Congress, 1857–1858

• John Catlin
• Historic regions of the United States
• History of Minnesota
• Interior Plains
• Territorial evolution of the United States
• Territory of Dakota, 1861–1889

Media related to Minnesota Territory at Wikimedia Commons

• Minnesota historic documents (incl. Organic Act, Enabling Act, Act of Admission and territorial maps)
• Debates and proceedings of the Constitutional convention for the territory of Minnesota, to form a state constitution preparatory to its admission into the Union as a state

46°N 97.4°W / 46; -97.4