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Becoming the Twin Cities : swindles, schemes, and enduring rivalries / Drew M Ross.
Van Pelt Library HT384.U52 T85 2025
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ross, Drew M., author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Cities and towns--Growth.
- Cities and towns.
- Competition (Psychology).
- Minneapolis (Minn.)--History.
- Minneapolis (Minn.).
- Saint Paul (Minn.)--History.
- Saint Paul (Minn.).
- Minneapolis Metropolitan Area (Minn.)--History.
- Minneapolis Metropolitan Area (Minn.).
- Saint Paul Metropolitan Area (Minn.)--History.
- Saint Paul Metropolitan Area (Minn.).
- Physical Description:
- 272 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- St. Paul, MN : Minnesota Historical Society, [2025]
- Summary:
- Reveals the political scheming, social rivalries, and utopian dreams behind the failed attempts to merge Minneapolis and St. Paul. Traces how ambition, partisanship, and powerful personalities shaped their lasting divide and distinct civic identities.Beginning with the story of Fort Snelling's founding and Joseph Plympton's expansion of a reserve around it, Ross follows up with the land-grabbing and moneymaking schemes of Henry Rice and Franklin Steele, explores the rivalries between local Republicans and Democrats (and their partisan newspapers), and details the battles over the locations and significance of the capitol, the state fair, and the Midway neighborhood. Figures like Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and tavern keeper Stephen Desnoyer, visionary architect Horace W. S. Cleveland, religious leader (and land speculator) Archbishop John Ireland, and the pugnacious publisher Bill King--all had a hand in the push-pull tension that has fundamentally shaped the Twin Cities to this day.
- Contents:
- Introduction: Why didn't Minneapolis and St. Paul merge?
- Solving nature's puzzle
- Plympton's original sin
- Finding St. Paul
- The Reserve Conspiracy
- The birth of a rivalry
- The Steele swindle
- The State Fair wars
- Navigating the gorge, negotiating the capitol
- The heart of the new metropolis
- Utopian vision meets contentious reality
- Epilogue: how the Twin Cities might merge.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-258) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781681343235
- 1681343231
- OCLC:
- 1525856510
- Publisher Number:
- 90103214930
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