Swindles, Schemes, and Enduring Rivalries

Drew M. Ross

Minnesota Historical Society Press (November 2025)

Description

Whether motivated by visionary ideals or commercial gain or political ambition, many have tried to unite Minneapolis and St. Paul into one city, and all have failed. This book explains why.

In Becoming the Twin Cities, award-winning writer Drew M. Ross uncovers the nineteenth-century history of scheming and self-dealing, social rivalries and political grudges, and utopian idealism and personal ambition that explain how Minneapolis and St. Paul became the separate cities with different governments and distinct personalities that we know today. 

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.

The Twin Cities do not align to a natural or inevitable division on the map. Instead, people made the border between Minneapolis and St. Paul, attempted to erase it, and ultimately underscored it. Becoming the Twin Cities examines the historical underpinnings of a beloved American metropolitan region’s unique identity.