Minnesota history in 60 dated events, from ca. 9,000 BCE to 1600s/1700s CE (Carvers began making the Jeffers Petroglyphs, an estimated 11,000-year span of rock carvin) to September 22, 2023. Every row links the National Park Service, state archive, agency or encyclopedia page it was read from.
Header photo: Bird’s-eye view of New Ulm, Brown County, drawn in 1870, eight years after the US-Dakota War battle there. Credit: A. Ruger / Chicago Lithographing Co., Library of Congress Geography & Map Division, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- 60dated events
- 9eras
- ca. 9,000 BCE to 1600s/1700s CEearliest date on the list
- 41source pages cited
- First peoples
- Fur trade era
- Fort Snelling and treaties
- Territory and statehood
- US-Dakota War and Civil War
- Industry and immigration
- Early 20th century
- Postwar and civil rights
- Today
Download this data: CSV · JSON · 60 events · free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to It’s Minnesota. All open data: catalog.json.
First peoples
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ca. 9,000 BCE to 1600s/1700s CE | Carvers began making the Jeffers Petroglyphs, an estimated 11,000-year span of rock carvings on a long rock ridge in Cottonwood County; the earliest date to about 9,000 BCE. | Jeffers Petroglyphs, near Comfrey (Cottonwood) | MNopedia: Jeffers Petroglyphs |
| As long as 10,000 years ago | Native people came to Bdote, the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, to hunt, fish and celebrate; Dakota people hold the place sacred. | Bdote (Fort Snelling area) (Hennepin / Dakota) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| As early as 7000 BCE | Archaeological evidence suggests Native Americans lived near Lake Vermilion. | Lake Vermilion, Soudan area (St. Louis) | MNopedia: Lake Vermilion–Soudan Underground Mine State Park |
| Over 3,000 years (ongoing) | Indigenous people have quarried the red stone at Pipestone to make pipes used in prayer and ceremony, a tradition that continues today. | Pipestone National Monument | NPS: Minnesota state page (Pipestone NM summary) |
| Over a thousand years | Wic̣aḣapi (Indian Mounds) has been a sacred burial place for over a thousand years; it holds the only known remaining burial mounds in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul urban core. | Wic̣aḣapi / Indian Mounds Regional Park, St. Paul (Ramsey) | City of Saint Paul: Wic̣aḣapi |
Fur trade era
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-1600s | Europeans arrived in the region; French and British traders sought furs from Native trappers in exchange for cloth, metal goods, firearms and more. | Minnesota river valleys | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| Around 1680 | A group of Ojibwe people migrated westward along Lake Superior’s north shore to Thunder Bay and eventually Grand Portage Bay (Gichi Onigamiing, the great carrying place). | Grand Portage (Cook) | MNopedia: Grand Portage (Gichi Onigamiing) |
| 1680 | Father Louis Hennepin saw the falls the Dakota call Owamniyomni and named them St. Anthony Falls. | St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis (Hennepin) | MNopedia: Draining of Glacial Lake Agassiz |
| August 22, 1731 | Pierre de la Vérendrye landed at Gichi Onigamiing, which grew into a major fur-trade rendezvous point Europeans called Grand Portage. | Grand Portage (Cook) | MNopedia: Grand Portage (Gichi Onigamiing) |
| 1750 | Battles between Ojibwe and Dakota at Kathio/Mille Lacs (and at the Crow Wing River in 1768) eventually enabled the Ojibwe to permanently inhabit much of northern Minnesota. | Kathio / Mille Lacs | MNopedia: At Home and Abroad: Minnesota at War |
| By 1784 | The North West Company was running two operations at Grand Portage: Fort Charlotte at the portage’s western end and Fort George, a trading depot. | Grand Portage (Cook) | MNopedia: Grand Portage (Gichi Onigamiing) |
Fort Snelling and treaties
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1805 | The U.S. Army ordered Lt. Zebulon Pike to find a site for a military post on the Mississippi; he chose land near Bdote. | Bdote (Hennepin / Dakota) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1819 | Troops began building the fort at Bdote from Platteville limestone quarried from the river bluff. | Historic Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1821 | Soldiers stationed at Fort Snelling built Minnesota’s first sawmill at St. Anthony Falls. | St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis (Hennepin) | MNopedia: Origins of Commercial Logging, 1821–1839 |
| 1825 | Fort St. Anthony was completed and renamed Fort Snelling for Col. Josiah Snelling, who supervised construction. | Historic Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1836 | Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro, who enslaved people, officiated the marriage of Harriet Robinson and Dred Scott; the Scotts later cited their Fort Snelling residence in Scott v. Sandford. | Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNopedia: Taliaferro, Lawrence (1794–1871) |
| 1837 | Through the Treaty of St. Peters (1837), and later La Pointe (1854), the U.S. acquired most Ojibwe land in eastern Minnesota. | Eastern Minnesota | MNopedia: Treaty of Washington, 1855 |
Territory and statehood
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 3, 1849 | Minnesota became a U.S. territory under the Organic Act of 1849, with St. Paul as the temporary seat of government. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Minnesota’s First State Capitol |
| 1850–1930 | Over a quarter of a million Swedes came to Minnesota, settling first in rural areas and later in cities. | Statewide | MNopedia: Swedish Immigration to Minnesota |
| 1851 | The Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota were signed; the U.S. government acquired millions of acres from the Dakota, and settlers and speculators poured in. | Traverse des Sioux (St. Peter) and Mendota (Nicollet / Dakota) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1853 | Minnesota’s first capitol building was completed in St. Paul; it served territorial and early state government until it burned in 1881. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Minnesota’s First State Capitol |
| 1855 | The Treaty of Washington ceded a large portion of Ojibwe land and created the Leech Lake and Mille Lacs reservations. | North-central Minnesota | MNopedia: Treaty of Washington, 1855 |
| May 11, 1858 | Congress passed and President James Buchanan approved the bill admitting Minnesota to the Union; state officers took their oaths on May 24, 1858. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | Minnesota Secretary of State: Admission of Minnesota into the Union 1858 |
US-Dakota War and Civil War
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 12, 1861 | On the day the Civil War began, Gov. Alexander Ramsey pledged 1,000 Minnesota troops, the first state to make such an offer; about 25,000 soldiers later passed through Fort Snelling. | Fort Snelling / St. Paul (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| August 17, 1862 | Four Dakota hunters killed five settlers in Acton Township; that night a group of Mdewakanton men persuaded a reluctant Ta Oyate Duta to lead a war, amid late annuity payments and traders’ refusal of credit to hungry Dakota. | Acton Township; Lower Sioux Agency (Meeker / Redwood) | MNopedia: US–Dakota War of 1862 |
| September 23, 1862 | At the Battle of Wood Lake, the final engagement of the six-week war, Sibley’s forces defeated the Dakota; on September 26 held captives gathered at Camp Release. More than 600 settlers had been killed; the number of Dakota casualties is unrecorded. | Wood Lake; Camp Release (Yellow Medicine / Lac qui Parle) | MNopedia: US–Dakota War of 1862 |
| Late 1862 | After the war the U.S. government nullified its treaties with the Dakota, dissolved their reservation, and publicly executed thirty-eight Dakota men in Mankato, the largest mass hanging in the nation’s history. | Mankato (Blue Earth) | MNopedia: US–Dakota War of 1862 |
| Winter 1862–1863 | About 1,600 Dakota non-combatants were imprisoned in a concentration camp at Fort Snelling; the next spring they, and nearly 2,000 Ho-Chunk people from Blue Earth, were removed to Dakota Territory. | Fort Snelling (now Fort Snelling State Park) (Hennepin) | MNopedia: US–Dakota War of 1862 |
| July 3, 1863 | The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry captured the battle flag of the 28th Virginia at Gettysburg; the flag has remained in St. Paul since 1886. | Gettysburg, Pa. (flag in St. Paul) | MNopedia: Twenty-eighth Virginia Infantry Regimental Battle Flag |
Industry and immigration
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late 1867 | Oliver Hudson Kelley, whose farm near Elk River is now an MNHS site, and six associates founded the National Grange (Order of the Patrons of Husbandry). | Elk River (Kelley Farm) (Sherburne) | MNopedia: State Grange of Minnesota |
| 1870 | Gov. Horace Austin vetoed the female suffrage bill, the first to pass both the Minnesota House and Senate. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Minnesota Female Suffrage Bill, 1870 |
| 1874 | Cadwallader C. Washburn built the first Washburn A Mill at St. Anthony Falls; an explosion and fire leveled it in 1878 and it was rebuilt. | Minneapolis (now Mill City Museum) (Hennepin) | MNopedia: Washburn A Mill |
| March 1, 1881 | Fire destroyed Minnesota’s first capitol during the legislative session; no lives were lost and lawmakers saved key documents. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: State Capitol Fire, 1881 |
| 1882 | The Soudan Underground Mine began an 80-year run (1882–1962) on the Vermilion Iron Range. | Soudan (St. Louis) | Minnesota DNR: Soudan Underground Mine tours |
| 1882–1888 | The 25th U.S. Infantry Regiment, a segregated African American unit, was garrisoned at Fort Snelling. | Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1890 | The Merritt family found a large hematite deposit near present-day Mountain Iron, opening the Mesabi Iron Range. | Mountain Iron (St. Louis) | MNopedia: Mesabi Iron Range |
| September 1, 1894 | The Great Hinckley Fire burned between 250 and 480 square miles in about four hours and killed at least 413 people. | Hinckley (Pine) | MNopedia: Great Hinckley Fire, 1894 |
| 1896–1905 | Minnesota’s third (current) State Capitol, designed by St. Paul architect Cass Gilbert, was built. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Minnesota’s Third State Capitol |
| 1897 | The Hermann monument was built in New Ulm with funds from Sons of Hermann lodges, reflecting German American immigrant pride. | New Ulm (Brown) | MNopedia: “Hermann the German” Monument, New Ulm |
Early 20th century
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 27, 1905 | The Mataafa storm on Lake Superior claimed thirty-six lives; the losses led to new lighthouses at Split Rock and Duluth in 1910. | Lake Superior off Duluth (St. Louis) | MNopedia: Mataafa Storm, 1905 |
| 1910 | Split Rock light station was commissioned. | Split Rock Lighthouse, near Two Harbors (Lake) | MNHS: Split Rock Lighthouse timeline |
| June 2, 1916 | An IWW-coordinated strike of mostly immigrant iron ore miners began on the Mesabi Range; up to eight thousand miners struck. | Aurora and Mesabi Range (St. Louis) | MNopedia: Mesabi Iron Range Strike, 1916 |
| 1918 | The influenza pandemic killed over 10,000 Minnesotans. | Statewide | MNopedia: Influenza Epidemic in Minnesota, 1918 |
| September 8, 1919 | Minnesota became the fifteenth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial, St. Paul |
| June 15, 1920 | A mob estimated at 10,000 people broke into the Duluth police station and lynched three young Black circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, who had been falsely accused of rape; no one was ever convicted of their murders. | Duluth (St. Louis) | MNopedia: Duluth Lynchings |
| April 21, 1921 | After lobbying by Black Minnesotans, the legislature passed a state anti-lynching law. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Duluth Lynchings |
| May 1927 | Little Falls native Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight. | Little Falls (boyhood home) (Morrison) | MNopedia: Lindbergh, Charles A. (1902–1974) |
| 1934 | Minneapolis Teamsters Local 574 struck and, despite violent resistance from authorities, won its demands. | Minneapolis (Hennepin) | MNopedia: Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike, 1934 |
| August 25, 1937 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill creating the 116-acre Pipestone National Monument, with exclusive quarrying rights for Indigenous people. | Pipestone | MNopedia: Pipestone Quarry |
| 1941–1945 | More than 300,000 men and women joined the U.S. military at Fort Snelling during World War II; 6,000 soldiers studied Japanese at a military language school there. | Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
Postwar and civil rights
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956–1968 | Construction of Interstate 94 cut St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, a center of African American life, in half. | St. Paul (Rondo) (Ramsey) | MNopedia: Rondo Neighborhood, St. Paul |
| 1958 | The Grand Portage tribal council ceded 709.97 acres to the U.S., allowing the NPS to establish Grand Portage National Monument two years later (it had been a National Historic Site since 1951). | Grand Portage (Cook) | MNopedia: Grand Portage National Monument |
| 1960 | Fort Snelling became Minnesota’s first National Historic Landmark; MNHS began restoration five years later. | Historic Fort Snelling (Hennepin) | MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline |
| 1968 | The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded by grassroots activists in Minneapolis. | Minneapolis (Hennepin) | MNopedia: American Indian Movement (AIM) |
| Late 1975 | The first Hmong refugees arrived in Minnesota after the communist seizure of power in Indochina. | Twin Cities | MNopedia: Hmong and Hmong Americans in Minnesota |
| November 10, 1975 | The freighter Edmund Fitzgerald and her 29 crew members were lost on Lake Superior; Split Rock’s beacon is lit each November 10 in their memory. | Lake Superior (memorial at Split Rock) | MNHS: Split Rock Lighthouse timeline |
Today
| When | What happened | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial was dedicated in Duluth across from the lynching site, and Mill City Museum opened in the Washburn A Mill ruins. | Duluth; Minneapolis (St. Louis / Hennepin) | MNopedia: Duluth Lynchings; Washburn A Mill |
| August 2007 | The I-35W bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush; a design error made in the 1960s was blamed. | Minneapolis (Hennepin) | MNopedia: I-35W Bridge Collapse |
| 2020 | Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed while in police custody; on June 15, 2020, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial in Duluth to mark the lynchings’ centennial. | Minneapolis; Duluth (Hennepin / St. Louis) | MNopedia: Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, Duluth |
| September 22, 2023 | Gov. Tim Walz signed Executive Order 23-11 creating the Governor’s Committee on Minnesota America 250 to coordinate commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. | St. Paul (Ramsey) | Executive Order 23-11 (Minnesota Legislative Reference Library) |
What we could not verify
- MNHS gives two counts: its membership text says 26 historic sites and museums, while its locations page lists 27 locations because it also counts the Gale Family Library. We use 26.
- Sources differ on the age of the Jeffers Petroglyphs: MNopedia dates the earliest carvings to about 9,000 BCE, while the MNHS site page calls them 7,000 years old.
- MNopedia gives two dates for the explosion that destroyed the first Washburn A Mill: 1878 and 1880. We use 1878.
We re-check these when the source pages change. Spot something we missed? Use the corrections page.
Frequently asked questions
When did Minnesota become a U.S. territory?
On March 3, 1849, under the Organic Act of 1849, with St. Paul as the temporary seat of government. Minnesota’s first capitol was finished in St. Paul in 1853 and served the territory and early state until it burned in 1881 (source: MNopedia: Minnesota’s First State Capitol).
What happened in Duluth on June 15, 1920?
A mob estimated at 10,000 people broke into the Duluth police station and lynched three Black circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, who had been falsely accused of rape. No one was convicted of their murders. A memorial was dedicated across the street in 2003 (source: MNopedia: Duluth Lynchings).
When was Fort Snelling built?
Troops began building the fort at Bdote in 1819 from limestone quarried from the river bluff. It was completed in 1825 and renamed Fort Snelling for Col. Josiah Snelling, who supervised construction. In 1960 it became the first National Historic Landmark in Minnesota (source: MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling Timeline).
Last checked October 20, 2026 by the It’s Minnesota editors against each operator’s, agency’s or organizer’s own page.
Sources
- MNopedia: Jeffers Petroglyphs
- MNHS: Historic Fort Snelling timeline
- MNopedia: Lake Vermilion–Soudan Underground Mine State Park
- NPS: Minnesota state page (Pipestone NM summary)
- City of Saint Paul: Wic̣aḣapi
- MNopedia: Grand Portage (Gichi Onigamiing)
- MNopedia: Draining of Glacial Lake Agassiz
- MNopedia: At Home and Abroad: Minnesota at War
- MNopedia: Origins of Commercial Logging, 1821–1839
- MNopedia: Taliaferro, Lawrence (1794–1871)
- MNopedia: Treaty of Washington, 1855
- MNopedia: Minnesota’s First State Capitol
- MNopedia: Swedish Immigration to Minnesota
- Minnesota Secretary of State: Admission of Minnesota into the Union 1858
- MNopedia: US–Dakota War of 1862
- MNopedia: Twenty-eighth Virginia Infantry Regimental Battle Flag
- MNopedia: State Grange of Minnesota
- MNopedia: Minnesota Female Suffrage Bill, 1870
- MNopedia: Washburn A Mill
- MNopedia: State Capitol Fire, 1881
- Minnesota DNR: Soudan Underground Mine tours
- MNopedia: Mesabi Iron Range
- MNopedia: Great Hinckley Fire, 1894
- MNopedia: Minnesota’s Third State Capitol
- MNopedia: “Hermann the German” Monument, New Ulm
- MNopedia: Mataafa Storm, 1905
- MNHS: Split Rock Lighthouse timeline
- MNopedia: Mesabi Iron Range Strike, 1916
- MNopedia: Influenza Epidemic in Minnesota, 1918
- MNopedia: Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial, St. Paul
- MNopedia: Duluth Lynchings
- MNopedia: Lindbergh, Charles A. (1902–1974)
- MNopedia: Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike, 1934
- MNopedia: Pipestone Quarry
- MNopedia: Rondo Neighborhood, St. Paul
- MNopedia: Grand Portage National Monument
- MNopedia: American Indian Movement (AIM)
- MNopedia: Hmong and Hmong Americans in Minnesota
- MNopedia: I-35W Bridge Collapse
- MNopedia: Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, Duluth
- Executive Order 23-11 (Minnesota Legislative Reference Library)
Cite this page: It's Minnesota, “Minnesota History Timeline: 60 Dated Events With Sources”, itsminnesota.com/history/timeline/ (updated ). By the It's Minnesota editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.