Author Event: Drew M. Ross - Becoming the Twin Cities

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 explains how the Twin Cities 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 money-making 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 book will be available for purchase at the event. This event is free.

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