Territory of Minnesota
Organized incorporated territory of the United States
Location of Minnesota Territory within the U.S. including U.S. state boundaries
Capital	St. Paul
Government
• Type	Organized incorporated territory
Governor
• 1849–1853	Alexander Ramsey
• 1853–1857	Willis A. Gorman
• 1857–1858	Samuel Medary
Legislature	Minnesota Territorial Legislature
History
• Split fromIowa andWisconsin territories	3 March 1849
• Statehood	11 May 1858
Preceded by Succeeded by Iowa Territory Wisconsin Territory Minnesota Unorganized territory

TheTerritory of Minnesota was anorganized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1849,^[1] until May 11, 1858, when the eastern portion of the territory wasadmitted to the Union as thestate ofMinnesota and the western portion becameunorganized territory and shortly after was reorganized as part of theDakota Territory.

The Minnesota Territory was formed on March 3, 1849, encompassing the entirety of the present-day state ofMinnesota and the majority portions of modern-dayNorth andSouth Dakota east of theMissouri andWhite Earth Rivers.^[2] At the time of formation there were an estimated 5,000 settlers living in the Territory. There were no roads from adjoiningWisconsin orIowa. The easiest access to the region was viawaterway, of which theMississippi River was primary. The primary mode of transport was theriverboat.

Minnesota Territory had three significant pioneer settlements:St. Paul, St. Anthony/Minneapolis, andStillwater, plus two military reservations:Fort Snelling andFort Ripley. All of these were located on waterways. A reservation for theWinnebago people had been created atLong Prairie in 1848. The Chippewa Agency, atCrow 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 territorialcapital, Minneapolis was selected as the site of theUniversity of Minnesota, and Stillwater was chosen for theTerritorial Prison.^[3] The military reservations were federal land, of which theFort Snelling Unorganized Territory still exists. Fort Ripley is now part ofMinnesota National Guard'sCamp Ripley. The first school in the Territory was located at Fort Snelling, as was the first Post Office.^[4][5] The firstjustice of the peace in Minnesota was atMendota, 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 theBig Sioux River with theMissouri 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, theFort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road and the Wagon Road from Fort Ripley toFort 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, andsignificant portions of it still exist.^[6]

When the region was still part of theWisconsin Territory, theRed River Trails were further developed byJoe Rolette.^[6] There were three main trails, now identified as the West Plains Trail, East Plains Trail, and Woods Trails.^[6] They connectedFort Garry and theSelkirk Settlement in British North America with Fort Snelling and theAmerican Fur Trading Company atMendota.^[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.

In 1850, 10 years after the end of theSecond Great Awakening (1790–1840), of the three churches withregular services in the Minnesota Territory, 1 wasMethodist, 1 wasPresbyterian, and 1 wasCatholic.^[7] TheRoman 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 the1850 United States census, thenine counties in the Minnesota Territory reported the following population counts:^[8]

#	Governor		Took office	Left office	Party
1	Alexander Ramsey		June 1, 1849	May 15, 1853	Whig
2	Willis Arnold Gorman		May 15, 1853	April 23, 1857	Democratic
3	Samuel Medary		April 23, 1857	May 24, 1858	Democratic

• 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 toMinnesota 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°00′N97°24′W / 46°N 97.4°W /46; -97.4

• Minnesota Territory
• 1849 establishments in Minnesota Territory
• 1858 disestablishments in the United States
• Former organized territories of the United States
• Camp Ripley Training Center

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2013
• Use American English from February 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Former country articles requiring maintenance
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata