Becoming the Twin Cities: Swindles, Schemes, and Enduring Rivalries

by Drew M. Ross

Overview

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.

Why haven’t Minneapolis and St. Paul merged into one city? 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.

Unlike Fort Snelling’s river confluence location from which the cities were born or the St. Anthony Falls that powered their growth, 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. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681343235
Publisher:	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	11/11/2025
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Drew M. Ross is a writer, editor, and researcher. For his writing on local history, he won the 2024 Solon J. Buck Award from the Minnesota Historical Society. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Table of Contents

Becoming the Twin Cities

Contents

 

Introduction

Part I: Shaping the Land

Chapter 1: Pike’s Ambition

Chapter 2: Plympton’s Original Sin

Chapter 3: Desnoyer’s New Center

 

Part II: Selling the Land

Chapter 4: The Reserve Combination

Chapter 5: Minneapolis and the Superior City Scandal

Chapter 6: Steele’s Fort Snelling Swindle

 

Part III: The Fight to Unite

Chapter 7: Bill King and the State Fair Duel

Chapter 8: The Capital and the Capitol

Chapter 9: The Cathedral and the Midway

Chapter 10: Federal City

Conclusion

 

Notes

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

I thought I knew the story of the Twin Cities until I read this book. Drew Ross richly describes how and why Minneapolis and St. Paul stayed as distinct, unidentical ‘twins.’ Properly centering wild nineteenth-century land shenanigans, this vibrant history is a must-read key to understanding the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro.” —Bill Lindeke, University of Minnesota, author of St. Paul: An Urban Biography

“Drew M. Ross has written a poignant book on the establishments of Minneapolis and St. Paul and their remarkable continued existence to this day as separate, individual cities and not a combined city. This well-researched book deftly traces the development of the Twin Cities’ distinct histories and cultures, business leaders and political officials drawn to each city, the resources shared between the cities, and the failure of efforts to merge the two municipalities into one in the late nineteenth century. Becoming the Twin Cities is a must-read for every Minnesotan.” —Christopher P. Lehman, St. Cloud State University, author of Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State and It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom

“Becoming the Twin Cities is an important reminder that nothing needs to remain static. It is also a warning against insiders-only shaping the world as they want—whether that be boundaries on a map or policies that affect people’s lives. Knowing this history is important to activate more people to speak up for the future we want.” —Tom Weber, author of Minneapolis: An Urban Biography

“Drew Ross’s book is essential reading for anyone who lives in, loves, or visits the Twin Cities as he explores the political shenanigans that have made the cities unique in their separate and strong identities. This is an immensely entertaining book you won’t want to put down. Anyone who relishes their history served up with equal parts of facts, lore, and humor will find Ross’s book a delicious meal!” —Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise

“This is a meticulously researched book that explains, beginning in 1805, why we have two separate cities. It is an invaluable addition to St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Minnesota history.” —Donald L. Empson, author of The Street Where You Live: A Guide to the Place Names of St. Paul

“Buda and Pest, Brooklyn and Manhattan—these are former separate cities bordering common rivers that merged in the nineteenth century to form greater metropolises. In this engaging, deeply researched, and well-written book, Drew Ross tells the story of how first geography but soon politics, commerce, confidence men, and outright crooks kept St. Paul and Minneapolis separate cities, not the one great city on the Upper Mississippi that contemporaries thought would inevitably emerge. Out of the rivalry of the two settlements on the river grew uneasy cooperation and eventually a modus vivendi of the Twin Cities, the side-by-side hubs of a twenty-first-century region of more than three million people. Ross makes a significant contribution to urban history with this important book.” —James W. Oberly, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

From the Publisher