The Fight For A United Twin Cities Has Deep Historical Roots

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (WJON News) -- Today, we couldn't imagine the metro area without the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. However, two separate cities wasn't always the plan.

A new book by author Drew M. Ross titled "Becoming Twin Cities: Swindles, Schemes, and Enduring Rivalries" talks about the push by many to unite the two.

The earliest I find them talking about uniting them is about 1872, and that's when St. Anothy merged with Minneapolis, and people kind of jumped on that and said let's keep going and put St. Paul in there as well.  They were just a little too far apart to do that at that time.

St. Paul is the older of the two cities by a number of years. Minneapolis was using St. Paul's river access because steamboats couldn't make it to St. Anthony Falls.

Ross says big feuds like where the State Fair should be located keep the two divided.

The same thing goes for the capital building.  They are absolutely trying to move it around.  Back then, there was even more importance on being the capital city.  Minneapolis very much wanted to be the capital city.

He says the Midway neighborhood was halfway between the two downtowns and was seen as the ideal location for a new city center. However, politics played a major role in squashing that plan.

The state legislature passes a law that says the new capital building needs to be within three-quarters of a mile of the old one, and the old one at that time was basically where the History Theater is today.

Ross says the push to unite Minneapolis and St. Paul peaked around the late 1880s.

His book is published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.