This was Minnesota during its territorial era, the focus of the Society's exhibit, Tales of the Territory: Minnesota 1849–1858. In its first exhibit to comprehensively examine a specific period of time, the History Center delves into Minnesota's earliest years as an organized political entity and explores the roots of those distinctively Minnesota blessings and conflicts that remain today.

"When we think about the distant past as it is usually presented in books, films, or exhibits, we tend to see it through sepia tones, always brown and softened at the edges," says Tales of the Territory curator Brian Horrigan. "But what we want to emphasize in this exhibit is just the opposite. People were creating a new place, a place of raw wood and bright colors, and imposing it upon a landscape of antiquity and great traditions that had been occupied by Indians for thousands of years. Minnesota was a cultural meeting ground where Indians, white Americans, the French, African-Americans and mixed-race peoples — an incredible variety of people — encountered one another and often clashed."

The stories in Tales of the Territory, then, do not represent the version of Minnesota's early history that visitors may have previously encountered. "They should not come thinking they're going to see their parents' or grandparents' version of pioneer history," Horrigan says. "This is the story of a complex, vibrant and conflicted time in our history, concentrated in a single decade of change and upheaval."

At the core of the exhibit are dozens of eyewitness accounts of life in Minnesota Territory, drawn from letters, journals and articles of the era and presented to visitors in audio, video and written formats. Stories are drawn from accounts left by James M. Goodhue, editor of the territory's first newspaper; Harriet Griswold, a widow who raised four children on their small farm near Cambridge; Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota's first territorial governor; Red River Valley fur trader-politician Joe Rolette, who stole the legislation that would have moved the territorial capital from St. Paul to St. Peter; and many others who made Minnesota Territory their home.

"The people settling here were caught up with the historical importance of the moment, so there are a lot of extremely engaging stories to tell," Horrigan says. New technology complements live theatrical storytelling for some of the tales. For the first time, the Society uses a video-projection effect with mirrors to create the illusion of historical people talking with us. The image of an actor portraying editor Goodhue, for example, speaks near the editor's printing press and gives his account of territorial life. Another projection shows a young 19th-century Dakota girl (portrayed by her actual descendant) explaining how her life had changed. She speaks in a bark lodge that represents Little Rapids, a Dakota settlement near the present-day town of Jordan. Other scenes include a snow-covered log cabin typical of the early homes of white homesteaders, the oxcart trail for a mixed-blood group of people known as the Mítis near Pembina in the Red River Valley, and the colorful St. Paul levee, where tens of thousands of new Minnesotans disembarked from steamboat voyages up the Mississippi River.

The treaties between the U.S. government and Minnesota's Dakota and Ojibwe peoples also receive special treatment in the exhibit. The centerpiece is a multimedia "object theater" devoted to the treaties of 1851, which opened a vast tracts of Dakota land to white settlement. The resulting rush of homesteaders produced the explosion in new arrivals that propelled the growth of the Minnesota's non-Indian population from fewer than 5,000 in 1849 to around 172,000 in 1860.

"I initially thought our biggest challenge would be to help visitors find ways to relate this history to their own lives," Horrigan says. "But now I don't think we'll have that problem. People will see their own experiences reflected in the lives and difficulties of people from the past, and they will also be interested in the encounters between people of different cultures, the roles of women and men, and the emotions people felt about confronting the stark newness of Minnesota Territory."

Covering 4,000 square feet and including about 150 artifacts, Tales of the Territory offers personal glimpses into life at that tumultuous time. "I was already fascinated with this decade," Horrigan says, "but in working on this exhibit I became even more fascinated. It's a period of history that's hard to match in terms of the intense change it brought to people's lives."

Major funding for Tales of the Territory has been provided by The St. Paul Companies, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.