This Web site contains activities and stories about Minnesota in the years before it became a state.

Start your visit here:
See how treaties changed the boundaries of Minnesota. Examine 150-year-old photographs of people and places from Minnesota's past.

Discover the many kinds of people who lived in Minnesota. See what objects and written records can tell us about them.

Take a risk. Buy land and try to sell it at a profit to new settlers. Or operate a fur post, providing supplies on credit to the Dakota Indians in hopes that they have a good winter hunt.

Experience Minnesota's remarkable weather through the words of Territory newcomers. Manage family expenses while providing food and shelter for the household.

Step off a Mississippi River steamboat, and experience life in the bustling new city of St. Paul or on a frontier homestead. Visit a Dakota Indian village at Little Rapids, and meet the Red River Métis of Pembina.