Table of Contents -- 1 LAND, WATER, AND TIME -- The spirit of place -- Minnesota's waterways -- Geological prehistory -- Climate -- Natural and man-made geography -- 2 THE REDMEN THROUGH MANY MOONS -- Prehistoric man in Minnesota -- The Sioux and the Chippewa -- The meeting of Indian and European -- The Kensington problem -- 3 THE FRENCH LOOK WEST -- European competition in the New World -- Explorations of Champlain -- Nicolet, Radisson, and Groseilliers -- French aspirations in America -- Jolliet on the Mississippi -- 4 MINNESOTA AND NEW FRANCE -- Achievement of New France -- Expeditions of Duluth, La Salle, and Father Hennepin -- Perrot's forts and Le Sueur's "copper mine," -- Charlevoix and Perriére -- La Vérendrye and Fort St. Charles -- The French and Indian wars -- 5 THE BRITISH AND A LAKESIDE EMPORIUM -- British control of Minnesota country -- Jonathan Carver and his Travels -- Peter Pond and the fur trade -- Grand Portage and the North West Company -- French-Canadian voyageurs -- Decline of the British regime -- Underwater Research Program -- 6 THE AMERICANS BUILD FORT SNELLING -- Beginnings of American exploration and control of the West -- The War of 1812 -- Selkirk's colony -- Settlement of the northern boundary of Minnesota West -- Governmental jurisdictions in Minnesota -- The frontier defense program -- Life at Fort Snelling -- 7 UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG -- Need for new explorations -- The Cass expedition -- Travels if Long and Beltrami -- Exploration of the Minnesota lakes -- Schoolcraft's discovery of the Mississippi's source -- Further travels md explorations -- Settlement of the northern boundary of Minnelota East -- 8 TRIBAL FEUDS AND A FUR BARONY -- The treaty system -- Agent Taliaferro and Sioux-Chippewa warfare -- An expanding American fur trade -- Sibley and the American Fur Company -- Financial decline of the fur trade.

9 PREACHERS, WORD HUNTERS, TEACHERS -- Missionary work in Minnesota -- Among the Chippewa -- Among the Sioux -- Protestant writers and scholars -- Catholic missions -- The first settlers -- Founding of St. Paul -- 10 "THE GREEN TREE OF EMPIRE" -- Establishment of Minnesota Territory -- Arrival of Ramsey -- Sioux land treaties -- Chippewa land treaties -- Settlement of Minnesota -- Growth of transportation and communication facilities -- 11 BRAVE NEW PIONEER WORLD -- The frontier press -- Education -- Transportation -- Problems of living on the frontier -- Importance of agriculture -- Cultural heritage -- The Panic of 1857 -- 12 A STATE IS BORN -- Early political factions -- Rise of the Republican party -- First moves toward statehood -- Writing the Minnesota constitution -- Ratification by the voters and election of state officials -- The first "state" legislature -- Admission to the Union -- 13 MINNESOTA AND THE CIVIL WAR -- The Republican victory of 1859 -- The presidential election of Lincoln -- Attitudes toward slavery -- Outbreak of the Civil War -- Bull Run -- Conscription -- The battles of Corinth, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga -- Gettysburg, Brice's Cross Roads, and Nashville -- The war period in Minnesota -- Wartime growth and expansion -- Problems of reconstruction and readjustment -- 14 THE SIOUX GO ON THE WARPATH -- Events leading to the uprising -- Basic causes -- Attacks on the Lower Agency, Fort Ridgely, and New Ulm -- Battle of Birch Coulee -- End of the war -- Reactions of Minnesotans to wartime horrors -- The demand for retribution -- Results of the war -- The Chippewa land cession -- 15 POSTWAR CHANGE -- Political events of the sixties -- The Granger movement -- The politics of the seventies -- Railroading in Minnesota -- James J. Hill and the Great Northern -- Immigrant groups in the state -- 16 WITH AX AND SAW.

The lumber industry in Minnesota -- Early lumbering centers -- Military land warrants and "stumpage," -- Lumbering at its peak and the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company -- The lumberjacks and their folklore -- 17 DUAL DOMAIN -- Growth of wheat farming in the 1850s and 1860s -- Influencing forces -- The Homestead Act and bonanza farms -- Diversified produce -- The migration westward -- Flour milling and industrial expansion -- Problems with spring wheat -- The middlings purifier and patent flour -- Large-scale production -- Concentration of mill ownership -- The Minneapolis Millers' Association -- Advances in transportation -- Leaders in the milling industry -- 18 RED EARTH, IRON MEN, AND TACONITE -- Legend of "Mesabi," -- The search for iron ore, -- Budding industrial interests -- The Merritts -- Rockefeller and Carnegie, Hill and Morgan -- The Cuyuna Range -- The mining pattern -- New processes -- Men of iron -- Range towns -- Changing mining taxes -- Related industries -- Taconite -- The future of iron and taconite -- 19 LAND AND IDEAS IN TRANSITION -- Agricultural readjustments -- New political leaders -- Agricultural organization and agitation -- Trend toward diversified farming -- The cooperative movement -- Agricultural information services -- Fruit growing -- Agricultural experimentation -- Tree cultivation and conservation -- Minnesota's economic transition -- 20 EDUCATION MOVES AHEAD -- Education's role in Minnesota's progress -- The public secondary school system -- The parochial school system -- Growth of higher education -- Private colleges -- The University of Minnesota -- Problems -- 21 TOWARD SOCIAL MATURITY -- John Lind and the transition to the twentieth century -- Correctional institutions -- Public health -- The Mayos -- Urbanization -- Labor organizations -- The Spanish-American War -- The Northern Securities case -- John A. Johnson.

Growth toward social maturity -- 22 PEACE, TURBULENCE, AND WAR -- "The good years," -- Developments in transportation -- The political scene before World War I -- Agrarian grievances and the Nonpartisan League -- Minnesota in World War I -- The elections of 1918 and 1920 -- The farmer-labor upsurge -- Christianson as governor -- The 1920s -- 23 THE ADVANCING ARTS -- Music in Minnesota -- Painting and sculpture -- Architecture -- Landscape architecture -- 24 THE THEATER AND THE BOOK WORLD -- The theater in Minnesota -- Growth of libraries -- Authors in Minnesota's early years -- Flowering of literature in the 1920s -- Later writers -- 25 DEPRESSION, READJUSTMENT, AND WAR -- The economic crash -- The era of Floyd B. Olson -- The temper of the 1930s -- The rise of sports -- Prohibition and repeal -- "Resurgent Republicanism" and Harold Stassen -- Minnesota in World War II -- 26 CHANGING MODERN SCENES -- Continued Republican domination and Luther Youngdahl -- Growth in population -- Technological developments and industrial growth -- Specialties of state communities -- Modern farming -- 27 SOCIAL CURRENTS, POLITICS, AND PROBLEMS -- Modernizing of communications -- The changing rural scene -- Churches in Minnesota -- Birth of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party -- The Freeman administration -- Andersen's administration -- The election of 1962 -- Problems facing the state -- "History is people," -- FOR FURTHER READING -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z -- "A STATE THAT WORKS" by Russell W. Fridley -- Illustrations -- A northern Minnesota scene -- The waterways of Minnesota -- The major land areas of Minnesota -- Buffalo hunt -- The Indians of Minnesota -- Montreal canoe -- The water routes from Montreal west -- Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony.

The journeys of Duluth -- Father Hennepin's map -- Exploration routes of the La Verendryes and David Thompson -- Grand Portage -- Trading posts under three flags -- Fort Snelling about 1851 -- Route of Pike's expedition -- The Old Northwest Territory -- The frontier forts -- Schoolcraft landing at Lake Itasca -- Route of the Cass expedition -- Route of Long's expedition -- Route of Schoolcraft's expedition -- Route of Nicollet's expedition -- Interior of a Hudson's Bay Company store -- The "Basilica" of St. Paul in 1852 -- Treaty of Traverse des Sioux -- Land cessions by the Indians -- St. Paul in 1851 -- Early trails from Fort Garry and Pembina to Fort Snelling and St. Paul -- Railroad plans in 1857-62 -- The first state capitol in St. Paul -- Proposed boundaries for the new state -- The First Minnesota at Gettysburg -- Attack on the Redwood agency -- Scenes of the Sioux Uprising -- An emigrant train of the 1850s -- Lumbering on the Rum River -- The milling district in Minneapolis -- The Missabe Mountain open pit mine -- A Minnesota state fair exhibit -- Entrance to Northrop Auditorium -- The Doctors Mayo -- Distribution of population in 1900 and 1960 -- Traffic at Nicollet and Sixth in Minneapolis -- Hiawatha and Minnehaha by Jacob Fjelde -- Theatergoers at St. Paul's Metropolitan Opera House -- A ski tournament in the 1930s -- A taconite processing plant at Silver Bay -- The St. Paul capital approach in 1960.