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A City on the Verge of Greatness: Saint Paul in
1888
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In 1819 the U. S. Government established Fort Snelling near the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers in order to control the region won from the British in the war of 1812. The Fort became the economic center for the upper
Midwest, attracting U. S., Canadian, and Native American traders.
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In 1840, the commander of Fort Snelling expelled the civilians from the military reservation. Many of them moved to the confluence of Trout Brook and Phalen Creek at the Mississippi River. This area, at the foot of today’s Jackson and Sibley Streets, became known as “Pig’s Eye Landing”. The area was later called Lower Landing, Lower Levee, and, eventually, Lower Town.
The 1850’s were a period of rapid expansion for Lowertown and the rest of St. Paul. The City was an important port due to its strategic location at the highest
navigable point of the Mississippi River.
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Many immigrants arrived by steamboat and settled in the area. In addition, many agricultural products, from Minnesota, Canada and the Dakotas, were shipped from the warehouses of St. Paul to southern markets by Mississippi River steamboats.
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