The most rapid period of settlement in Minnesota was during the 1880s, when homesteaders rushed into the western and southwestern regions of the state. In the same period, lumbering was at its peak, and flour milling, using power provided by the Falls of St. Anthony, was becoming important. Both Minneapolis, as the lumber, milling, and retail center, and its neighboring city of St. Paul, as the transportation, wholesaling, finance, and government center, tripled in population during the 1880s. The rivalry between the two cities became particularly intense after the census of 1880, when Minneapolis surpassed St. Paul in population. By the end of the century, Minneapolis had developed a strong industrial base, while St. Paul’s economy had stagnated.
Commercial iron ore production began in Minnesota in 1884 at Soudan, on the Vermilion Range. After the huge iron reserves of the Mesabi Range were discovered at Mountain Iron in 1890, large-scale production began, and the population along the Mesabi Range and in the Lake Superior port cities of Duluth and Superior, Wis., grew rapidly during the next two decades. The state’s deposits of high-grade iron ore were virtually depleted by the late 1950s. To encourage the mining of taconite, a low-grade ore that was plentiful in the state but previously viewed as “waste rock,” the Minnesota legislature enacted a taconite production tax in 1941 that would tax miners on the amount of ore that was produced from the low-grade deposits. (The taconite tax was in lieu of the high property and ad valorem taxes, which were in place then for the extraction of iron ore.) Later, in 1964, a constitutional amendment was passed that guaranteed the taconite industry a tax-free period of 25 years. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 connected the port of Duluth to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the shipment of iron ore, coal, and grain to other parts of the country and to Canada. In 1984 the last shipment of high-grade iron ore was dispatched from the Mesabi Range, and the preeminence of taconite mining was unquestionable.
Most of the valuable pine, balsam, and spruce in central and northeastern Minnesota had been cut before 1900, after which time the lumbering industry declined rapidly. Wood products remained important in northern and northeastern Minnesota, however.
After World War I Minnesota, like other states, experienced drought and a rural depression. The growing mechanization of agriculture resulted in the loss of farm jobs, and, as a result, rural populations in the state declined after 1920. Moreover, an influenza epidemic killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans from 1918 to 1920. During this time a new political party, the Farmer–Labor Party, was formed to represent the common cause of farmers battling plummeting crop prices and facing foreclosure and of urban workers who were denied fair wages and the right to organize; it became one of the largest political parties in the state. The Democratic and Farmer–Labor parties merged to form the Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) Party in 1944. Among the party’s influential liberal leaders were Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene J. McCarthy, and Walter F. Mondale, all of whom went on to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Since the 1940s Minnesota has been a leader in the advocacy of civil rights and the prevention of racial discrimination. During Humphrey’s term as mayor of Minneapolis, he established a local human relations council and passed fair employment legislation. Indeed, Humphrey gave an impassioned plea at the 1948 Democratic National Convention in favor of a civil rights plank in the party’s platform—he implored that “the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights”—the successful adoption of which prompted some Southern Democrats to leave the party and form the Dixiecrats. Moreover, the American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis in 1968 to protect the rights of Native Americans.
By the mid-20th century, Minnesotans increasingly sought employment opportunities in urban centers, particularly the Twin Cities. The parochial rivalry between St. Paul and Minneapolis had mellowed, as the economic times no longer fueled competition (though in the early 21st century, the cities remained culturally distinctive). Although the growth of the Twin Cities mirrored the urbanization trend of the United States as a whole, the cities—and the rest of Minnesota—remained culturally, economically, and politically separate from the rest of the country well into the 1960s. Indeed, throughout much of the 20th century, Minnesota was seen by outsiders as unusually liberal on economic matters yet culturally conservative, with the traditional sentiments of its dominant populations (mainly European Americans) holding sway. Few domestic laborers were attracted to Minnesota. Migrants from the South, for example, found employment opportunities in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, or Detroit before reaching the Twin Cities area. The same was true for immigrants, for whom Minnesota seemed about as remote a destination as one could locate on the map of North America.
After 1970, however, Minnesota became more tightly linked with the rest of the country. National and international investment in prominent local companies became common. Business and political leadership, once entirely homegrown, expanded. Local populations, once almost exclusively descended from settlement waves of the 19th century, came to include increasing numbers of Hispanics (mainly from Mexico and Texas) and African Americans (from the South and from Midwestern Rust Belt cities), as well as Southeast Asian and African immigrants.
By the early 21st century the Twin Cities were vastly outpopulated by their suburbs, which continued to expand with new residential areas, retail strip malls, and big-box retail stores. The approach to the environment, however, shifted from one of exploitation to more skillful management of Minnesota’s natural resources. The state’s remaining wilderness areas (including the large Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northeastern Minnesota) came under government protection. With their tradition of political activism, Minnesotans continued to influence those living conditions that they could and to adapt creatively to those they could not.
Minnesota in the 21st century
The state drew national attention in 2008–09 when the results of the November 4, 2008, election for a U.S. Senate seat were disputed. The initial count showed that the incumbent Republican senator Norm Coleman had defeated DFL candidate Al Franken by just 215 votes. The narrow differential prompted a mandatory recount, by which it was determined in January 2009 that Franken had actually won the race by 225 votes. Coleman challenged the recount in a lawsuit, but in April the three-judge panel that heard the case declared Franken the winner. The panel also stipulated that a number of previously rejected ballots should be counted; those ballots gave Franken a victory margin of 312 votes. Coleman then appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Meanwhile, because Coleman’s term had expired in January, the Senate seat remained vacant. In June 2009 the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Franken had won the race, and Coleman conceded.
Minnesota was again the center of attention in 2011, when the Republican-led legislature and the DFL governor were unable to agree on how to tackle deficits in the state’s budget for the next year. The standoff led to the start of the new fiscal year without a budget in place, and, as a result, state government operations were largely shut down on July 1. Most state offices were closed, as were state-operated recreation areas, and state projects, such as road construction and other infrastructure repair, were halted. Services considered to be essential, such as those in the areas of law enforcement, health, and education, continued. A compromise was eventually reached, and on July 20 the shutdown ended when legislators passed the necessary budget bills, which the governor then signed. The shutdown earned the distinction of being the longest in Minnesota’s history and the longest state-government shutdown of the past decade in the country.
The nationwide debate over same-sex marriage came to the fore in Minnesota in the 2010s, with much of the state’s politically active population lining up on opposite sides of the issue. Minnesota already had legal measures in place that banned same-sex marriage, but in 2011 the Republican-led legislature attempted to strengthen the ban by voting to hold a referendum on a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman; this stirred up an emotional debate and galvanized supporters on both sides of the issue. The proposed amendment was put to referendum in November 2012 and was defeated by the voters, 52 percent to 47 percent. Buoyed by their momentum, those who opposed the amendment now turned their attention toward actively campaigning for the legalization of same-sex marriage. In May 2013 Minnesota’s legislature—now led by the DFL—passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. It was then signed into law by the governor and took effect in August.
In May 2020 events in Minnesota spurred global demonstrations over racial injustice, police brutality, and the need for reform. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who had been detained by Minneapolis police, was killed after an officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, during which time Floyd repeatedly stated, “I can’t breathe.” Police had initially characterized his death as a medical incident, but a video of the encounter, taken by a bystander, Darnella Frazier, soon went viral, and the actual circumstances of Floyd’s death generated outrage. Protests in Minneapolis erupted and persisted in the following weeks, with looting and property damage occurring in some areas. Protests soon spread across the country and the globe, with millions of people calling for justice for Floyd as well as change to address police brutality and racial injustice.
The state was once again a focus of unrest beginning in late 2025 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Operation Metro Surge, a federal immigration crackdown that saw a large number of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies sent into the Twin Cities area. The launch followed disparaging comments about the state’s Somali population from Pres. Donald Trump and investigations into allegations that federal money had been fraudulently used by some Somalis in the state. State and local officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, quickly criticized the operation. The aggressive tactics employed by federal agents soon drew the ire of many observers as well as officials, who noted that some immigrants with legal status and U.S. citizens had been detained by ICE.
Opposition to the federal government’s operation further intensified after Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026. The state of Minnesota, along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, filed a lawsuit against federal immigration officials on January 12, asserting that the federal immigration operation violated the First and Tenth amendments of the Constitution. They also filed for a temporary restraining order to halt DHS actions in the state. Within communities, anti-ICE demonstrations increased. Thousands of people joined in a peaceful march and rally in Minneapolis and called for ICE to leave Minnesota on January 23. The day included a statewide general strike, during which many businesses closed.
The next day another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, was shot and killed by federal immigration agents. His death further inflamed tensions and led to additional protests and gatherings denouncing ICE, both in Minnesota and across the nation. Walz then deployed the Minnesota National Guard to support local law enforcement operations and maintain community safety. On February 12 Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, announced that Operation Metro Surge was coming to an end, noting that a significant number of immigration personnel had already been withdrawn from the area and that more would follow as the operation concluded.