Minnesota's roots reach back centuries to the time of the last ice age when humans followed herds of large game to the area as the glaciers melted. Rock carvings of people, animals and weapons at Jeffers Petroglyphs in the south of the state date back almost 5,000 years.

Long before the first Europeans arrived, Indians from as far away as 1,000 miles came to sacred quarries to carve soft, red soapstone into ceremonial pipes. Settling into the area were the Dakota (Sioux) and later, Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians. The two tribes fought frequently over land and eventually the victorious Ojibwe lived in the forests of the north, while the Dakota stayed on the prairie to the south.

The French were the first white explorers to reach Minnesota, in 1654. Known as voyagers, these hardy men established a fur trade by trapping muskrats and beavers in the lakes and streams of the north. The fur trade was carried on by the British, who took control of Minnesota in 1763, and later by Yankee traders.

In 1819, soldiers build Minnesota's first U.S. military post, Fort Snelling. In 1858, nine years after being organized as a territory, Minnesota was declared the thirty-second state to join the union.

Source: State of Minnesota.