Minnesota

State: Minnesota

Lat/Long: 46.0000, -94.0000

Minnesota is a state in the upper Midwest of the United States. On February 26, 1857, Congress authorized the people of the Minnesota Territory to write a state constitution and form a state government. In July 1857, a convention met and wrote a state constitution, and on May 11, 1858, Congress admitted Minnesota as the thirty-second state in the Union. Minnesota entered the Union as a free state and remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, sending 22,000 to fight against the Confederacy. Its capital is St. Paul.

Russell W. Fridley, "Minnesota," Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 4:356; "An Act to Authorize the People of the Territory of Minnesota to Form a Constitution and State Government, Preparatory to Their Admission in the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States," 26 February 1857, Statutes at Large of the United States 11 (1859):166-67; "An Act for the Admission of the State of Minnesota into the Union," 11 May 1858, Statutes at Large of the United States 11 (1859):285.