Minnesota history is filled with stories of political chicanery, backroom deals and other unpleasantness. For sheer chutzpah, however, it’s hard to beat the tale of how land speculators in 1857 nearly got lawmakers to move the capital to St. Peter.
"People are familiar with bits and pieces of the story, they don't always get the details correct, and that's not surprising because it's been discussed and written about so frequently," said Bob Sandeen, a St. Peter native who’s spent years scouring archival material on the history of the St. Peter gambit, which has resurfaced this year.
A bill at the Legislature this session seeks to designate St. Peter as Minnesota’s honorary capital, a nod to its nearly famous status. Bill author Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, says it’s also intended to set the record straight on exactly what happened during Minnesota’s last year before statehood.
‘Cooked up a scheme’
The story dates back to the legislative session of 1857, the last for the Minnesota territory.
Several legislators were businessmen from towns around St. Peter. They were also owners or otherwise connected to a land company buying up tracts in the area in the mid-1800s. If they could use their influence to make St. Peter the fledgling state’s political capital, they’d make a killing.
“They cooked up a scheme to move the capital city from St. Paul to St. Peter, which would, of course, benefit them greatly, if they could have people come in and buy the property that they've acquired and to create the capital city in the land that they owned,” said Brian Pease, historic site manager at the Minnesota State Capitol.
St. Peter leaders were so convinced they’d win the capital they built a broad thoroughfare running through downtown and named it Minnesota Street. They also built a temporary Capitol building.
Lawmakers took the cue and introduced the bill to both houses of the Territorial Legislature. It passed in both the House and the council, a body similar to the modern-day Senate.
To finish the deal, though, it had to be brought to the governor for his signature.
That’s where it gets really interesting.
‘Hiding out in one of the hotels’
As “enroller of bills,” lawmaker Joe Rolette was tasked with delivering the physical bill to the territorial governor’s desk for signing. But he was also opposed to moving the capital to St. Peter. Five days out from the end of session, Rolette and the bill were nowhere to be found.
Rumors began to spread about his whereabouts. Some thought Rolette, a fur trader, went back home to Pembina, a hamlet near the Canadian border in what’s now North Dakota. The reality was a little different.
“He was hiding out in one of the hotels in St. Paul and basically just spending his time. He spent several days and it's hard to know what he did, but a lot of people say there was a lot of, you know, drinking and card playing as he was wilding away at the time,” said Pease.
The Legislature’s sergeant-at-arms supposedly sent men to track him down, to no avail.
“Some people believe the sergeant-at-arms was in cahoots with Joe Rolette, knowing full well where he was, and some people claim he was also playing cards," Pease said.
Rolette had secured the enrolled bill in a safe in a hotel and hid away. Since it was near the end of session, the Senate had called roll, which meant all members could not leave the chamber. They ended up eating and sleeping there for five days.
During this time, they even tried to make a copy of the bill, but a judge ruled it unconstitutional.
Rolette finally surfaced with the bill, walking in nearly as the gavel called the end of session. It was too late. St. Paul would be the capital of the new state of Minnesota.
Rolette was considered a hero as “the man who kept the capital in St. Paul.” He was even commemorated in two paintings, one of which hangs in a hearing room in the Capitol.
After the bill failed that session, they never tried again. Other legislators pivoted and tried to move the capital to land they had purchased in Kandiyohi County, but that never stuck either.
Two great river towns
Despite losing the capital battle, St. Peter turned out fine.
Nestled in south-central Minnesota, the town of 12,000 spans a valley between the state’s rolling bluffs. It can boast that it’s the home of Gustavus Adolphus College, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts colleges. Quaint shops run along Minnesota Street’s broad lanes. Five state governors have called it home.
St. Peter and St. Paul share more similarities than differences, said Frentz, the lawmaker hoping to make St. Peter the state’s honorary capital.
“Well, they both have great rivers running through them,” he said. “They both have a history of the 1800s and I think they represent a lot of the great virtues of the people of Minnesota: hard work, family, respect.”
Over the years, Sandeen and other archivists have worked to pinpoint the site of St. Peter’s temporary capitol building. Documents say it was supposed to be between the township of Traverse des Sioux and St. Peter and that it had to be positioned near the center of a mile-by-mile school section.
Looking through old land maps, Sandeen said he thinks he knows. Like much of the story of how St. Peter nearly got the capital moved, it’s unofficial but still intriguing.
“If you go one block north of Union Street, based on an 1874 map of St. Peter, you'll find a street named Capitol Street,” he said. “And it ends in O-L, referring to a building, as if you would say the Capitol Building is in St. Paul.”
Editor’s note: Anika Besst’s family are natives of St. Peter but she holds no ill will against St. Paul.