St Paul
Capital and river port of Minnesota, in Ramsey County, on the Mississippi River, on the opposite bank of the river to Minneapolis, with which it forms the Twin Cities area; population (2000 est) 287,200. The city is primarily a transport and trading centre. Industries include printing, oil-refining, brewing, food-processing, meat-packing, and the manufacture of electronics, chemicals, plastics, and machinery. Cray Supercomputers are based in St Paul.
History
The French explorer and missionary Father Louis Hennepin visited the area in 1680, which was originally inhabited by the Sioux and Kaposia. Fort Snelling was built on the site in 1817, on land negotiated by treaty in 1805 with the local American Indian population. The area was then settled in 1838 by Pierre Parrant, a French-Canadian trader, who called the settlement Pig's Eye. It was renamed St Paul in 1841 and became the territorial capital in 1847, and the state capital in 1859. Its main growth occurred after the arrival of the first railway in 1862; it remains a major rail centre.
Location The city is situated just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, at a convergence of routes where the high bluffs enclosing the 400 m/1,310 ft wide Mississippi are interrupted by a side valley. The Wold Chamberlain International Airport lies in a fork of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, and serves both St Paul and Minneapolis, whose centres lie 13 km/8 mi apart on either side of the Mississippi. |
Education, culture, and entertainment Numerous institutions of higher education, many of which are church-related, include the Metropolitan State University (1971), situated in Midway between the two cities; Hamline University (1854); Macalester College (1874); and the Luther Theological Seminary (1869). Other religious institutions are the University of St Thomas (1885) and Concordia University (1893). Features include St Paul City Hall and Courthouse (1930), which is a 20-storey Art Deco building. The city holds an annual festival, Taste of Minnesota (1982), and is the home of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. Cultural foundations include the Minnesota Museum of Art, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Children's Museum. St Paul is also the birthplace of the writer F Scott Fitzgerald, politician and diplomat Frank Kellogg, and jurist Warren Burger. |
St Paul
| Oratorio by Mendelssohn, Op. 36, first performed in Düsseldorf at the Lower Rhine Festival on 22 May 1836. It was performed in Liverpool England, on 7 October that same year. |
St Paul
| Town in east-central Alberta, Canada, on Upper Therien Lake, 156 km/97 mi northeast of Edmonton; population (1991) 4,900. In an agricultural region, it has grain elevators and feed and flour mills, processes fruit and dairy products, and has some light industry. It is also a lake resort. |
| Originally reserved in 1895 for a Métis settlement (descendants of French Canadians and Native North Americans), the town opened to other settlers in 1909. A Canadian National Railway line arrived in 1920. Saddle Lake Indian Reserve (population (1991) 1,900) is nearby. |
