You wouldn't guess it, looking at St. Paul today, but Minnesota's capital city began as a squatter's camp. Its first resident was a one-eyed moonshiner named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had twice run afoul of the authorities at nearby Fort Snelling. In the late 1830s, Parrant set up a saloon and shack in a muddy swamp down-river from the fort, and within no time his little settlement had become a popular stopping point for rivermen and settlers. People called the area Pig's Eye Landing until some civic-minded settlers decided to name their town after a little log church that a missionary had built. They called it St. Paul.

In 1847, St. Paul became the capital of the new Minnesota territory. The effect on the village was profound: within three weeks, it doubled in size. Settlers began streaming in, carried to the new capital on steamboats.

At first, fur trading was the big local business. Then it was lumber. Eventually, the railroads arrived and Minnesota's capital became a center of rail commerce. St. Paul prospered and grew. Grand mansions, a majestic Roman Catholic cathedral, river-spanning bridges, and other architectural marvels arose within a short distance of the place where Pig's Eye Parrant had once set up shop. Today you'll find that many of those architectural landmarks have survived in remarkably good condition. They and other attractions such as the Native American burial grounds overlooking the Mississippi River make St. Paul a fascinating place to visit.