Minnesotan Globalization History

Once Minnesota became a state in 1858, it was quickly settled by German, English, and Scandinavian immigrants. The fur and lumber trades, which had predominately run Northern territory economics, were replaced by iron mining in the north, wheat milling in central Minnesota, and farming in the south. With the rise of wheat milling came the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, positioned between the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. Within twenty years, the rise of cities led to a rise in population and the inevitable urban sprawl, leaving rings of suburbs as the cities expanded. By 1870, main townships outside of the Twin Cities began to split into towns and villages. Out of one such township came the town of Edina, the focus of this paper.

As one of the largest cities in the Midwest, Minneapolis had become a diverse metropolis. The Washburn-Crosby company, later named General Mills, capitalized upon this diversity, using French, Hungarian, and Austrian milling and flour grinding techniques to perfect his flour (277). By this point, Minneapolis was grinding 14.1% of the grain in the United States, and was producing almost 25% of US flour (278). As Minneapolis globalized, the city expanded and began to sprawl into the surrounding farmland. Townships spread like wildfires, and soon, the Twin Cities were surrounded by villages of immigrants. Many Irish and French immigrants stayed in St. Paul, many Germans and English populated Minneapolis, while Scandinavian settlers moved north, Austrians to the south, and Germans to the east and west of the

The turn of the century brought industrialized milling, but also bicycles. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of technological progress as well as the “back-to-nature” and environmentalism movements. Minnesota travel posters from the 1950s boast of “ten thousand sparkling blue lakes” (MBT) with “pine rimmed-beaches” perfect for outdoor sports, as well as clean water and “pine-filtered air” (MBT). Keeping with the times, Edina opened the first indoor climate-controlled mall in the nation, Southdale mall (Hesterman, 97), while also advertising the beaches of the 79 swimmable lakes within its borders. It was also during this time that the Edina High School hockey program began to gain strength. Ice hockey, while initially founded in Ontario, Canada, spread throughout the Northeast and Midwestern states. Due to Minnesota’s high number of lakes that freeze over the winter, hockey became both a casual winter game and a fiercely competitive sport. It is necessary to understand Edina’s hockey dynasty to understand the rise of other sports within the community. It is the rise of secondary sports in the shadow of ice-hockey that has caused Edina to take drastic actions against the local environment. Between 1955 to 2016, the Edina high school ice-hockey team has been to the state tournament finals 25 times, and has won the state tournament 13