This postcard of "Elevator Row" in Clara City, Minnesota, c.1910, shows one of the major reasons rural people have gone to town since the 1880s: to connect to the railroad to sell grain.
Bird's eye view of Minneapolis, Minn., 1891. Author: F. Pezolt. Publisher: Imperial Printing Co. This map offers a not entirely unrealistic representation of the ambitious Minneapolis just before the start of the twentieth century.
Expert Essay: Professor of history Annette Atkins, author of Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out, argues that "the Cities" and Minnesota's other urban and rural centers have made the state more than flyover country.