Originally Posted by Edie

St. Paul, capitol city of Minnesota started off as a little French village that was visited by fur traders traveling down the Mississippi River in Indian canoes. Its first resident was Pierre Parrant, a French-Canadian voyageur. He was known as Pig's Eye. French-Swiss refugees came down the river seeking homes and landed near Pig's Eye Landing. Homes were built in European peasant style and that became Pig's Eye, Minnesota. Soon the German immigrants came and then the Swedes and Norwegians (they were the Lutherans). The town of Pig's Eye was changed eventually to St. Paul, after St. Paul (the Apostle). We became a very diverse city. We celebrate practically everyone's holiday - Oktoberfest, Svenskarnas Dag, Syttende Mai, Cinco de Mayo, and the ever popular St. Urho's Day (that's when the Finns chased the grasshoppers out of Finland). We had areas around the city, "Little Italy" and "Swede Hollow" (that is where my great aunts lived when they came to St. Paul from Sweden. My great uncle was a Police Officer for the City of St. Paul in the late 1800's/early 1900's.) The Swedes moved out and moved to the East side of St. Paul and then another group moved in and lived there until it was declared unfit for human habitation in 1950 and now it is a City Park. I have a lot of stories of when my aunts lived there - happy, sad, scary and a close knit community.

This is my city, I love it, I always have and I always will.
My husband worked for the City of St. Paul as a laborer for 34 years. We can drive around and he says "I built that", I shoveled those steps, I fixed that alley! He worked the floods in 1964 and 1968. He has put his life into St. Paul, broken bones, Hepatitis, Leukemia, stitches, herniated discs, but we still love St. Paul. We can get angry at it, and if I couldn't live here anymore, where would I go? I would go to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. It is steeped deep in my husband's family as St. Paul is steeped deep in mine!
There is one spot in St. Paul that, to me, is awesome. You can stand in one spot and make a complete 360 degree circle and see every mode of transportation - airport, the river, the railroad tracks, the bike trails, the walking paths, the roads for driving - all of this within about one block. No wonder Pig's Eye loved this area. And I do too. Edie