The area was one of the first areas settled west of the upper Mississippi. French Fur traders and later agriculture made it a busy port town and could have rivaled Chicago for prominence were it not for the Eire canal which opened up the upper Midwest to water borne trade with the east and further with out the hazards of navigating the then treacherousness Mississippi. Since this was the largest concentration of Catholics west of the Mississippi north of St. Louis it was designated a diocese in the early 1800's and later an Archdiocese. I believe Minneapolis was at onetime a suffragan diocese.
That and it happens to be the home diocese of conseervonator and family :)
Thanks, good info.