Kandiyohi Town Site Corporation was organized in 1856, with John Swainson as president. By October of that year, the town site had been surveyed. David Charlton's plat indicates a large central area reserved for the State Capitol with a much smaller area marked "Courthouse Square." The first State Legislature authorized Governor Henry H. Sibley to appoint a commission to assist him in selecting the lands to be granted for the site of the State Capitol. Chosen were J.D. Skinner, W.C. Johnson and Robert Boyle, who left St. Paul on September 1, 1858, and returning only 17 days later. They selected
6,399 acres in Kandiyohi County as the site of the State's Capitol. Their report was approved by Sibley, but not affirmed by the legislature. The next governor, Alexander Ramsey, then appointed Major Abraham Vorker to recommend sites for the Capitol. He also chose the lands in Kandiyohi County. In 1861 the Legislature's House of Representatives approved the report, but the Senate did not. The Civil War and U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 delayed further action until 1869 when the old reports of the Capitol Sites Committees were approved by both the House and the Senate. Governor William R. Marshall vetoed the bill. Two years later, when the matter was again raised in the Legislature, a motion of indefinite postponement was adopted. This led to a flurry of legal activity. Kandiyohi County citizens, led by John S. Fleckten, tried every legal means to force the removal of the Sate Capitol to this county. All such action was ended by the Legislature in 1901, which passed a law providing for the sale of the capitol lands in Kandiyohi County on August 15, 1901.
This project has been financed in part with funds provided by
the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Historical Society from the Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund and the Kandiyohi County Historical Society.
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