Minneapolis, MN
Whither Pig’s Eye? Here’s how the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul got their names.
On the banks of the Mighty Mississippi River roughly 180 years ago, two burgeoning towns in Minnesota, then just a territory in the U.S., were searching for an identity. The Twin Cities each have a unique personality, pace, and history. But in the mid-1800s, both were still searching for what to call their communities.
“The history of Minneapolis is more complicated than we would expect, and just about everything we know about the history of the name St. Paul is wrong,” said Bill Convery, Director of Research for the Minnesota Historical Society.
What other names were suggested besides Minneapolis?
“There was no consensus on what to call it,” Convery said. One idea was All Saints, an effort to sound better than St. Paul or St. Anthony. Technically, a name was officially picked before Minneapolis.
“The Hennepin County commissioners officially named the community Albion,” said Convery.
Albion is the old name for England, and Convery said the idea was to honor settlers who moved to the area from New England.
According to Convery, credit for the creation of the name Minneapolis goes to a schoolteacher named Charles Hoag and a newspaper editor named George Bowman. He says “they jointly share credit for coming up with this hybrid name.” The first part of the name comes from Minnehaha, the Dakota word for waterfall. The second part — the “polis” part — comes from the Greek word for city. Hoag wrote a letter to Bowman suggesting the name. Bowman’s influence with the newspaper was key.
“(Bowman) really ran with it and promoted it heavily and as a result people ignored the name of Albion and really drifted toward this new name of Minneapolis,” said Convery.
St. Paul’s name origin is more straightforward, outside of the myth attached to it. Convery said it begins with a “decrepit old fur trader” named Pierre Parrant. His nickname was Pig’s Eye because he was blind in one eye. Legend has it that Parrant opened a pub bearing his nickname, then lent his nickname to the area as people settled nearby. Convery said people used the name of Parrant’s pub as part of their address to send and receive mail.
“The truth is Pig’s Eye and St. Paul were two entirely different communities,” he said.
In the early 1840s, a Catholic Priest named Luicien Galtier built the area’s first chapel and established its parish, naming it St. Paul. The name earned the respect of settlers.
“It was a name that was very compelling for the French and the Irish catholic immigrants who very quickly populated St. Paul the 1850s, so they embraced that name,” said Convery.
St. Paul’s name became official in 1841, while Minneapolis was made official in 1852 — two communities put on the map and forever connected.
“I think what’s true for both Minneapolis and Saint Paul is that these were popular choices. These were choices of the people,” said Convery.
Although Pig’s Eye didn’t become the official city name, there’s still a park, a lake and many businesses honoring the unique moniker in St. Paul.
A 28-year-old St. Paul woman who admitted in federal court to assaulting law enforcement officers during a protest last year in South Minneapolis has been ordered to pay a $25 fine.
Isabel Lopez was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis after accepting a plea agreement to a lesser misdemeanor charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding a U.S. officer in connection with a protest that broke out while authorities were executing a search warrant that a crowd mistook for an immigration raid in June 2025.
Lopez was originally charged by indictment with three felony counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding officers and one felony count of obstruction of law enforcement.
Lopez faced up to one year in prison on the misdemeanor conviction, however, the defense and prosecution both asked Tunheim for no prison time. The prosecution requested one year of probation, which Tunheim turned down.
According to court documents, law enforcement officers from multiple federal agencies were executing eight search warrants in the Twin Cities on June 3, 2025, related to an investigation into narcotics trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and related offenses.
The investigation began with the discovery of 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage unit, with a street value of between $22 million and $25 million.
Shortly after a search warrant execution began at Cuatro Milpas restaurant on Lake Street, a crowd began to gather.
“The crowd appeared to be under the mistaken belief that law enforcement was present to arrest individuals illegally present in the country for immigration offenses,” the criminal complaint said. “This was incorrect.”
After recognizing the apparent misunderstanding, law enforcement explained the nature of the search warrant to the crowd, according to prosecutors.
As part of her plea agreement, Lopez admitted to hitting an FBI SWAT agent with her arms and closed fist, and kicking another agent. The officers were not injured. As law enforcement attempted to leave the scene, Lopez threw a softball at the back of a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy.
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Employees at a south Minneapolis child care center said they are increasingly concerned about drug use and safety issues, as a homeless encampment grows nearby under the Cedar Avenue and Highway 55 overpass.
Staff at Baby’s Space child care, which has served the neighborhood for more than 25 years, said things have gotten especially bad over the past month.
Yolanda Reyes is an administrative assistant at Baby’s Space, which is just blocks away from the encampment.
“The encampment was moving and then the cops would clear it out, and they’d wait a few hours and they were right back,” said Reyes.
Staff said a fence installed to discourage people from gathering at the encampment has been ineffective. A WCCO camera captured an opening in the fence that allowed people to continue gathering on the sidewalk.
Drug use has become more visible and has moved right outside the child care center’s front door, Reyes said.
“Open use, just freely using their drugs. I had to go out the front door and say, ‘Hey, this is a child care center,’” she said.
The concerns have affected daily activities at the facility. Debbie Lund, executive director for Baby’s Space, said staff worry about what children could encounter while playing outside. She said Minneapolis police now stand watch by their playground.
“It’s hard for us to play outside because we’re not sure what the kids are going to be exposed to,” said Lund.
The concerns have drawn the attention of city leaders. On Tuesday, Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez sent an email to city officials, including Mayor Jacob Frey and Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette, requesting immediate support for unhoused residents in the area.
A city spokesperson said the fencing is temporary to allow time for a better long-term solution, in collaboration with the county, Metro Transit, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, who all have facilities in the area.
In the meantime, the city said they are working to help people move from unsheltered homelessness into stable housing.
Reyes and Lund emphasized that they sympathize with people living in the encampment who are struggling with addiction.
“It’s so hard because our hearts go out to everybody, and yet we really need to keep our children safe,” said Lund.
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