Why Is The Minnesota / Iowa Border Where It Is Now?

Did you ever wonder why exactly is the Minnesota / Iowa border where it is today? Turns out there is a real reason.

Have you ever thought about why some states in the United States have the shape they have or why some are big while others are rather tiny?

Apparently, Iowa was supposed to be a much larger state than it ended up being.

Author Mark Stein stated that the “most important influences that determined the shapes of the states were the American Revolution, the construction of railroads, the proposal for the Erie Canal, and the issue of slavery.”

Turns out that the drawing of the Minnesota / Iowa border was affected largely due to the issue of slavery.

According to USA Today, “Northerners wanted Iowa and other states in the area to be small and numerous to increase the number of anti-slavery senators from new states, while Southerners wanted the opposite.”

Eventually, there was a compromise that put Iowa's northern border and Minnesota's southern border where it is today.

Iowa's eastern edge runs along the Mississippi River while the western edge runs along the Missouri River.

It was easy to decide Minnesota's southern border when it became a state in 1858.

Iowa's northern border had already been decided over a decade earlier when it became a state in 1846.