The Paper Frontier: How Railroad Graft Built and Broke Early Minnesota
Progress often arrives with a price tag, and in 1854, Minnesota learned exactly how high that cost could be. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad scandal, exploring how territorial elites and federal lobbyists used "paper rail" schemes to carve up the state’s landscape for private gain. From the halls of Washington D.C. to the empty, planned roadbeds left in the wake of the 1857 financial collapse, we examine the collision of Manifest Destiny and corporate greed.
This episode analyzes the systemic corruption surrounding the 1854 Minnesota…
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