Carver and the surrounding Minnesota River Valley were occupied by a Native American, pre-Columbian Woodland Culture from approximately 1200 B.C.

[6] Pierre-Charles Le Sueur became the first European to navigate the Minnesota River, and between 1683 and 1700 made explorations of the region on behalf of King Louis XIV of France.

In 1766, Jonathan Carver explored the area on behalf of the British Empire, and made maps as he searched for a western water route that flowed across North America to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1805, French trader Jean-Baptiste Faribault established the Little Rapids trading post just upriver of present-day Carver; the post, on behalf of the Northwest Fur Company, was visited by Voyageurs, Coureur des bois, Dakota Indians, and Christian missionaries.

[6] The 1851 Treaty of Traverse de Sioux, signed between the Dakota and the U.S. Government, legally opened the area to white settlers.

Before the Treaty was fully ratified, Axel Jorgenson, an immigrant from Fredrikshald, Norway, settled in the area by 1852 as a sooner.

In 1854, Jorgenson sold his claim to the Carver Land Company, a group of seven speculators, who planned to plat and develop a town.

[6] By 1855, Carver already had a tailor, a hotel, a boarding house, a building designer, a carpenter, a livery stable, a blacksmith, two shoemakers, and a general store.

Also during this period, the steamboat The Antelope was making daily round trips between Carver and St. Paul, a one-way river run of 32 miles (51 km).

Many settlers sought refuge in Carver due to town's steamboat transportation, which offered evacuation to Fort Snelling, if needed.

[6] The arrival of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway in 1871 marked the decline of Carver's importance, as cargo and passenger traffic quickly shifted to the new mode of transportation.

[6] Carver businesses suffered during the twin events of Prohibition and the Great Depression, causing the city to go into several decades of economic stagnation, leading to the decay of many historic houses and commercial buildings.

The April 1965 flood of the Upper Mississippi River affected the lower part of old Carver and deepened the depression.

[6] On June 25, 1969, Carver-on-the-Minnesota, a non-profit historic preservation organization formed to purchase, renovate and save key properties.

While some progress was made during the 1960s-70s, the deaths of founding members caused the organization to stall and several important buildings were lost.

In 2006, Carver attained Certified Local Government status by the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office.