[6] Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center of Minnesota's government.

[13] The Legislative Assembly of the Minnesota Territory established the Town of Saint Paul as its capital near existing Dakota Sioux settlements in November 1849.

In the Menominee language Saint Paul was called Sāēnepān-Menīkān, which means "ribbon, silk or satin village", suggesting its role in trade throughout the region after the introduction of European goods.

[22] After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, U.S. Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike negotiated approximately 100,000 acres (40,000 ha; 160 sq mi) of land from the indigenous Dakota in 1805 to establish a fort.

[24] Chief Little Crow III moved his village, Kaposia, from south of Mounds Park across the river a few miles onto Dakota land.

[34] The year 1858 saw more than 1,000 steamboats service Saint Paul,[32] making it a gateway for settlers to the Minnesota frontier or Dakota Territory.

[36] During the 1960s, in conjunction with urban renewal, Saint Paul razed neighborhoods west of downtown for the creation of the interstate freeway system.

The city's 17 Planning Districts are: Saint Paul has a humid continental climate typical of the Upper Midwestern United States.

The city experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including snow, sleet, ice, rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and fog.

The next known inhabitants were the Mdewakanton Dakota in the 17th century, who fled their ancestral home of Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota in response to westward expansion of the Ojibwe nation.

Fort Snelling and Pig's Eye Tavern also brought the first Yankees from New England and English, Irish, and Scottish immigrants, who had enlisted in the army and settled nearby after discharge.

By the 1980s, the Thomas-Dale area, once an Austro-Hungarian enclave known as Frogtown (German: Froschburg), became home to Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian people who had left their war-torn countries.

Other large Southeast Asian populations live in Saint Paul, particularly Burmese Americans of the Karen and Karenni ethnic group, who immigrated to the U.S. as refugees in the 2000s and 2010s due to internal conflict and discrimination in Myanmar.

Burmese and Karen residents of Saint Paul make up 5.2% of the population in 2021, and are most concentrated in the neighborhoods of the North End, Payne-Phalen, and Frogtown.

[62] African Americans in St. Paul initially entered through servitude to officers at Fort Snelling, marking a crucial point in their history.

The Roman Catholic presence comes from Irish, German, Scottish, and French Canadian settlers, later bolstered by Hispanic immigrants.

Projects that have benefited from TIF funding include the St. Paul Saints stadium, and the affordable housing along the Twin Cities Metro Green Line.

[91] Other notable residents include writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and playwright August Wilson, who premiered many of the ten plays in his Pittsburgh Cycle at the local Penumbra Theater.

Great jazz musicians have passed through the influential Artists' Quarter, first established in the 1970s in Whittier, Minneapolis, and moved to downtown Saint Paul in 1994.

Citing the history of hockey in the Twin Cities and teams at all levels, Sports Illustrated called Saint Paul the new Hockeytown U.S.A. in 2007.

[118] On October 23, 2015, Bill McGuire of Minnesota United FC and former Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced that a privately financed soccer-specific stadium would be built on the vacant Metro Transit bus barn site in Saint Paul's Midway neighborhood near the intersection of Snelling Avenue and University Avenue.

[124] Minnesota Frost was awarded one of the six charter franchises in the new league, and it was announced that the new team would play its home games at the Xcel Energy Center.

Several media outlets based in Minneapolis also serve the Saint Paul community, including the Star Tribune.

[152] Its parent company, American Public Media Group, creates and distributes programming that reaches millions listeners, most notably Marketplace, hosted by Kai Ryssdal.

While he was Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman,[156] and remarked that the streets were designed by "drunken Irishmen".

[161] Planning is underway for the Riverview Corridor, a rail line that will connect downtown Saint Paul to the airport and Mall of America.

[164][165] Amtrak's Empire Builder between Chicago and Seattle or Portland stops twice daily in each direction at the newly renovated Saint Paul Union Depot.

[167] A Minnesota Department of Transportation study found that increased daily service to Chicago should be economically viable, especially if it originates in Saint Paul and does not experience delays from the rest of the western route of the Empire Builder.

[168] Based on that proposition, a new Amtrak line, the Borealis, began service on May 21, 2024, running the segment of the Empire Builder route between Saint Paul and Chicago, with several stops along the way, including one in Milwaukee.

After WWII, Holman Airfield competed with the Speedway Field for the Twin Cities' growing aviation industry and lost out in the end.