For almost two hundred years before Minnesota became a state, French was the primary European language spoken here. After Minnesota became a state, and during the early years of European settlement, many French Canadians migrated here and approximately 79 French-speaking towns and communities were formed in Minnesota. Many of our place and street names remind us of the early French influence. French-speaking ancestors in Minnesota and surrounding states numbered in the hundreds of thousands and were important in all sectors of the society which built our state and region into what it is today.
