Is Iowa Really Trying To Buy Part of Minnesota?

For the first few weeks of 2025, we have been bombarded with reports of the United States looking to add Canada as a potential 51st state. It's been an interesting talking point for all of the pundits out there, but seems too far fetched to actually have any chance of ever becoming reality.

Closer to home, there's a movement afoot to try and re-write the map in the Upper Midwest.

A proposal to make nine counties in southern Minnesota part of the state of Iowa has been made its way into the Iowa Legislature.

The bill would authorize Iowa to negotiate with Minnesota the purchase the following counties along the border between the two states (from west to east):

• Rock
• Nobles
• Jackson
• Martin
• Faribault
• Freeborn
• Mower
• Fillmore
• Houston

Bousselot's rationale for the proposal is that those counties were part of the original Iowa Territory.

Both Iowa and Minnesota would have to approve the agreement before it would go to Congress for final approval.

The process hit its first snag this week when a Tuesday (February 21) subcommittee hearing on the bill was canceled. It's unclear if or when it will be rescheduled.

This isn't the first time there's been a proposal to change the border in this part of the country.

Back in 1839, the Iowa Territory (Iowa didn't become a state until 1846), fought with Missouri in what was labeled as the 'Honey War'. The issue was a 9.5-mile-wide strip of land running the entire length of the border, caused by unclear wording in the Missouri Constitution on boundaries, misunderstandings over the survey of the Louisiana Purchase, and a misreading of Native American treaties.

The dispute was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court in Iowa's favor.