This article discuses the history of the ginseng "boom" that took place in Minnesota, including the lower Minnesota River Valley, in the late 1850s. the gathering of wild ginseng root for sale to markets in China was a major economic activity for the region, and helped to mitigate the impact of a financial depression following the bank failures of the Panic of 1857. Ginseng became known as the "weed that saved Minnesota." The author also describes the ginseng market following its boom period, and the shift form wild to cultivated ginseng in the early twentieth century.
