Picture a chilly March morning in 1872: teams of horses pulling wooden wagons loaded with flour rumble along muddy plank roads toward the Mississippi riverboat docks in St. Paul. Fast-forward 150 years and an MBM Logistics tractor-trailer is gliding up I-35, its biodiesel engine humming while a dispatcher watches its location in real time. Minnesota’s freight backbone has come a long way—and understanding that journey explains why shippers still rely on local carriers today.