What was the Census war?

In 1890, a census was about to be taken. Two cities were in competition with each other to have more people. These two cities were Minneapolis and St. Paul. These two cities had almost the exact amount of people. Also, Minneapolis and St. Paul were only a few miles apart in distance. In order to win this competition and have more people in their own city, the people in each city started cheating.

In Minneapolis, the people would count dead people and imaginary people who lived in imaginary houses. St. Paul also was creative by putting over 500 people at a hotel which would not have had that many rooms in it and over 200 people living at a train station. Census takers were arrested for doing this.