Between 1854 and 1857, a craze for platting town sites and selling the deeds to settler-colonists swept through Minnesota. Speculators poured into the territory hoping to make their fortunes, and many succeeded. An estimated 700 town sites were platted during this time, though most of them were never developed or were abandoned after a few years. Ultimately, the mania of land speculation ended when the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company went bankrupt in 1857, causing a financial panic through the country.