Alexandria, Minnesota, United States

🇺🇸 Alexandria is a city in, and the county seat of, Douglas County, Minnesota, United States. First settled in 1858, it was named after brothers Alexander and William Kinkead from Maryland. The form of the name alludes to Alexandria, Egypt, a centre of learning and civilisation.

The village of Alexandria was incorporated February 20, 1877. Its city charter was adopted in 1908, and it was incorporated as a city in 1909. W. E. Hicks was pivotal to the town's early development. He purchased the townsite in 1868 and established a mill, hotel, newspaper, and store. He donated property for a courthouse, jail, and two churches: Methodist and Congregational.

Alexandria is near I-94, along Minnesota State Highways 27 and 29. It is ten miles south of Lake Carlos State Park. In 2013, Alexandria was named a "Top 10 Best Small Town" by the Livability website. The city is often abbreviated as "Alex" (sometimes pronounced "Alec").

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 16.70 square miles (43.25 km²), of which 15.96 square miles (41.34 km²) is land and 0.74 square miles (1.92 km²) is water. Many of the people who live in Alexandria are not calculated into the population because they are spread out of the city and live on and around the many lakes.

Lakes • Lake Carlos • Lake Le Homme Dieu • Lake Mary • Lake Agnes • Lake Andrew • Lake Brophy • Lake Cowdry • Lake Darling • Lake Geneva • Lake Henry • Lake Ida • Lake Latoka • Lake Louise • Mill Lake • Lake Mina • Smith Lake • Lobster Lake • Lake Burgen • Stony Lake • Taylor Lake • Lake Jessie • North Union Lake • Lake Charley • Union Lake • Lake Alvin • Laura Lake • Lake Winona • Lake Victoria • Lake Miltona • Lake Irene • Maple Lake • Lake Reno • Grant Lake • Blackwell Lake • Echo Lake • Lake Oscar • Rachel Lake • Cork Lake • Mud Lake • Vermont Lake • Pocket Lake.

Economy The city is known as a hot spot for tourism, due to its many lakes and resorts. Tourism events include a Grape Stomp hosted by the Carlos Creek Winery every September, an Apple Fest in October, the Douglas County Fair every August, and Art in the Park every July. The city has a museum housing the Kensington Runestone. Outside the museum stands Big Ole, a 25-foot-tall statue of a Viking built for the 1965 World's Fair in New York City. Extensive repairs to Big Ole were completed in 2016. The city hosts the annual Vikingland Band Festival parade marching championship.

Economy: Top employers According to the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission, the area's top employers are: 1 Alomere Health; 2 Douglas Machine, Inc.; 3 Alexandria Public Schools; 4 Knute Nelson; 5 Alexandria Industries; 6 3M; 7 Central Specialties; 8 Douglas County; 9 Brenton Engineering; 10 Aagard.

Education Most children in Alexandria attend school at Alexandria Public Schools, which consists of six kindergarten–5th grade elementary schools (Lincoln, Voyager, Woodland, Carlos, Miltona, Garfield), one 6th–8th grade junior high school (Discovery Middle School), and one new 9th–12th grade senior high school (Alexandria Area High School), which replaced Jefferson High School, which was built in the late 1950s. There are also several independent K–8 Christian schools in the area. Alexandria Technical & Community College offers post-secondary education, including certificate programs, 2-year associate degrees and transferable credits towards 4-year degrees.

Transport County Road 82 SE connects Alexandria to Nelson, Osakis and western Minnesota. Minnesota State Highway 29 connects Alexandria to Glenwood and Parkers Prairie. Interstate 94/U.S. Highway 52 passes through the south end of Alexandria, which allows access to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Fargo-Moorhead.

Public transportation in town (and within the surrounding area) is provided by Rainbow Rider.

Transport: Air The Alexandria Municipal Airport, also known as Chandler Field, is a city-owned public-use airport two nautical miles (3.7 km) south-west of Alexandria's central business district.

Sport The Alexandria Blizzard is a Tier III junior ice hockey team in the North American 3 Hockey League and play out of the Runestone Community Center. From 2006 to 2012, the organization had a Tier II team in the North American Hockey League. The NAHL franchise relocated to Brookings, South Dakota and the current NA3HL franchise took its place.

Viking Speedway hosts weekly Saturday night dirt track racing from April–September and also periodic special, weekend events throughout the year. Five WISSOTA classes run there: Street Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks, Modifieds, and Late Models. Viking Speedway was awarded WISSOTA's "2005 Track of the Year".

One night per summer, a Northwoods League baseball game is held at Knute Nelson Memorial Park. The Willmar Stingers become the Alexandria Beetles to pay homage to the time when Alexandria had its own team. The Beetles were in operation from 2001 to 2012 and were renamed the Alexandria Blue Anchors in 2013. The team folded after the 2015 season.

Media: Print Alexandria Echo Press is Alexandria's twice-weekly newspaper, owned by the Forum Communications Company.

Media: Television From 1958 until 2012, Alexandria had at least one local television station, either KCCO or KSAX, and both are still satellites of Minneapolis, MN television stations. KCCO had a presence, first as KCMT, in 1958, as an NBC and ABC affiliate. It switched to CBS affiliation in 1982. Five years later, KSAX regained ABC's presence as a semi-satellite of KSTP-TV. In that same year, KCCO was bought out and became a semi-satellite of WCCO-TV. In 1992, KCCO became a CBS O&O when CBS acquired WCCO and its two satellites.

During KCCO and KSAX's time as semi-satellites, they broadcast local news, weather, and sports through ten-minute cut-in segments during their parent station's newscast. In 2002, KCCO removed its local presence and became a full satellite of WCCO. In June 2012, cost-cutting measures at KSAX resulted in the layoff of all but two employees and the ending of local cut-in broadcasts by any Alexandria television station.

The Alexandria area is also served by Selective TV, Inc., a non-profit, viewer-supported organization which transmits several cable channels free-to-air over standard UHF television frequencies, viewable in any area home without subscription. Selective TV operates under low power television rules of the FCC and as such was not subject to the analog to digital conversion in 2009. Residents still need a converter box to view KCCO and KSAX on the digital band, though KSAX is still rebroadcast via Selective TV.