St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States

History | Geography | Immigration | Economy : Top employers | Arts, culture and events | Sites of interest | Sport | Parks and recreation | Colleges | Media | Transport | Major highways

🇺🇸 St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population centre in the state's central region. St. Cloud is the county seat of Stearns County and was named after the city of 🇫🇷 Saint-Cloud, France, which was named after the 6th century French monk Clodoald.

Though mostly in Stearns County, St. Cloud also extends into Benton and Sherburne counties, and straddles the Mississippi River. It is the centre of a contiguous urban area, with Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, St. Joseph, Rockville, and St. Augusta directly bordering the city, and Foley, Rice, Kimball, Clearwater, Clear Lake, and Cold Spring nearby. The St. Cloud metropolitan area had a population of 199,671 at the 2020 census. It has been listed as the fifth-largest metro with a presence in Minnesota, behind Minneapolis–St. Paul, Duluth–Superior, Fargo-Moorhead, and Rochester. But the entire St. Cloud area is within Minnesota, while most of Fargo-Moorhead's population is in North Dakota and Superior, Wisconsin, contributes significant population to the Duluth area.

St. Cloud is 65 miles (105 km) north-west of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–St. Paul along Interstate 94, U.S. Highway 52 (conjoined with I-94), U.S. Highway 10, Minnesota State Highway 15, and Minnesota State Highway 23. The St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is made up of Stearns and Benton Counties. The city was included in a newly defined Minneapolis–St. Paul–St. Cloud Combined Statistical Area (CSA) in 2000. St. Cloud as a whole has never been part of the 13-county MSA comprising Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington and parts of western Wisconsin.

St. Cloud State University, Minnesota's third-largest public university, is located between the downtown area and the Beaver Islands, which form a maze for a two-mile stretch of the Mississippi. The approximately 30 undeveloped islands are a popular destination for kayak and canoe enthusiasts during safe river levels and flow. and are part of a state-designated 12-mile stretch of wild and scenic river.

St. Cloud owns and operates a hydroelectric dam on the Mississippi, the state's largest city-owned hydro facility, that can produce almost nine megawatts of electricity, about 10% of the total electricity generated by 11 Mississippi hydro dams in Minnesota.

History What is now the St. Cloud area was occupied by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Europeans encountered the Ojibwe and Dakota when they started to trade with Native American peoples.

Minnesota was organized as a territory in 1849. The St. Cloud area was opened up to settlers in 1851 after treaty negotiations with the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) tribe in 1851 and 1852. John Wilson, a Maine native with French Huguenot ancestry and an interest in Napoleon, named the settlement St. Cloud after Saint-Cloud, the Paris suburb where Napoleon had his favorite palace.

St. Cloud was a waystation on the Middle and Woods branches of the Red River Trails used by Métis traders between the Canada–US border at Pembina, North Dakota and St. Paul. The cart trains often consisted of hundreds of oxcarts. The Métis, bringing furs to trade for supplies to take back to their rural settlements, would camp west of the city and cross the Mississippi in St. Cloud or just to the north in Sauk Rapids

The City of St. Cloud was incorporated in 1856. It developed from three distinct settlements, known as Upper Town, Middle Town, and Lower Town, that were established by European-American settlers starting in 1853. Remnants of the deep ravines that separated the three are still visible today. Middle Town was settled primarily by Catholic German immigrants and migrants from eastern states, who were recruited to the region by Father Francis Xavier Pierz, a Catholic priest who also ministered as a missionary to Native Americans.

Lower Town was founded by settlers from the Northern Tier of New England and the mid-Atlantic states, including former residents of upstate New York. Lower Town's Protestant settlers opposed slavery.

Upper Town, or Arcadia, was plotted by General Sylvanus Lowry, a slaveholder and trader from Kentucky who brought slaves with him, although Minnesota was organized as a free territory. He served on the territorial Council from 1852 to 1853 and was elected president of the newly formed town council in 1856, serving for one year (the office of mayor did not yet exist).

Jane Grey Swisshelm, an abolitionist newspaper editor who had migrated from Pittsburgh, repeatedly attacked Lowry in print. At one point Lowry organized a "Committee of Vigilance" that broke into Swisshelm's newspaper office and removed her press, throwing it into the Mississippi River. Lowry started a rival paper, The Union.

The US Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott ruled that slaves could not file freedom suits and found the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, so the territory's prohibition against slavery became unenforceable. Nearly all Southerners left the St. Cloud area when the Civil War broke out, taking their slaves with them. Lowry died in the city in 1865.

Beginning in 1864, Stephen Miller served a two-year term as Minnesota governor, the only citizen of St. Cloud ever to hold the office. Miller was a "Pennsylvania German businessman", lawyer, writer, active abolitionist, and personal friend of Alexander Ramsey. He was on the state's Republican electoral ticket with Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Steamboats regularly docked at St. Cloud as part of the fur trade and other commerce, although river levels were not reliable. This ended with the construction of the Coon Rapids Dam in 1912–14. Granite quarries have operated in the area since the 1880s, giving St. Cloud its nickname, "The Granite City".

In 1917, Samuel Pandolfo started the Pan Motor Company in St. Cloud. Pandolfo claimed his Pan-Cars would make St. Cloud the new Detroit but the company failed at a time when resources were directed toward the World War I effort. He was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to defraud investors.

According to documents at the Stearns History Museum, more than 2000 residents from the heavily German Catholic St. Cloud area served in the U.S. military during World War I. President Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter to the local Catholic bishop thanking him for his support of the war effort.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 41.08 square miles (106.40 km²); 40.04 square miles (103.70 km²) is land and 1.04 square miles (2.69 km²) is water.

The city developed on both sides of the Mississippi River. Part of the Sauk River runs along its northern edge.

Just south of downtown is the 7-acre, 35-feet-deep Lake George. In 2021, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) credited decade-long city investments in stormwater filtration with reducing Lake George's phosphorus levels well below the state standard. It called Lake George one of three "success stories" in the state, and planned to remove it from a list of impaired waters.

Granite bedrock quarried in the area has been estimated to be 1.7 billion years old and was exposed after several miles of rock above it eroded. The city lies on a band of modern Mississippi river sediment surrounded by land scoured several times by Wisconsin Age glaciers beginning about 35,000 years ago, ending with the Lake Superior St. Croix lobe. The later Des Moines lobe created glacial moraines and drift south and east of the city.

Immigration St. Cloud has been a significant destination for immigrants throughout its history, beginning with German settlers in the late 19th century. This was followed by waves of Polish, Irish, and other European immigrants in the early 20th century. In the late 20th and early 21st century, the nature of immigration to St. Cloud has undergone a dramatic shift. New residents of the city have predominantly been from Africa, and particularly, from the war-torn country of Somalia. Unofficial estimates suggest that the number of Somalis in St. Cloud and the surrounding cities like Waite Park, St. Joseph, Sartell, and Sauk Rapids could be as high as 25,000, with approximately half of this population having moved to the city between 2009 and 2013. About 15% of the local school district being Somali and a large segment of Somalis currently enrolled in high schools, colleges, and universities. Home ownership among St. Cloud’s Somali community is considerably lower than other populations.

Economy: Top employers According to St. Cloud's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 CentraCare Health System St. Cloud Hospital; 2 State of Minnesota / St. Cloud State University; 3 St. Cloud VA Health Care System; 4 St. Cloud School District; 5 Fullfillment Distribution Center; 6 Stearns County; 7 New Flyer of America Inc.; 8 Capital One; 9 Coborns Inc.; 10 Anderson Trucking.

Arts, culture and events In 2019 the city of Saint Cloud, Minnesota was awarded three first places awards from the Rome based International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom), one of several most livable cities awards. The city won the first-place whole city award for its size and first-place for cities of all sizes for Enhancement of landscapes and public spaces, Arts, culture and heritage management and Community participation and empowerment. The international organization praised the city for its focus on improving parkland and trails, as well as its enhancements and maintenace of 96 parks. The city has been a finalist at the LivCom awards four times since 2007.

The St. Cloud Area Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes an area events calendar, dining and lodging information. The city-owned St. Cloud River's Edge Convention Center hosts a variety of events including regional conferences, consumer/trade shows, small group meetings and social events.

Sites of interest • Cathedral of Saint Mary, the largest church serving the oldest parish in the community, built in the 1920s in the Italian Romanesque style. The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud. • The St. Cloud Commercial Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Cloud is a Preserve America Community. • St. Cloud State University. • Great River Regional Library, a six-county regional system serving 32 communities. The system houses nearly 1 million books, CDs and DVDs and 250 public computers and schedules a list of events. • Munsinger Gardens and Clemens Gardens, extensive flower gardens dating from the 1930s. In 2023, ranked number 100 in a list of best public gardens in the United States, by "Good Plant Care" website. • Quarry Park and Nature Preserve, a public park in neighboring Waite Park that features 20 granite quarries, hiking, biking and ski trails. Part of the Stearns County park system. • Paramount Theatre and Visual Arts Center, a restored 706-seat theater, built in 1921. • St. Cloud Hospital, part of CentraCare Health, was founded in 1886 as St. Benedict's Hospital. The regional health system also includes six Critical Access hospitals, Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar and numerous outreach and outpatient clinics and services. • Stearns History Museum, with two floors of exhibits, a research area, a museum store, and a 100-acre (0.40 km²) nature park. The only county museum in Minnesota accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. • Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame, dedicated to preserving Minnesota's baseball history. • St. Cloud River's Edge Convention Center, a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) meeting centre overlooking the Mississippi River. • St. Cloud Regional Airport, providing scheduled commercial turboprop passenger service, private, corporate, cargo and military operations. • St. Cloud Technical and Community College, a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. • Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud, built in 1889, housing nearly 1,000 prisoners. • Midtown Square Mall, a shopping mall with more than 50 tenants • Crossroads Center, a shopping mall with more than 100 tenants.

Sport The city is home to: • the St. Cloud State University Division I ice hockey teams. Men's Husky Hockey competes in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Women's Husky Hockey competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The men's team has made nine NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship appearances, notably advancing to the 2021 championship game in Pittsburgh, Penn. The 2012-13 team's co-captain and fifth-year forward, Drew LeBlanc, was named WCHA Player of the Year and earned numerous national honors, including the Hobey Baker Award, the most prestigious award in men's college hockey. The 2013 team also earned a share of the WCHA league title and its symbol, the century-old MacNaughton Cup. The Huskies play in the 5,763-seat Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, which underwent a $18 million renovation and expansion in 2012–13. • the St. Cloud Norsemen, a Tier II junior hockey team at the Municipal Athletic Complex. • the Granite City Lumberjacks, a Tier III junior hockey team in nearby Sauk Rapids. • the St. Cloud Rox (formerly the River Bats) of the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. The Rox play at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud and were founded in 2012. • the Saint Cloud Area Roller Dolls, a flat-track roller derby league founded in 2011. • the Saint Cloud River Runners club, who put on the Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon, an annual event in central Minnesota. The race is used as a Boston-qualifying event for runners who want a straight, quiet, scenic, mostly flat route in the early spring. • the Granite City FC is a minor league soccer team founded in 2016. It currently plays in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL).

Parks and recreation The city maintains 95 parks, totaling more than 1,400 acres (5.7 km²) and ranging in size from 80 acres (0.32 km²) "neighborhood and mini parks" to 243 acres (0.98 km²). The largest developed park, Whitney Memorial Park, is the former location of the city airport. It features a recreation centre for senior citizens, a dog park, and numerous softball, baseball, and soccer fields.

Colleges St. Cloud is home to several higher education institutions, including Minnesota's third-largest university, St. Cloud State University. St. Cloud State's fall 2020 enrollment was 12,607, in a year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

St. Cloud's other post-secondary institutions and campuses include St. Cloud Technical and Community College (SCTCC) and Rasmussen College. Neighboring Sartell is home to a campus of the Duluth-based College of St. Scholastica, and the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University are in neighboring St. Joseph and nearby Collegeville, respectively.

Media The main newspaper is the St. Cloud Times, a Gannett daily newspaper.

St. Cloud is part of the Twin Cities television market. One full-power station, the Ion-owned KPXM-TV (channel 41), is licensed to the city, but moved its transmitter to the Twin Cities in 2009 as part of the digital transition, and maintains no presence in the city. WCMN-LD (channel 13) is a low-power station licensed to St. Cloud that broadcasts in ATSC 3.0. Additionally, St. Cloud State University students operate cable-only UTVS (channel 180), which includes local news and broadcasts from a studio on campus.

Transport St. Cloud is a regional transportation hub within Minnesota. Major roadways including Interstate Highway 94, U.S. Highway 10, and Minnesota State Highways 15 and 23 pass through the city.

Bus service within the city and to neighboring Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and Waite Park is offered through St. Cloud Metro Bus, which was recognised in 2007 as the best transit system of its size in North America. An innovative system gives transit buses a slight advantage at stoplights in order to improve efficiency and on-time performance. The Metro Bus Transit Center in the downtown area is also shared with Jefferson Lines, providing national bus service.

Bus service links downtown St. Cloud and St. Cloud State University with the western terminus of the Northstar Commuter Rail line in Big Lake, by the way of Northstar Link Commuter Bus, which in turn links to the Metro Transit bus and light rail system at Target Field Station in downtown Minneapolis.

Several rail lines run through the city, which is a stop on Amtrak's Empire Builder passenger rail line.

St. Cloud is home to St. Cloud Regional Airport, from which daily connecting flights to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport were made on Delta Connection, operated by Mesaba Airlines, until January 1, 2010, when the service was discontinued. On December 15, 2012, Allegiant Air began nonstop flights between St. Cloud Regional Airport and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, on McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft.

Major highways • Interstate 94 • U.S. Highway 10 • Minnesota State Highway 15 • Minnesota State Highway 23.

Saint Paul, Minnesota 
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Image: Adobe Stock andreykr #175831251

St. Cloud was ranked #864 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. St. Cloud has a population of over 68,040 people. St. Cloud also forms the centre of the wider St. Cloud metropolitan area which has a population of over 201,093 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for St. Cloud see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities St. Cloud has links with:

🇯🇵 Akita, Japan 🇫🇷 Saint-Cloud, France 🇩🇪 Spalt, Germany
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | Nomad

Antipodal to St. Cloud is: 85.833,-45.55

Locations Near: St. Cloud -94.1667,45.55

🇺🇸 Saint Cloud -94.167,45.55 d: 0  

🇺🇸 Elk River -93.567,45.317 d: 53.5  

🇺🇸 Brainerd -94.202,46.355 d: 89.5  

🇺🇸 Anoka -93.383,45.183 d: 73.5  

🇺🇸 Chaska -93.617,44.817 d: 92.2  

🇺🇸 Eden Prairie -93.467,44.85 d: 95.2  

🇺🇸 Shakopee -93.517,44.783 d: 99.3  

🇺🇸 Blaine -93.233,45.15 d: 85.4  

🇺🇸 Edina -93.35,44.883 d: 97.9  

🇺🇸 Minneapolis -93.265,44.978 d: 95  

Antipodal to: St. Cloud 85.833,-45.55

🇦🇺 Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 17140.7  

🇦🇺 Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 17080.3  

🇦🇺 Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 17062.4  

🇦🇺 City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 17047  

🇦🇺 Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 17030.7  

🇦🇺 Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 17030.2  

🇦🇺 Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 17019.7  

🇦🇺 Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 17018  

🇦🇺 Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 17014.5  

🇦🇺 Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 17081.1  

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