Shakopee, Minnesota, United States

🇺🇸 Shakopee is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Minnesota, United States. It is located south-west of Minneapolis. Sited on the south bank bend of the Minnesota River, Shakopee and nearby suburbs comprise the south-west portion of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the sixteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

The river bank's Shakopee Historic District contains burial mounds built by prehistoric cultures. In the 18th century, Chief Shakopee of the Mdewakanton Dakota established his village on the east end of this area near the water. Trading led to the city's establishment in the 19th century. Shakopee boomed as a commerce exchange site between river and rail at Murphy's Landing.

Once an isolated city in the Minnesota River Valley, by the 1960s the economy of Shakopee was tied to that of the expanding metropolitan area. Significant growth as a bedroom community occurred after U.S. Highway 169 was realigned in 1996 toward the new Bloomington Ferry Bridge.

The city is known for the Valleyfair amusement park and the Canterbury Park racetrack.

History Burial mounds along the Minnesota River bluff, located within the present-day Veterans Memorial Park, have been dated between 500 and 2,000 years old.

Nicollet referred to the "Village of the Six", a permanent Dakota village south of the river, as acting as a boundary to the Ojibwa. However, historians have since situated it east of the present downtown. He noted the village and locality was commonly called the "village of the prairie" (published as tinta ottonwe). The Shakopee band lived in summer bark lodges and winter tipis. They followed the changes of the season when they planted their cornfields.

By the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the Sioux tribe ceded land in 1851 and many relocated to Chief Shakopee II's village. The latter people had moved south to what was later assigned to them as the current Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation in nearby Prior Lake.

In 1851, Thomas A. Holmes established a trading post west of the Dakota and platted Shakopee Village in 1854, named after Chief Shakopee II. The city quickly grew, incorporating in 1857. It surrendered its charter in 1861 due to conflicts in the Dakota War. As tensions lifted, the city incorporated again in 1870. The western end was left in township status and was renamed as Jackson Township, Minnesota in 1861, likely after President Andrew Jackson.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 29.32 square miles (75.94 km²); 28.01 square miles (72.55 km²) is land and 1.31 square miles (3.39 km²) is water.

U.S. Highway 169 and County Highway 101 are two of the main routes in Shakopee. Highway 169 and nearby State Highway 13 connect Shakopee to the rest of the Minneapolis – Saint Paul region. County Highway 101 serves as a major east–west connector route of historic downtown Shakopee.

Economy: Top employers According to a recent Financial Report (CAFR), the top employers in the city include: 1 Valley Fair; 2 Amazon; 3 Emerson; 4 School District No. 720; 5 St. Francis RMC; 6 Canterbury Park; 7 Entrust Datacard; 8 Imagine Print Solutions; 9 Seagate; 10 Scott County.

Arts and culture • Valleyfair is an amusement park. • The Landing is an 88-acre (360,000 m²) historic village located on the Minnesota River, representing Minnesota life from the 1840 to 1890. • Canterbury Park is a horse racetrack and card club. • Minnesota Renaissance Festival is an interactive outdoor event that recreates a fictional 16th Century "England-like" fantasy kingdom. • Downtown Shakopee features numerous boutiques and restaurants, an old-fashioned bakery, Turtle's 1890 Social Center, riverside concerts, and summertime bi-weekly classic car shows. • Scott County Historical Society Museum features the historic 1908 Stans House.