Central Minnesota
Central Minnesota is the central part of the state of
Geography
The northern part of the region contains many softwood forests, including the expansive Chippewa National Forest. The western and southern parts are dotted with rolling prairie, and have the region's largest agricultural operations. The region's eastern part has many hardwood and softwood forests, and once had rich iron ore deposits. The now depleted Cuyuna Range, which formed the southwestern border of the large Iron Range, was near Crosby and Ironton, at the region's eastern edge.
One thing all of central Minnesota has is abundant lakes. A typical image of central Minnesota includes the many large and small lakes that surround the cities of St. Cloud (by far the region's largest city), Alexandria, Brainerd, and other settlements.
Two lakes in the region, Mille Lacs Lake, with an area of 206 mi2 (534 km2), and Leech Lake, with an area of 175 mi2 (453 km2), are, respectively, the second- and third-largest lakes entirely within Minnesota. The Mississippi River winds extensively through the region from its source at Lake Itasca.
Area high school athletic conferences acknowledge the region's location and natural geography with names including Central Lakes,[1] Granite Ridge, Great River, [2] Heart O'Lakes,[3] Mid-State,[4] and Pine to Prairie.[5]
Economy
Central Minnesota's economy, like that of the United States as a whole, has recently shifted away from agriculture and mining toward industry and service. But agriculture is still important in the region, especially the southern and western parts, where the land and soil is conducive to crops such as corn and soybeans. Dairy farms also dot the region in areas where crops cannot easily be grown, but their numbers have been drastically dwindling in recent years. Paper companies own expansive amounts of land in the region's heavily forested eastern and northern parts, but logging activity has long since peaked. Paper production mills continue to operate in Brainerd and Sartell.
Tourism has become an important industry in the region in the last few decades, fueled largely by its lakes. Many of the region's cities see their populations swell in the summer, when people from the larger metropolitan areas of
Culture
The ethnic makeup of central Minnesota is largely representative of the first settlers who came to the region. People of
The 1996 film Fargo and its television series are largely set in the region's cities of Brainerd and Bemidji, but central Minnesotans' accents are not as pronounced as those in the franchise. The central Minnesotan dialect resembles that of the entire Upper Midwest.
Cities
Central Minnesota is home to one
- Saint Cloud (pop. 66,389)
- Sartell (pop. 16,523)
- Sauk Rapids (pop. 13,348)
- Waite Park (pop. 7,469)
- St. Joseph (pop. 6,820)
- St. Augusta (pop. 3,545)
Brainerd μSA (pop. 91,067)
Other Central Minnesota cities include:
- Bemidji (pop. 15,404)
- Elk River (pop. 25,835)
- Fergus Falls (pop. 13,419) (one county east of the Wahpeton, ND μSA)
- Alexandria (pop. 14,335)
- Fargo-Moorhead MSA)
- Little Falls (pop. 8,689)
Higher education
Central Minnesota is home to the following colleges and universities:
Four-year colleges
- College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
- St. Cloud State University
- University of Minnesota Morris
Two-year colleges
- Alexandria Technical and Community College
- Central Lakes College
- Minnesota State Community and Technical College (Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, and Wadena campuses)
- Northwest Technical College
- St. Cloud Technical and Community College
Notable residents
Notable people who hail from central Minnesota, with the names of cities they grew up in listed in parentheses, include:
- Brian Kobilka (Little Falls)
- Charles Lindbergh (Little Falls)
- Sinclair Lewis (Sauk Centre)
- Eugene McCarthy (Watkins)
- Gig Young (St. Cloud)
- Lesley J. McNair (Verndale)
External links
- Exploreminnesota.com guide to cities in central portion of state
- Charles Lindbergh State Historic Site
- Judy Garland Museum
- Lake Itasca Region Pioneer Farmers
Convention and visitors bureaus in the region
- Alexandria Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Bemidji Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Brainerd Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Detroit Lakes Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Fergus Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Grand Rapids Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Little Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Saint Cloud Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Wadena Chamber of Commerce