Cities of Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,918 in the 2000 census and 84,397 according to July 1, 2007 census estimates.The Duluth MSA had a population of 275,486 in 2000. At the westernmost point of the Great Lakes on the north shore of Lake Superior, Duluth is linked to the Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away via the Great Lakes and Erie Canal/New York State Barge Canal or Saint Lawrence Seaway passages and is the Atlantic Ocean's westernmost deep-water port.
Duluth forms a metropolitan area with Superior, Wisconsin. Called the Twin Ports, these two cities share the Duluth-Superior Harbor and together are one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes, shipping coal, iron ore (taconite), and grain. As a tourist destination for the Midwest, Duluth features America's only all-freshwater aquarium, the Great Lakes Aquarium, the Aerial Lift Bridge which spans the short canal into Duluth's harbor, "Park Point", the world's longest freshwater sandbar, spanning 6 miles, and is a launching point for the North Shore.
The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the first known European explorer of the area.

Lake City is a city in Goodhue and Wabasha counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It lies along Lake Pepin, a wide portion of the Mississippi River. The population was 4,950 at the 2000 census. Most of Lake City lies in Wabasha County, with only a small portion of in Goodhue County.
The City of Lake City is located 65 miles South of the Twin Cities at the intersection of highways 61 South and 63 North right on the Mighty Mississippi River at a beautiful spot called Lake Pepin. Lac de Pleurs (Lake of Tears) was the name given to Lake Pepin by Father Louis Hennepin, who camped on the shore of the lake in 1680. He christened the large body of water Lac de Pleurs after observing his Sioux captors weeping near the lake over the death of a chief's son. The war party of Isanti Sioux had captured Hennepin and his two companions several miles south along the Mississippi and were camping near the lake on their return north to their Sioux villages near present day Mille Lacs.
The first known settler was Jacob Boody, who arrived in 1853. In the years to follow, several explorers passed through this area. The town was platted in 1855. The town supervisors were given special powers by the State Legislature in 1864 to create a port market for grain. At Lake City the waters of Lake Pepin were deep enough to allow for such a port. Soon the town became noted as a profitable market with the volume of trade for the year 1866 bringing in a little over a million and a half dollars.
The City of Lake City became incorporated in 1872 and since has continued to thrive in its location on beautiful Lake Pepin. It is widely known for its attractive surroundings and bountiful fishing for every fresh water species.

Minneapolis (pronounced /ˌmɪniˈæpəlɪs/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County.[5] The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, these two form the core of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the sixteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 3.5 million residents.The Metropolitan Council estimated the city's population was 390,131 in 2009.
The city is abundantly rich in water with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Minneapolis was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle.Named America's most literate city,Minneapolis has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and through private and corporate philanthropy.
The name Minneapolis is attributed to the city's first schoolmaster, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.[9][10] Minneapolis is nicknamed the "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City".
Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until French explorers arrived around 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built in 1819 by the United States Army, spurred growth in the area. The United States Government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.

Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, it is perhaps best known as the home of Mayo Clinic (giving rise to the city's nickname, "Med City") and is also home to an IBM facility. The city was estimated to have population of 101,659 according to the Census' 2008 American Community Survey released in 2009,[3] making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area, consisting of Olmsted, Dodge, and Wabasha counties, had an estimated population of 182,924 as of 2009.[4] The city has long been a fixture on Money magazine's "Best Places to Live" index, and was ranked number 67 on the 2006 list[5] but did not make the top 100 in 2009.[6]
The area was home to nomadic Sioux, Ojibwa, and Winnebago tribes of Native Americans. In 1851, the Sioux ceded the land to Minnesota Territory in the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, which opened the land for settlement.
Rochester itself was founded by George Head in 1854; his land claim is now part of the city's business district.[7] Originally from Rochester, New York, Head had settled in Waukesha, Wisconsin before moving west to Minnesota. He named the village on the South Fork of the Zumbro River after his New York hometown, and built a log cabin his family operated as Head's Tavern. By 1856, the population had grown to 50; and by 1858, it was 1,500. The territorial legislature created Olmsted County on February 20, 1855, with Rochester named county seat in 1857. Rochester developed as a stagecoach stop between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Dubuque, Iowa. When the railroad arrived in the 1860s, it brought new residents and business opportunities. In 1863, Dr. William W. Mayo arrived as the examining surgeon for draftees in the Civil War.
On August 21, 1883, the Great Tornado demolished much of Rochester, leaving thirty-seven dead and about two hundred injured. There was no medical facility at the time, so Dr. Mayo and his two sons worked together to care for the wounded. $60,000 in donations were collected and the Sisters of St. Francis, assisted by Dr. Mayo, opened a new facility named St. Marys Hospital in 1889.[8] The Mayo practice grew and is today among the largest and most well-respected medical facilities in the world. Many famous people from around the world, including former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and King Hussein of Jordan, have visited Rochester as patients of the Mayo Clinic.
Rochester is perhaps best known around the world as the home of the Mayo Clinic, which is consistently rated as one of the top hospitals in the United States.
Mayo Clinic got its start in 1863 when Dr. William Worrall Mayo, an immigrant from England moved to Rochester. Over the next few years, Dr. Mayo's brothers joined him in practice in Rochester. Twenty years later, in 1883, a devastating tornado hit Rochester. The sisters at the local Saint Francis proposed to build a new hospital if and only if Dr. Mayo provided health care for it. Nine years later, St. Mary's hospital opened with 27 beds. [12]. Over the next handful of years, various doctors and physicians joined up with the Mayo family, including Dr. Henry Stanley Plummer, who is considered by many American physicians to be the "architect of the modern medical practice" and a primary reason for Mayo Clinic's early success. He designed many of the systems which are now universally used around the world today, such as a shared, individual dossier-style medical record and an interconnecting telephone system.
Today, Mayo Clinic has hospitals and clinics in Jacksonville, Florida, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Phoenix, Arizona and offers other smaller clinics and hospitals around Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The headquarters in Rochester offer a number of services including basic and specialty medical services, Mayo Medical School, Mayo Graduate School, and even departments for custom computer software.
Around 30,000 people work for Mayo alone in Rochester, the majority of whom work down-town. In 2007, annual revenue at Mayo Clinic grew 10%, to $6.9 billion.[13] Although Mayo does not own the tallest building in Rochester anymore, it is responsible for eight of the ten tallest buildings in Rochester—the tallest Mayo building being the Gonda Building at 305 feet tall.
Mayo Clinic is led by President and CEO, Denis Cortese, MD, who earns approximately US $745,000 per year.[14] In May 2009, it was announced that when Cortese retires in November 2009, Dr. John Noseworthy who is currently the Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Department of Development will be named the new President and CEO[15]
Rochester's second biggest employer is IBM employing between 3000 and 4000 people. In fact, the IBM facility in Rochester is the company's largest under one roof in the world. The building is approximately one mile long and encompasses over half the total square footage of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Finished in 1958, the facility was designed by Eero Saarinen, who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1990, the site was recognized by the National Building Museum as being one of the significant contributions IBM has made to the built environment.
Besides being a very large facility, the facility itself has been a very important one for IBM business-wise. Perhaps the most known product to come out of IBM Rochester is the AS/400, now known as System i, a powerful and popular business server solution. Other products developed at the site include hard disks, System p, RS/6000, and various other confidential projects.
IBM Rochester also extends off site a few blocks into what is known as the White Buildings. There are two distinct operations at the White Buildings. The first is technical support for people such as system admins of a System i or System p. The other is an Executive Briefing Center where executives of other companies IBM deals with are brought in. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies also leases out space at IBM Rochester.

Saint Paul (pronounced /ˌseɪnt ˈpɔːl/, abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital and second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city. Known as the "Twin Cities", these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.5 million residents.The city's population at the 2000 census was 287,151. Saint Paul serves as the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota.
Founded near historic Native American settlements as a trading and transportation center, the city rose to prominence when it was named the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849. Though Minneapolis is more nationally recognized, Saint Paul contains important institutions and the state's political activity.[5] Regionally, the city is popular for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild,[6] and for the Science Museum of Minnesota.[7][8] As a business hub of the Upper Midwest, it is headquarters for companies such as Ecolab and Lawson Software.[9] St. Paul, along with its Twin City, Minneapolis, is known for its high literacy rate. It is the only city in the US, with a population of 250,000 or more, to increase the circulation number of Sunday newspapers in 2007.
The settlement originally began at present-day Lambert's Landing but was referred to as Pig's Eye, when Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant established a popular tavern there. When Fr. Lucien Galtier, the first Catholic pastor of the region, established the Log Chapel of St. Paul (shortly thereafter to become the first location of the Cathedral of St. Paul), he made it known that the settlement was now to be called by that name, as "St. Paul as applied to a town or city was well appropriated, this monosyllable is short, sounds good, it is understood by all Christian denominations...".