Central Minnesota is the central part of the state of Minnesota. No definitive boundaries of the region exist, but most definitions would include the land north of Interstate 94, east of U.S. Highway 59, south of U.S. Highway 2, and west of U.S. Highway 169.
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, Granite Ridge, Great River, Heart O'Lakes, Mid-State, and Pine to Prairie.
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 Minneapolis/St. Paul, Duluth, Fargo, and Grand Forks come to enjoy fishing and other outdoor activities on the region's lakes. The cluster of lakes around Brainerd known as the Brainerd Lakes Area are probably the best-known, thanks in part to the many Twin Cities residents who own cabins or land on or near the area's biggest lakes. In addition, several esteemed resorts are on Gull Lake.
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The ethnic makeup of central Minnesota is largely representative of the first settlers who came to the region. People of German and Scandinavian heritage are the majority of the region's residents, though there is also a sizable Native American population. Two of the state's largest reservations, the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and the White Earth Indian Reservation, are in central Minnesota, as is the small Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, along the southern shore of Mille Lacs Lake, from near Garrison to Isle.
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.
Central Minnesota is home to one MSA and one μSA.
St. Cloud MSA (pop. 192,510)
Brainerd μSA (pop. 91,067)
Other Central Minnesota cities include:
Central Minnesota is home to the following colleges and universities:
Four-year colleges
Two-year colleges
Notable people who hail from central Minnesota, with the names of cities they grew up in listed in parentheses, include:
Mille Lacs County is a county in the East Central part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,459. Its county seat is Milaca. The county was founded in 1857, and its boundary was expanded in 1860.
Bemidji is a city and the county seat of Beltrami County, in northern Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,574 at the 2020 census. According to 2021 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 15,279, making it the largest commercial center between Grand Forks, North Dakota and Duluth.
Fergus Falls is a city in and the county seat of Otter Tail County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 14,119 at the 2020 census.
Erskine is a city in Polk County, Minnesota. The population was 403 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Grand Forks region.
Sartell is a city in Benton and Stearns Counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota that straddles the Mississippi River. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 19,351 at the 2020 census, making it St. Cloud's most populous suburb and the fourth-largest city in central Minnesota, after St. Cloud, Elk River, and Willmar.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system or Minnesota State, previously branded as MnSCU, comprises 30 state colleges and 7 state universities with 54 campuses throughout Minnesota. The system is the largest higher education system in Minnesota and the third largest in the United States, educating more than 340,000 students annually. It is governed by a 15-member board of trustees appointed by the governor, which has broad authority to run the system. The Minnesota State system office is located in the Wells Fargo Place building in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Forum Communications Company is an American multimedia and technology company headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. With multiple online and print news brands throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Forum Communications offers local news in a variety of digital and broadcast mediums in addition to various niche media brands covering specialty interests.
Area code 218 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is assigned to the largest of Minnesota's original two numbering plan areas (NPAs), although its geographical boundaries have been modified since inception. It comprises roughly the northern half of the state, and includes the cities of Duluth, Hibbing, Brainerd, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, and Moorhead.
Area code 320 is the telephone numbering plan code covering most of central Minnesota, excluding the Twin Cities metro. It was the fourth Minnesota area code, and the first new one in the state in 42 years. It was created in 1996 by carving out of the western part of area code 612, which originally stretched border-to-border from Wisconsin through the Twin Cities to South Dakota.
In the U.S. state of Minnesota, a legislative route is a highway number defined by the Minnesota State Legislature. The routes from 1 to 70 are constitutional routes, defined as part of the Babcock Amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution, passed November 2, 1920. All of them were listed in the constitution until a 1974 rewrite. Though they are now listed separately in §161.114 of the Minnesota Statutes, the definitions are legally considered to be part of the constitution, and cannot be altered or removed without an amendment. Legislative routes with numbers greater than 70 can be added or deleted by the legislature.
Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians or simply the Mississippi Chippewa, are a historical Ojibwa Band inhabiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries in present-day Minnesota.
Minnesota Hockey is the statewide governing body of amateur hockey in Minnesota and an affiliate of USA Hockey. Since 1947, Minnesota Hockey has been providing volunteer services for the development and promotion of all youth hockey in Minnesota. Robert Ridder was the founding president of the MAHA, and affiliated the state group with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States.
The St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in central Minnesota, anchored by the city of St. Cloud. In the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 201,093; a July 1, 2012, estimate by the Census Bureau placed the population at 190,014. As of the 2020 census, the population was 199,671.
The NAB Crystal Radio Awards are presented annually by the National Association of Broadcasters to American radio stations. The award was established in 1987 to recognize radio stations for year-round commitment to community service.
The 2000 United States presidential election in Minnesota took place on November 7, 2000, as part of the 2000 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose ten representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Mille Lacs Lake is a large but shallow lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is located in the counties of Mille Lacs, Aitkin, and Crow Wing, roughly 75 miles north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.
The Red River Valley Conference was formed from a portion of the Lutheran Minnesota Conference of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1912. In 1941, the Red River Valley Conference absorbed the Bismarck and Sheyenne districts of North Dakota, previously of the Minnesota Conference. Originally, the conference included both the Red River Valley as well as North Dakota to the west and extended to the St. Paul District to the east, covering about 300 miles (480 km) west to east and 50 miles (80 km) north to south.
The 2003 Saint John's Johnnies football team represented Saint John's University as a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) during the 2003 NCAA Division III football season. In their 51st season under head coach John Gagliardi, the Johnnies compiled a 14–0 record and won the NCAA Division III championship.
