St. Cloud, Minnesota

St. Cloud
City
Buildings on 5th Avenue in downtown in 2008
Nickname(s):  "The Granite City"
Location within Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne Counties
St. Cloud Location within Minnesota St. Cloud Location within the United States Show map of MinnesotaShow map of the United StatesShow all
Coordinates: 45°33′N 94°10′W / 45.550°N 94.167°W / 45.550; -94.167Coordinates: 45°33′N 94°10′W / 45.550°N 94.167°W / 45.550; -94.167
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
Counties	Stearns, Benton, Sherburne
Founded	1856[1]
Government
• Mayor	Dave Kleis
Area [2]
• City	41.05 sq mi (106.33 km2)
• Land	40.00 sq mi (103.61 km2)
• Water	1.05 sq mi (2.72 km2)
Elevation	1,030 ft (314 m)
Population  (2010)[3]
• City	65,842
• Estimate  (2019)[4]	68,462
• Rank	US: 525th MN: 10th
• Density	1,711.38/sq mi (660.77/km2)
• Urban	110,621 (US: 281st)
• Metro	194,418 (US: 222nd)
Time zone	UTC−6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	56301, 56302, 56303, 56304, 56393, 56397, 56398
Area code(s)	320
FIPS code	27-56896
GNIS feature ID	2396483[5]
Website	www.ci.stcloud.mn.us

St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. Its population is 68,462 according to the 2019 US census estimates, making it Minnesota's tenth largest city.^[6] St. Cloud is the county seat of Stearns County^[7] and was named after the city of Saint-Cloud, France (in Île-de-France, near Paris), 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 center of a small, contiguous urban area totaling over 120,000 residents, 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. With 189,093 residents at the 2010 census, the St. Cloud metropolitan area is the fifth-largest in Minnesota, behind Minneapolis–St. Paul, Duluth–Superior, Fargo-Moorhead, and Rochester.

St. Cloud is 65 miles (105 km) northwest 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.^[8] 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,^[9] although its Sherburne County portion is considered part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area by Census Bureau definition.

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^[10] and are part of a state-designated 12-mile stretch of wild and scenic river.^[11]

St. Cloud owns and operates a hydroelectric dam on the Mississippi that can produce up to ten megawatts of electricity.^[12][13]

History[]

What is now the St. Cloud area was occupied by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Europeans encountered the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Winnebago when they started to trade with Native American peoples.^{[citation needed]}

Minnesota was organized as a territory in 1849. The St. Cloud area was opened up to settlers in 1851^[14] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[15] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[16] He served on the territorial Council from 1852 to 1853 and was elected St. Cloud's first mayor in 1856, serving for one year.^[16][17]

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.^[17]

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.^[17] Lowry died in the city in 1865.^[18]

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.^[19]

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.^[20][21]

Geography[]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total 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.^[22] The city is bisected by the Mississippi River, and part of the Sauk River runs along its northern edge. Just south of downtown, near Technical High School, is the 7-acre, 35-feet-deep Lake George.

Climate[]

St. Cloud lies in the warm summer humid continental climate zone (Köppen climate classification Dfb), with warm summers and cold winters with moderate to heavy snowfall. The monthly normal daily mean temperature ranges from 11.6 °F (−11.3 °C) in January to 70.3 °F (21.3 °C) in July. The record high temperature is 107 °F (42 °C). The record low temperature is -43 °F (-42 °C). ^[23]

Demographics[]

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1870	2,161		—
1880	2,462		13.9%
1890	7,686		212.2%
1900	8,663		12.7%
1910	10,600		22.4%
1920	15,873		49.7%
1930	21,000		32.3%
1940	24,173		15.1%
1950	28,410		17.5%
1960	32,415		14.1%
1970	39,691		22.4%
1980	42,566		7.2%
1990	48,812		14.7%
2000	59,108		21.1%
2010	65,842		11.4%
2019 (est.)	68,462	[4]	4.0%
U.S. Decennial Census[26] 2018 Estimate[27]

2020 census[]

St. Cloud is the principal city of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Sherburne, Benton and Stearns counties and had a combined population of 202,996 at the 2020 census.

2010 census[]

As of the census^[3] of 2010, there were 65,842 people, 25,439 households, and 13,348 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,644.4 inhabitants per square mile (634.9/km²). There were 27,338 housing units at an average density of 682.8 per square mile (263.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 84.6% White, 7.8% African American, 0.7% Native American, 3.7% Asian, 0.8% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.4% of the population.

There were 25,439 households, of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.5% were non-families. 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.95.

The median age in the city was 28.8 years.^[28] 18.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 23.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.5% were from 25 to 44; 21.5% were from 45 to 64; and 10.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 51.5% male and 48.5% female.

2000 census[]

In the 2000 census,^[29] 27.3% of St. Cloud households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.4% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.9% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.00.

The racial makeup of the city was 91.7% White, 2.4% African American, 0.7% Native American, 3.1% Asian, 0.7% other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.3% of the population.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,346, and the median income for a family was $50,460. Males had a median income of $33,670 versus $23,759 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,769. About 5.0% of families and 13.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over.

Top employers[]

According to St. Cloud's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,^[30] the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	*CentraCare Health System St. Cloud Hospital	7,854
2	State of Minnesota / St. Cloud State University	2,259
3	St. Cloud VA Medical Center	1,767
4	** St. Cloud School District	1,092
5	Fullfillment Distribution Center	784
6	*** Stearns County	732
7	New Flyer of America Inc.	677
8	Capital One	689
9	Coborns Inc.	673
10	Anderson Trucking	622

Figures reflect only full-time employees. Several businesses have a significant part-time staff.
* Includes employees at sites outside of St. Cloud.
** Business has significant part-time staff in addition to the full-time employee count indicated.
*** Does not include Stearns County full-time employees now working at county satellite offices outside of the City of St. Cloud.

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.^[31]

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 Central Business District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Cloud is a Preserve America Community.^[32]
• 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.
• Quarry Park and Nature Preserve, a public park that features 20 granite quarries, hiking, biking and ski trails. Part of the Stearns County park system.^{[citation needed]}
• Paramount Theatre and Visual Arts Center, a restored 706-seat theater, built in 1921.^[33]
• St. Cloud Hospital, part of CentraCare Health, was founded in 1886 as St. Benedict's Hospital. The regional health system 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 center 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

• 

  Stearns County Courthouse, 2013.

• 

  Cathedral of Saint Mary (St. Cloud, Minnesota) viewed from the east, 2013.

• 

  Munsinger and Clemens Gardens, 1997.

• 

  The Paramount Theater on Saint Germain Street, 2008.

• 

  The St. Cloud VA Medical Center.

• 

  Great River Regional Library GRRL, 2020

• 

  First National Bank, 2013.

Sports[]

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 2013 Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Penn.^[34] 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.^[35] The 2013 team also earned a share of the WCHA league title and its symbol, the century-old MacNaughton Cup.^[36] The Huskies play in the 5,763-seat Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, which underwent a $18 million renovation and expansion in 2012–13.^[37]
• 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.^[38]
• 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.^[39]

Parks and recreation[]

The city maintains 95 parks, totaling more than 1,400 acres (5.7 km²) and ranging in size from 80 "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 center for senior citizens, a dog park, and numerous softball, baseball, and soccer fields.

Government[]

Since 2005, St. Cloud's mayor has been Dave Kleis. He was reelected to a fifth term in 2020. St. Cloud is in Minnesota's 6th congressional district, represented by Tom Emmer. The city makes up the majority of population of Minnesota State Senate District 14, which straddles the Mississippi River and includes parts of three counties,^[40][41] represented by State Senator Aric Putnam. Minnesota House District 14A includes generally western parts of the city as well as Waite Park, St. Augusta and adjacent rural areas,^[42] represented by State Representative Dan Wolgamott. District 14B includes east central and northeast St. Cloud, neighboring Sauk Rapids and parts of rural Benton and Sherburne Counties,^[43] represented by State Representative Tama Theis. Congressional and legislative district boundaries are subject to change with redistricting based on the 2020 census.^[44][45]

Past mayors of St. Cloud include:

• Sylvanus B. Lowry (1856)
• John L. Wilson (1857–58)
• E. O. Hamlin (1868)
• J. A. McDonald (1900)
• J. R. Boyd (1901)
• J. E. C. Robinson (1902–05 and 1906)
• J. N. Bensen (1905)
• David McCarty (1907)
• Louis Brown (1907)
• Hugh Evans (1908–09)
• D. H. Freeman (1910 and 1916–19)
• P. J. Seberger (1911–12)
• H. J. Limperich (1919)
• W. W. Matson (1920–24)
• J. Arthur Bensen (1924–28)
• James H. Murphy (1928–32, 1945–48)
• Phil Collignon (1932–45)
• Mathew Malisheski (1948–52)
• Lawrence A. Borgert (1952)
• George Byers (1953–60)
• Thomas E. Mealey (1960–64)
• Ed Henry (1964–71)
• Al Loehr (1971–80)
• Sam Huston (1980–89)
• Chuck Winkelman (1989–97)
• Larry Meyer (1997–2001)
• John Ellenbecker (2001–05).

St. Cloud was recognized in 2016 for its efforts to convert to clean renewable energy, converting from 5 to 80 percent renewable energy in three years, utilizing solar gardens, street light improvements, biogas and other energy efficiency initiatives.^[46][47]

Politics[]

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won St. Cloud's votes in the 2020 presidential election by a margin of 9%, higher than the state margin of 7.12%. In 2016, former President Donald Trump won St. Cloud by 1.75% over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.^[48]

Education[]

The city of St. Cloud is part of the St. Cloud Area School District, which serves St. Cloud, St. Augusta, Clearwater, Waite Park, St. Joseph, Haven Township, and parts of Sauk Rapids. The district has eight elementary schools, a new K-8 school in St. Joseph, and two major public high schools, St. Cloud Technical High School and St. Cloud Apollo High School.^[50] St. Cloud also has a major private high school, Cathedral High School. Both public high schools offer a broad selection of Advanced Placement courses and rank high in the state in the number of AP tests taken and of test takers.^[51] St. Cloud Tech is the older of the two, opening in 1917, and is just west of downtown on the city's south side. Apollo opened in 1970 and serves the expanding north side of the city. Other high schools and secondary schools that serve the city of St. Cloud include St. Robert Bellarmine's Academy, St. Cloud Christian School, Immaculate Conception Academy, St. John's Preparatory School, St. Cloud Alternative Learning Center, and charter school STRIDE Academy,^[52] which is K-8. The nearby cities of Sauk Rapids and Sartell also have their own school districts and high schools, bringing the number of public high schools in the metropolitan area to four.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[53]

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.^[54]

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-LP (channel 13) was a station licensed to St. Cloud that has since gone silent. Additionally, St. Cloud State University students operate cable-only UTVS (channel 180), which includes local news and broadcasts from a studio on campus.^[55]

Radio stations include:

FM[]

FM radio stations
Frequency	Call sign	Name	Format	Owner
88.1 88.1 HD-2	KVSC	Radio X	College Radio Alternative Rock	St. Cloud State University
88.9 88.9 HD-2	KNSR	MPR News 89.3 The Current	Public Radio Adult Album Alternative	Minnesota Public Radio
89.5	K208DV (KLRD Translator)	Air 1	Contemporary Christian	Educational Media Foundation
90.1	KSJR	Classical MPR	Classical	Minnesota Public Radio
91.5	KCFB (KTIG Simulcast)		Christian	Minnesota Christian Broadcasters
92.9	KKJM	Spirit 92.9	Contemporary Christian	Gabriel Media
93.5	K228FV (KYES-AM Translator)	Relevant Radio	Catholic	Gabriel Media
93.9	W230DG (KXSS-AM Translator)	1390 Granite City Sports	Sports	Townsquare Media
94.3	K232GA (WXYG-AM Translator)	Album Rock 540	Classic rock	Tri-County Broadcasting
94.9	KMXK	Mix 94.9	Adult Contemporary	Townsquare Media
95.3	W237EU (WJON-AM Translator)		News/Talk	Townsquare Media
95.7	W239CU (WBHR-AM Translator)	The Bear	Sports	Tri-County Broadcasting
96.1	WROJ (LPFM)	The Rock FM	Contemporary Christian	The Rock FM Communications, Inc.
96.7	KZRV	The River	Classic Hits	Townsquare Media
97.5	KVEX (LPFM)	RadioX	Alternative Rock	St. Cloud State University
98.1	WWJO	98-1 Minnesota's New Country	Country	Townsquare Media
98.9 98.9 HD-2 98.9 HD-3	KZPK	Wild Country 99 KNSI Z-Rock 103.3	Country News/Talk Classic Rock	Leighton Broadcasting
99.3	K257GK (KNSI-AM Translator)	KNSI	News/Talk	Leighton Broadcasting
99.9	KCML	99.9 Lite FM	Adult Contemporary	Leighton Broadcasting
101.1	W266DT (WMIN-AM Translator)	Uptown 1010	Adult Standards	Tri-County Broadcasting
101.7 101.7 HD-2 101.7 HD-3 101.7 HD-4	WHMH	Rockin' 101 Album Rock 540 106.5 The Point Uptown 1010	Active Rock Classic rock Alternative Adult Standards	Tri-County Broadcasting
102.3	W232EG (WVAL-AM Translator)		Classic Country	Tri-County Broadcasting
103.3	K277BS (KZPK HD-3 Translator)	Z-Rock 103.3	Classic rock	Leighton Broadcasting
103.7	KLZZ	The Loon	Classic rock	Townsquare Media
104.7	KCLD		Top 40	Leighton Broadcasting
105.1	KZYS (LPFM)		Somalian	Saint Cloud Area Somali Salvation Organization
106.5	W293CS (WHMH HD-3 Translator)	106.5 The Point	Alternative	Tri-County Broadcasting
107.3	W297BO (WXYG-AM Translator)	Album Rock 540	Classic rock	Tri-County Broadcasting

AM[]

AM radio stations
Frequency	Call sign	Name	Format	Owner
540 AM	WXYG	The Goat	Classic rock	Tri-County Broadcasting
660 AM	WBHR	The Bear	Sports	Tri-County Broadcasting
800 AM	WVAL		Classic Country	Tri-County Broadcasting
1010 AM	WMIN	Uptown 1010	Adult Standards	Tri-County Broadcasting
1180 AM	KYES	Relevant Radio	Catholic	Gabriel Media
1240 AM	WJON		News/Talk	Townsquare Media
1390 AM	KXSS	1390 Granite City Sports	Sports	Townsquare Media
1450 AM	KNSI		News/Talk	Leighton Broadcasting

Infrastructure[]

Transportation[]

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.^[56]

Bus service within the city and to neighboring Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and Waite Park is offered through St. Cloud Metro Bus, which was recognized 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.^[57] 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 also 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.^[58]

Major highways[]

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

Notable people[]

• Halima Aden, model and first Somali-American to compete for Miss Minnesota; worked alongside Gigi Hadid, and modeled for Kanye West's fashion brand Yeezy Season 5
• Mathew Ahmann, civil rights activist
• Tom Burgmeier, Major League Baseball player; grew up in St. Cloud and attended Cathedral High School^[59]
• Loren W. Collins, Minnesota jurist and legislator; mayor of St. Cloud
• David Durenberger, Former United States Senator from Minnesota
• Jim Eisenreich, Major League Baseball player for 1997 World Series champion Florida Marlins
• Janice Ettle, five-time competitor at the woman's US Olympic Marathon Trials, two-time winner of Grandma's Marathon and winner of the 1985 Twin Cities Marathon
• Howard M. Fish, retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, former assistant vice chief of staff of Air Force
• Nairne Fisher, 1920s architect of five buildings listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
• Charles A. Gilman, ninth Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
• Janey Gohl, 1978 Miss Minnesota USA
• Lawrence M. Hall, longest-serving Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives
• Jack I. Kleinbaum, businessman, St. Cloud City Council member, and Minnesota state legislator
• Dave Kleis, mayor of St. Cloud
• Jim Knoblach, Republican member of the Minnesota House of Representatives
• June Marlowe, actress notable for playing Miss Crabtree in short-film series Our Gang
• Stephen Miller, abolitionist, Civil War veteran, Republican politician, fourth Governor of Minnesota
• Edgar G. Mills, Wisconsin State Assemblyman and Senator
• William P. Murphy, former Associate Justice of Minnesota Supreme Court
• Tom Petters, former CEO and chairman of Petters Group Worldwide,^[60] convicted for involvement in a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme^[61]
• Reynold Philipsek, gypsy jazz guitarist
• Alise Willoughby, BMX racer and Olympic silver medalist.^[62]
• Michael Sauer, professional ice hockey player for New York Rangers
• Nate Schmidt, professional ice hockey player for NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals
• Stephen Sommers, film director and alumnus of Cathedral High School and St. John's University
• Charles Thomas Stearns, politician
• Jane Swisshelm, newspaper owner, editor and abolitionist
• Gene Waldorf, electrical engineer and politician
• Nate Wolters, professional basketball player
• Gig Young, Academy Award-winning actor, film and television star; born in St. Cloud

Sister cities[]

• Spalt, Bavaria, Germany
• Akita, Japan

In popular culture[]

• Season 3 of FX's Fargo depicts St. Cloud as the residence of both Ray Stussy (Ewan McGregor) and Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but was not filmed there.
• Courtroom scenes in the Disney Film The Mighty Ducks were filmed in St. Cloud, and a few scenes were filmed at the Municipal Athletic Complex (MAC) but did not make the final film.
• Senator Al Franken and Tom Davis's One More Saturday Night is set in St. Cloud, but was not filmed there.
• Juno was partially set in St. Cloud, which is referred to as "East Jesus Nowhere", though no filming took place in the city.
• The song "On a Bus to St. Cloud", by Gretchen Peters, is on Trisha Yearwood's 1995 album Thinkin' About You.
• In 2005, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! shot an episode on the SCSU campus.
• In the 2007 horror movie 1408, St. Cloud is mentioned as one of the scariest places the protagonist has visited while investigating haunted houses.
• Judith Guest and Rebecca Hill's novel Killing Time in St. Cloud is set in the eponymous city.
• John Bellairs's character Mr. Emerson is from St. Cloud.
• In the novel The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood, the main character's mother grew up in the city.
• In the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Marshall Eriksen is from St. Cloud. Throughout the series, St. Cloud is visited by several characters several times, but is portrayed as a much smaller town than it is in reality.
• The post-hardcore band For All Those Sleeping formed in St. Cloud^[63]
• The 1989 film Catch Me If You Can was shot in St. Cloud^[64]
• In the 1990 children's book, Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat, protagonist Horace P. Blumpoe's sister Edith lives in St. Cloud, and Horace visits her every year in November.

See also[]

• 1998 St. Cloud explosion
• Dave Torrey Arena

References[]

External links[]

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about St. Cloud, Minnesota.

• City Website
• St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce