Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mississippi River. The population was 16,459 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Goodhue County.

Red Wing is home of Red Wing Shoes, the Riedell Ice and Roller Skates and Red Wing Stoneware. The Cannon Valley Trail has its eastern terminus in Red Wing. Treasure Island Resort & Casino is on the nearby Prairie Island Indian Reservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Red Wing on its 2008 distinctive destinations list, which adds twelve communities annually nationwide. Red Wing was added for its "impressive architecture and enviable natural environment." Red Wing is connected to Wisconsin by Red Wing Bridge (officially named the Eisenhower Bridge); it carries U.S. Route 63 over the Mississippi River and its backwaters.

History
In the early 1850s, settlers from Mississippi River steamboats came to Red Wing to farm the lush fields in Goodhue County. They grew wheat, the annual crop of which could pay the cost of the land. Before the railroads crisscrossed the territory of Goodhue County. It Produced more wheat than any other county in the country, and in 1873 Red Wing led the country in the amount of wheat sold by farmers. The warehouses in the port of Red Wing could store and export more than a million bushels of wheat. Once the railroads connected southern Minnesota with Minneapolis and Saint Anthony, where the largest flour mills were built, the port at Red Wing lost prominence. In the last half of the twentieth century, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built locks and dams and deepened the channel in the river. These revitalised river traffic for shipping grain and coal; however, the tourist trade has never returned.

The Aurora Ski Club in Red Wing, which was founded on February 8, 1887, was one of the first ski clubs to be formed in North America. Aurora club members introduced in the 1880s, what became known as “Red Wing Style” ski techniques, which was patterned after the Telemark skiing form. The term "Red Wing style" continued in use in America well into the twentieth century. The first North American ski jumping record was set by Norwegian immigrant Mikkjel Hemmestveit. His 37-foot flight in 1887 was established at the Aurora Ski Club's McSorley Hill.

The first settlers in town built small mills, factories, and workshops, similar to ones they were familiar with in New England from where many had come. Immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden were also skilled craftsmen. Some early industries were tanning and shoe-making, while other businessmen manufactured farm equipment, bricks, barrels, boats, furniture, pottery, and buttons. Consumables included beer and lumber. Service industries including stone-cutting, hospitality, and retailing. The St. James Hotel remains a working token of the earlier time.

Red Wing was once home to Hamline University, founded in 1854 as the first institution of higher education in the state of Minnesota. It closed in 1869 because of low enrollment due to the American Civil War. It was chartered in St. Paul in 1871 and reopened there in 1880.

Red Wing Seminary was a Lutheran Church seminary. Red Wing Seminary was the educational center for the Hauge's Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod in America, commonly known as the Hauge Synod. The Hauge Synod had opened the seminary in 1879. Red Wing Seminary was in operation until 1917.

Red Wing also was the home of Gustavus Adolphus College, a private liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The college was founded in Red Wing in 1862 by Eric Norelius, but moved to East Union in 1863 before settling in St. Peter in 1876.

The Red Wing pottery and stoneware industry developed on the northwest of the city, close to Hay Creek. It used clay from the area of the Hay Creek headwaters, close to Goodhue, near a hamlet named Claybank. A railroad branch line was built to carry clay to Red Wing. The factory buildings remain, but only traces of the railroad, abandoned in 1937, are left.

Although the city has gained big-box retailers in the past few years, such as Target, Walmart and Menards, it has been hit hard by the economic downturn that began in 2008. Several prominent downtown retail spaces sit empty, and others have been converted to office use. The city itself is no longer the strong tourist draw that it was in its heydays of the 1980s and 90s.

Library
Red Wing Public Library is a member of Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, the SE Minnesota library region.

Neighborhoods
The city of Red Wing has several neighborhoods or other places annexed by the city. These include:
 * Burnside Township
 * East Red Wing
 * Eggleston

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has 41.4 square miles (107.1 km²), of which 35.4 square miles (91.7 km²) is land and 6.0 square miles (15.5 km²) (14.43%) is water. The city is at the northern edge of the Driftless Area of karst topography.

Demographics
At the census of 2000, there were 16,116 people, 6,562 households, and 4,166 families in the city. The population density was 455.3 per square mile (175.8 km²). There were 6,867 housing units at an average density of 194.0 per square mile (74.9/km²). The racial makeup was 94.33% White, 1.32% African American, 2.22% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.53% from other races, and 0.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.27% of the population.

There were 6,562 households, of which 30.4% had children under 18 with them, 51.2% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 30.7% of all households were of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone 65 or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family 2.94.

In the city, the population was 24.6% under 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% 65 or older. The median was 39. For every 100 females there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.

The median income for a household was $43,674, and the median for a family was $54,641. Males had a median of $36,576 versus $25,477 for females. The per capita income was $21,678. About 3.9% of families and 6.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.9% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those 65 or over.

Transportation
U.S. Routes 61 and 63 and Minnesota State Highways 19 and 58 are the main intercity highways.

Wisconsin Highway 35 is across the Mississippi River.

Red Wing's Amtrak station is served by Amtrak's daily in each direction between Chicago to the east, and Seattle and Portland on the west.

City council
The city council members as of September 2010 are:


 * Dan Bender (First Ward)
 * Term: January 2009 to January 2013


 * Lisa Pritchard Bailey (Second Ward)
 * Term: July 2009 to January 2013


 * Dean Hove (First & Second Wards)
 * Council Vice President
 * Term: January 2007 to January 2011


 * Michael Schultz (Third Ward)
 * Council President
 * Term: January 2007 to January 2011


 * Gerald Cook (Fourth Ward)
 * Council President Pro Tem
 * Term: January 2007 to January 2011


 * Ralph Rauterkus (Third & Fourth Wards)
 * Term: January 2009 to January 2013


 * Carol Duff (At-Large)
 * Term: January 2007 to January 2011

Notable residents

 * Eugenie Anderson (1909–1997), U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and Bulgaria; first woman appointed U.S. ambassador
 * Joseph Francis Busch (1866–1953), Roman Catholic Bishop
 * Reid Cashman, Player in AHL, Toronto Marlies, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
 * William Colvill, (1830–1905), Civil War hero and Minnesota Attorney General
 * Frances Densmore (1867–1957), ethnographer and ethnomusicologist
 * Joanell Dyrstad (1942–), former Minnesota lieutenant governor (1991–1995)
 * Patrick Flueger (1983–), actor, The Princess Diaries, The 4400
 * Mikkjel Hemmestveit (1863–1957), Skiing champion
 * Torjus Hemmestveit (1860–1930), Skiing champion
 * Martin Maginnis (1841–1919), politician, Union Army veteran
 * Greg Norton (1959–), bassist for Hüsker Dü and restaurateur
 * Robert Ezra Park (1864–1944), urban sociologist
 * John Pohl (1979–), Player in NHL, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * August Weenaas (1835–1924), Founding President of Augsburg College

Sister cities

 * 🇯🇵 Ikata, Japan
 * 🇨🇳 Quzhou, China
 * 🇳🇴 Kongsberg, Norway

Other sources

 * Sky Crashers: A History of the Aurora Ski Club (Goodhue County Historical Society: 2004)
 * Red Wing Reflections of a River Town (Red Wing Republican Eagle: 2007)